Now, I'll say up front that I know some of you don't believe in prophetical dreams, and even fewer believe in "teaching" dreams, where God uses dreams to teach you a lesson while you sleep, the latter of which I love, as I learn some very interesting things about myself that I otherwise wouldn't learn about in any other way.

Anyhow, last night, towards the end of the night, I had a dream in which I was a 3rd party observer for most of it.  The dream began with me standing nearby watching a rich family as they went about their lives.  I'm talking a crazy rich family.  Like Paris Hilton rich.  There was four members of it: A mom, a dad, a sister, and a brother.  The brother was a real piece of work.  Total spoiled brat and a real cruel person.  The sister was sorta indifferent.  The mom and dad seemed well mannered and very nice people, understanding and kind as well, but unsure of how to solve their son's issues.

So the dad decides that for 30 days they would all become homeless poor people living on the streets in order to help their family better understand the lives of these people and become more compassionate to them and understanding of their plight.  So that's what happened.  And to say that the son was not happy about this would be an understatement.  For the next month they wandered around the city, interacting with a wide variety of different people, all of whom were poor, and spent many days living with them in their very squalid conditions.  During this time, slowly bit by bit the son started to get the message.  After enough hungry nights in the cold he started to realize what he had and began to appreciate it far more than at any other time in his life.

Along the way I got to periodically participate in the experience, and let me tell you, calling myself poor, despite all I have, even though at times it might not seem like I have much, is a great disservice to people like this.  I mean, you want to talk about poor.  THAT was poor.  In comparison my life is like that of Donald Trump.  I also got to experience the unbelievable hatred people expressed towards these poor people.  Periodically people would come by and be "generous" and giving to these poor people.  But the sad part is, they'd only give the people a handful of change at best, and they did it with the most horrible spite and hatred in their eyes, as if they were forced to do this.  It was clear from their expressions that if they had the ability, they'd have nothing to do with you, at all, ever.  Period.  You were anathema to them in the worst degree.

And the amounts they gave to these poor people were ridiculously tiny.  Most of it was miniscule pocket change at best.  Some people gave a quarter, or 50c or a handful of pennies and nickels, maybe some dimes.  But in every case the other family and I took whatever was given to us with great appreciation and gladness.  But in the back of my mind I kept thinking, "I don't really need this as I have more than enough."  But since I was playing, and literally living it in the dream, the life of a desperately poor person, I had to take it, and did so with utmost humility, grateful for every dime I got.  But I didn't spend it.  I simply collected it into my pocket and kept it for later.  When the time was up and the training was over the dad went to his driver and climbed into the car still dressed in his hobo outfit.

To say that the driver was not happy about it is an understatement.  It made me laugh out loud.  He then went and picked up the rest of us and took us to a theater where we entered, again to the disdain of everyone inside, slipped into a back room, and changed our outfits.  Based on the look of people when we came out, they didn't know that we were the bums that'd come in just moments earlier.  That much was clear as they didn't treat us in the same way.  In fact, we were treated with great respect because of our nice cloths and clear evidences of being "well off".  I found that to be very interesting.  While we were still dressed like bums we were treated like dirt.  Once we came out looking nice and well dressed as though we had lots of money (in the dream we did) suddenly we had respect and the admiration of everyone.

Again, quite eye opening.  But in the end, despite this, we were all changed for the better from the experience.  Even the boy who'd been a complete brat at the start was now quite appreciative of what he had and actually felt bad for others for a change.  Even the daughter was now concerned for the poor and had lost her apathy.  I then remember reaching in my pocket and feeling the large collection of change I'd collected while doing the poverty experiment.  I remember thinking, "I can't keep this.  It's not mine, nor should it be."  I then saw the same people who I'd spent the last month with and lived among gathered nearby and still in the same condition as before even though no longer were.

So I took the change I'd collected as a "pauper" and gave all of it to them, distributing it evenly among all the needy.  I then opened up my wallet which was fat, fat, fat with cash and began giving them out of that knowing that I had lots more where that came from.  But I knew they didn't, and I wanted to help them as much as possible, so I was exceedingly generous with the money I gave them.  These people, who I'd unknowingly looked down upon at one time were now my friends, and by gosh, one way or another I was gonna help them!  Well, that's the dream I had and a brief summary of the lessons that I learned from it, all of which were very important.  So to summarize, here's the basic message God was teaching me in this dream.

"Don't ever look down on those who have less!  Not now, not ever!  And don't call yourself poor.  You are NOT poor.  Not even by a million miles.  Sure, you don't have the riches of some, but you are NOT poor nor in poverty.  What you saw others have IS poverty.  Real poverty.  What you have is NOT.  Sure, it's not what others have, but at least you have something.  These people have nothing.  Yet you have been given so much.  Therefore go and be a help and a friend to those who have nothing.  For you have been given much so that you may be a blessing to others."

As I said, I love teaching dreams.  They're quite eye opening and I learn some interesting things about myself.  I guess that, after living in the USA for so long, I've kinda taken the idea of poverty as being one who had less or little.  But if you look and see what real poverty is, you suddenly realize just how blessed you really are.  You also realize that God has given you so much, and in doing so you need to help others.  I also see a message in this that is beyond just the physical needs of others.  I see a message of spiritual poverty in this as well.  In this example the small tidbits or "pocket change" given by the snooty people are spiritual tidbits given by the self righteous to those who they see as being lesser spiritually.

In turn the riches I had in the dream would be the richness of God's word that I've been given that I can share with others.  As my Father is rich, so am I, and I am to give freely to all in the same way I have been given to freely and with great generosity.  So why do I write this?  I do it because I believe there's a message in this dream not just for myself, but to others as well.  God has given the believers so many wonderful gifts, some physical, and some spiritual.  And as good stewards of those gifts we are to in turn give and share them with others.  So, do you have a humble, giving, caring spirit for others, or are you like the selfish young son who was greedy and treated others as dirt?  Or perhaps are you one of the snooty self righteous "givers" who gave to the poor only because they "had to"?  Think about that today as you go about your day.