My dreams have always been peppered with reality or prophetic notion...

...which is most often reassuring and scary at the same time.

For instance, I cannot stand when I dream about my daily routine. It's exhausting to not have a break from the day...and last week I had a few too many nights filled with little sleep mixed with nightmares of my children (who, in themselves, are not nightmarish at all...) I stayed home from work Wednesday after being very sick and never asleep. When I arrived to school on Thursday, Mrs. P (my co-teacher) told me stories from the day before, one of which I had dreamt of in a brief moment of rest on Tuesday night. Though, if you knew the child...it wouldn't have been difficult to predict his behavior.

Sometimes my dreams are a little more bizarre. Okay, most times they're a lot more bizarre. But it's always pretty interesting when midway through my day, my strange and artistic dreams suddenly make sense.

Last night I dreamt of walking through a building that resembled a haunted house with trap doors that appeared randomly, morphed into new doors, or disappeared altogether. It became clear that I was searching for the door to my church, a church I hadn't been to yet. When I arrived at what I thought was the right place, the people were singing some incredibly strange acapella music, along with clicking, "dun-dun"-ing and WAY too much enthusiasm. I was on my way back out the door when in walked a man who in my dream state was supposed to be John Piper.

Let me explain that as John and I have looked for a church in San Antonio, we have been struggling to find someone who teaches the Bible with the kind of authority and perspective that we have thrived on before. John (my hubby) has often used Piper as a benchmark, which we both realize in incredibly unfair. But, let's be real...we're not looking for the best Starbucks...we're looking for our spiritual home.

In the last few months, we haven't found anyone comparable. One church had good music, but failed to deliver a message that was anything more than "God loves you so you can be happy". Another church found us cringing from the get-go. And so on we go...

This morning we visited Community Bible Church. I was intimidated because of the size of the church. A choir (thankfully in casual clothes; no robes) of at least one hundred, a full orchestra, plus 12 to 15 singers in front with handheld mikes...this is what we walked in to. Two gigantic screens flanked the stage, and our chairs folded up, just like at an old movie theater. As I recalled, this was similar to the seating in my dream.

The music began. It was beautiful, and I danced, but I wasn't familiar with most of the songs, so I enjoyed watching the sign interpreter a few rows in front. When a man walked onstage and introduced himself as the pastor, I immediately perked up. Something was right...

We walked out of church that morning, chattering about the things we enjoyed. I told John about my dream. The church with the weird music but the right message. John, my musical husband, told me that the worship was so different from what he knew that he could actually enjoy it without needing to be on stage as a musician. That's a good thing. Did I mention that he was also interested in meeting the pastor afterwards, and it was I that felt a little anti-social?

We're going back next Sunday. We've given each church that we've visited a few trial Sundays. Church hunting is no fun. It's enjoyable to see different places of worship, but I was starting to feel a little lonely without my church family.

If my dreams have any real bearing, (which I tend to give them...after all, I've had prophetic dreams too many times in the past), then we may do well at Community Bible.

How is it that I'm back at CBC? That just makes me smile...