It's All About The Fruit

Last night I had a dream I was in the jail lobby, just standing there. Then I was at the Bethel College Bookstore, where I was a current employee. The store was in a big building that also shared space with Huntington College.

There was a big shopping day coming up but the Bethel store was a mess. There were boxes everywhere. Plus the merchandise was all jam packed together and displayed poorly. The Huntington store, on the other hand, looked perfect and was ready to go. The guy who was running the Bethel store (some random I didn’t know) said that he wasn’t going to open for the big shopping day, because the store just looked too messy. I was like, “Who cares, try and sell this stuff and maybe it won’t be so messy.” I tried to really talk the store manager into opening, but he wouldn’t budge.

I was reflecting on this dream this morning. Actually I had a hard time remembering it and laid in bed a half hour before I finally remembered it. (No I wasn’t late for work!)
I should mention that I used to work at a jail and I currently work at Bethel College, but not in the bookstore.

So here is what I’m thinking the dream means.

A jail typically stands for some type of bondage. I was in the jail lobby though, not in cell. So perhaps I’m not quite in bondage. I’m on the outside, where others are in bondage.
I took the two bookstores to mean, there’s two different ways of doing things. Also, if you’re worried about appearance you can miss out on a big opportunity. Just like the store manager, too worried about appearance that he didn’t get to sell anything, in turn missing out on potentially big sales.

Actually this past weekend I had some scenarios where I was worried about what people thought. Then I just decided that I didn’t care. I think this dream is really symbolic of that.
Maybe I’ll help other’s not to care about appearances. Though I’ve been there myself and still am in some cases; however, I believe that God wants us to walk in the fullness of who we are created to be. He doesn’t care about appearances.

It’s really all about the fruit. Is it good or bad? What’s in your heart? That’s how we are to be recognized and judged.

Matthew 12:33 “Either make the tree sound (healthy and good), and its fruit sound (healthy and good), or make the tree rotten (diseased and bad), and its fruit rotten (diseased and bad); for the tree is known and recognized and judged by its fruit.”