Crossing the Chasm

Last Saturday I read iMonk’s article called the Coming Evangelical Collapse. I also read several articles but the financial crisis. I spent much of the day pondering what God is doing and how long the current economic crisis will last. That night, I had the following dream.

I was walking beside a river with a companion. The sky was blue and the river was flowing steadily. The sides of the river were shaped evenly almost like a canal. People were sailing and rowing boats in both directions. Everything was lovely and the river stretched on for ever.

My dream jumped forward and I was trying to cross a ravine that ran down to the river. A huge structure made of framing timber had been built across the ravine in quite a haphazard manner. I was cling to a couple of the vertical planks on the side of the structure. I noticed the the distance across the ravine was really short. I looked down and was amazed at the depth of the ravine. It seemed to go down thousands of feet.

I was holding on to the vertical planks with on hand and holding a bag containing some of my possessions with the other. I quickly realised that I would not survive a fall and that if I kept going I would certainly fall. I carefully got back off onto the bank of the ravine where I started.

My companion pointed across the structure showing me that it went right across the ravine. My first thought was that I could use the bridge to cross the ravine. I then noticed that there were no planks on top of the structure, so I do not know if it was possible. I woke up before I attempted to go cross.

When I awoke, the following interpretation seemed obvious. The river represented the world economy over the last decade. Everything seemed lovely and people thought it would go on like that forever. The narrow, deep ravine which came upon me suddenly is the current economic crisis. If left to work its course, it would be very deep but very short.

The wooden jerry-built structure represents the bailout packages adopted by various governments. They have put in place in a very haphazard way. People clinging to their property will fall into disaster, if they trust in government bailouts.

A problem that should be deep, but short, may have been made impassable by shonky government programmes.