Dream — July 6, 2025

Linda (my wife) and I were in college, living in an apartment or house that was new to us. We had a young woman as a roommate in the room next to ours, but at some point she and a guy had become a couple, and he was now living in the room with her. They both seemed like nice people.

At one point I visited their room and talked with them. I had trouble remembering the guy’s name because he seemed to have two names, and I was trying to keep them straight. One of the names was Matt. I observed the way he interacted with me and, later, with another family outside the house who had a child in a stroller. His way of relating was a little unusual or “out there,” but internally I felt affection for him — almost a fatherly love. I felt that he was a good guy and that I could vouch for him as a person.

Later, I spoke with someone who seemed to know a little more than I did, almost like a housing supervisor over me. He was friendly, but he was surprised to discover that we had two roommates rather than the one young woman he knew about. The conversation wasn’t tense at all. In fact, he seemed somewhat new to the situation himself.

From that conversation, I realized that the young woman was apparently the person who was supposed to be our roommate, and her boyfriend had simply ended up living in her bedroom because they were now together. I wasn’t sure whether they had just begun dating or had only recently become an official couple.

This made me suddenly aware of my own responsibility. I remember thinking something like, “Wow. I’m somehow in charge of these people in this house, and I didn’t even realize they were sleeping in the same room. Am I supposed to do something about this arrangement?”

Yet I continued to have a positive impression of both of them. The focus of the moment seemed less about judging them and more about my own realization that I didn’t completely know what I was doing or what my role required of me. Somehow, though, I understood that I would have to learn some new things.

Linda and I also had tickets to a football game at the college that night. That morning, I discovered that the starting time had been moved up by two hours. I had previously planned to arrive very early so that I could save our seats, but then I realized that this wasn’t necessary because our seats were reserved. So once again, my plans were changing as I received new information. I had to adjust and figure things out as I went.

I was planning to go to the library soon, either to study or simply to have some time alone to think through everything — the new situations, my college classes, and the choices I needed to make. Again, I felt comfortable, even though I was aware that I didn’t completely know what I was doing. There was still a sense of confidence that I could figure it out.

At the same time, I felt somewhat overwhelmed by the fact that I was going to college again. I was trying to get myself organized around the new classes I needed to take and trying to understand the campus, the schedule, and all the unfamiliar faces. Everything felt new.

Then I found myself coaching a girls’ soccer team that I had never signed up to lead. Linda wasn’t even on my team; she had her own team. I had a sense of her smiling at the fact that this was something I was going to have to do on my own.

Near the end of the dream, the team I had unexpectedly been given suddenly had a game — and I hadn’t even known the game was about to happen. I realized that I was going to have to learn how to coach this girls’ soccer team on the go. And we were going to play against Linda’s team. I agreed to do it, but internally my response was something like: “Okay... here we go. I don’t completely know what I’m doing, but I’ll do my best.”

Toward the end of the dream, I also had the strange sense that I should have already finished college. I knew I had already taken my final classes, but I hadn’t received the results and couldn’t verify whether I had passed them. I wasn’t even sure that I could find my login information to check.

I wondered whether I could somehow access my Pasadena City College records and perhaps discover — to my delight — that I had already passed my final classes. If so, I was already finished with college and didn’t need to take another class.

The overall feeling I remember was something like: “Wow. This is complex, and I feel unprepared. I’m just trying to get my act together and do the best I can.”  And yet, underneath all of that uncertainty, my attitude remained surprisingly positive and confident.

How It Spoke to Me (My Dream Interpretation)

I believe this dream is about being prepared to enter situations I have never encountered before. 

Nearly everything in the dream is unfamiliar: a new home, new people, unclear responsibilities, changing schedules, a new campus, new classes, and finally an unexpected team that I am suddenly responsible for coaching. Again and again I find myself thinking, “I don’t completely know what I’m doing here.”  Yet what is striking is that I am never overcome by fear. Underneath the uncertainty is a quiet confidence: I can figure this out.

The college imagery seems especially important. At the end of the dream, I wonder whether I may have already taken and passed the very classes I think I still need. That seems to suggest: Perhaps I am more prepared than I realize. The answer may not be another class, another training program, or another person giving me a model to follow. Much of the foundational formation may have already happened. What remains is learning how to apply what has already been formed in me to situations I have never encountered before.

The roommate situation illustrates this with people. I unexpectedly find myself carrying some responsibility for people whose situation is complicated and whose lives don't fit neatly into a predetermined category. I don't immediately know what my responsibility is. Yet I am observing, listening, thinking, and even feeling a kind of fatherly affection. I see the person while also recognizing that there are real questions to discern. The dream doesn't give me the answer. Instead, it places me inside a situation where I will have to discover what wise and faithful leadership looks like.

Even the football game communicates something similar. I had made a plan based upon what I thought I knew. Then the time changed, and I discovered that I didn't need to arrive early because my seats were already reserved. So I simply adjusted. I didn't need perfect foresight; I needed the ability to respond to new information in the moment.

But the clearest picture comes with the soccer team. I didn't choose the team. I didn't volunteer to coach it. I didn't know the game was coming. And suddenly the game was happening. There was no time to go away, take another class, find an experienced coach, think through every possibility, and return once I felt completely prepared. I had to learn while the game was being played — adjust, regroup and keep moving forward.

This seems to be the heart of the dream. There will be situations for which previous models cannot completely prepare me because I have never been there before. But unfamiliarity does not necessarily mean unreadiness. I can observe, discern, and make a decision. I can see what happens, learn from the experience, adjust when necessary, and continue moving. Even a decision that doesn't work perfectly can become part of the learning happening within the situation itself.

Interestingly, the dream does not explicitly portray God or the Holy Spirit. There is no divine voice or obvious supernatural guide. What the dream clearly portrays is formed capacity and confidence in the middle of uncertainty. But because my life and formation are rooted in walking with God, I understand the deeper source of that confidence relationally: I don't have to know everything beforehand because I know how to walk with God.

Maturity, then, isn't always knowing the answer. Sometimes maturity is knowing how to find your way with God when there is no familiar answer.

I have walked with Him. I have learned. I have experienced things. I have been formed by Scripture, relationships, successes, failures, reflection, and years of following Jesus. Those things have formed ways of seeing, thinking, discerning, loving, learning, and responding that can now be brought into situations I have never encountered before.

So perhaps the dream is also a confidence-builder: You are more prepared than you think. Some of the classes you think you still need to take may already have been completed. Trust what God has formed in you. Stay teachable. Pay attention. Think. Listen. Act. Learn. Adjust. And don't be afraid when the game begins before you feel completely ready.

This brings to mind Paul's words: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” — Philippians 4:13 ESV.  Paul's confidence was not that every circumstance would be familiar or that he would possess every answer beforehand. In the verses immediately preceding this statement, he says that he had learned how to live through very different circumstances (Philippians 4:11–12). Christ was the constant within changing circumstances. That captures the confidence I sense in this dream:

I don't have to have been here before to walk through it with God. The territory may be unfamiliar. The One walking with me is not.