Category: Words To Live By

The following parable is one that came from a book my friend Karen gave me, titled “Finding Yourself In Transition” by Robert Brumet. It appears in its final two pages and is a standalone story that not only summarized the book quite nicely, but also moved me greatly, which I will explain after it.

Rabbi Eisik was a very pious man – and a very poor man who lived in city named Cracow. He was so poor that he lived in a one-room house with only a dirt floor. One night he dreamed he was in the great city of Prague, which was many miles from his home. In the dream, he walked throughout the streets of the city admiring the beautiful buildings. Eventually he came to the edge of the city where he saw a bridge, and beyond the bridge a great palace. He walked across the bridge and began to dig, whereupon he discovered a buried chest. He opened the chest, and it was filled with gold, diamonds, and treasures of every sort!

When this dream was repeated for the third time, Eisik was convinced that it was a sign from God. He grabbed a shovel and began the long journey to Prague. After many days of walking, he was very tired and his feet were sore. Finally, he reached the city. Although he had never been in this city before, he recognized many of the buildings from his dream. And sure enough, he discovered the bridge, and beyond it, the palace. He crossed the bridge and began to dig. Soon his shovel struck something! It was the buried chest! With trembling hands and pounding heart, he opened the chest …. and it was empty.

Brokenhearted as never before, Eisik began to weep – and then sob uncontrollably. Suddenly, he felt a hand upon his shoulder; it was a young man wearing the suit of a palace guard. “What happened old man? Why are you crying?” Eisik recounted the story. Upon hearing the tale, the young man laughed with scorn. “You are a foolish old man to put such faith in dreams – dreams are nonsense. I myself have many foolish dreams, and I pay no heed to any of them. Why, just last night I had a dream about a poor rabbi who was digging a hole in the middle of the dirt floor of his home, and there he found a buried chest – filled with treasure! Now, doesn’t that show you how foolish dreams can be?”

Immediately, Eisik was on his feet. With renewed energy, he commenced the long journey back home. And there he discovered the priceless treasure buried within the place he had lived in poverty most of his life…

This story really touched my heart for several reasons. One of those deals with dreams, as I do believe that God speaks to us through them, except I think we often discard many of them as pure nonsense or totally misinterpret their meaning. Personally, I’ve had a number of dreams myself over the years that have provided answers and guidance to prayers I had put out there to God, which is why I pay attention to them now, especially if one repeats itself or particularly sticks with me for days to weeks, or even months to years afterward.

A second reason why this story touched my heart relates to the Rabbi discovering his treasure in the very home he had lived for most of his life, after seeking it first in a place that was many miles away from his home. You see, I always used to look for treasure everywhere else too, in some other person, place, or thing. But, I’ve been coming to realize that my treasure has been right where my feet have been planted all of my life. In other words, it’s been within me, I just never tapped into it because my focus was consistently elsewhere. I am starting to trust that this inner treasure will fully manifest when God sees I’m ready for it to manifest.

And finally, the last reason why this story really touched my heart actually deals with how this book came into my life. When I received it, well over a year ago now, I had quickly tossed it aside, not feeling called to its subject material. And there it sat, in the trunk of my car, up until a few weeks ago when my spirit moved me one day to try reading a few pages of it. Once I did, I couldn’t put it down and it was then I realized I wouldn’t really have appreciated or understood its contents if I had read it at any point in the past year. So, like the Rabbi’s buried treasure that appeared when he was ready, this book became a buried treasure of sorts for me too, one that I feel God knew precisely when I’d be completely ready to receive it…

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson

Do you think it’s possible that the Universe could actually send a little reassurance to us through something as simple as graffiti? I ask that only because of two words I saw scribbled on the back of one of those 18-wheelers on the highway, just after I had gotten picked up by my sister at the Nashville airport and was telling her how worried I was about the next few days I’d be visiting her and her family.

TRUST JESUS.

That was what the graffiti said on that truck and precisely what I did my best to do over the next four days while I was away on travel by myself for the first time since my health issues had become as frustrating as they’ve been in the past few years.

And you know what?

Everything really did go quite well on my trip.

The airport and flying experiences all went very smoothly.

My pain levels remained extremely manageable.

There were never any arguments or tension between me or any member of my family.

And I never did relapse into any addictive behaviors.

Now that this trip is over, I find myself wishing there was some way I could permanently turn off that worry component of me and truly trust Jesus all the time. Given how much I worried before this trip and up until I saw that message on the truck, it made me think of that story in the Bible where the disciples were caught in a storm in their boat and thought they were going to capsize. But when they awoke a napping Jesus in a panic, He asked why they had such little faith and told them they need not worry. After which Jesus then calmed the churning seas and ferocious winds.

You know, I totally can relate to those overly panicking disciples. So, I guess maybe this whole having-more-faith-than-worry-thing is a constant work in progress. At least I did have enough faith to trust Jesus though, and step through my fears to complete this trip, because overall, I know my sister’s family and myself will have plenty of happy memories to remember.

And in the end, beyond the reassuring “Trust Jesus” message I truly believe I received from the Universe, I find myself feeling very grateful to God and all of you who helped make it such a wonderful time away…

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson

I hear people all the time say, “If I just had <fill in the blank>, I’d be happy.”, with the “<fill in the blank>” being most often populated by things such as “a loving partner”, “a good paying job”, “more stable finances”, “caring friends”, “good health”, and a few notable others. But the reality is that no matter what’s placed in that sentence, none will ever bring about true happiness.

How do I know that?

Because I know of many who have had each of those things in life, including myself, and still struggled to find happiness. Over time, I learned on my spiritual journey that there are plenty of people, places, and things in life that will bring about temporary happiness, just never permanent.

Which is precisely why so many tend to go through life chasing one thing after another, believing it will fix that shortage of happiness felt within. And while it may for a period do just that, provide a level that feels satisfactory to an individual, it always wears off at some point, thus creating a never-ending cycle of seeking things outside of oneself for contentment in life.

I have spent so much of my own life searching for “that thing” that could bring about ultimate happiness. It’s what led me to jump from relationship to relationship, job to job, friend to friend, gadget to gadget, car to car, house to house, state to state, and so on and so forth, over the course of many years, yet it constantly eluded me. I truly believe it’s the ego that makes us think like this.

It makes us think that there’s something out there in this world that will fix our happiness shortage issue. And unfortunately, whenever we listen to that part of our ego, we often get caught up in some type of an addiction. That’s exactly what happened to me with alcohol, drugs, sex, and a number of other things as well over the years.

In the end, I came to understand that happiness is always going to be temporary and that I will never find anything in this world that will ever bring about permanent happiness. Anyone who says otherwise and suggests it can be found with “this” or “that” is only living in an illusion. But there is something I believe that isn’t temporary and can be cultivated on a more permanent basis within ourselves, and that’s joy.

Joy is something that comes from deep within and I choose to believe it comes from the soul. And I’ve only ever seen it result from growing a stronger relationship with my Higher Power, whom I choose to call God. But it’s not something that seems to ever come easy. It often takes a lot of being still and sitting in uncomfortability and emptiness to experience it, which most human beings don’t like to do at all.

Living in a fast-paced world where the ego wants what it wants right now causes most people to exist in that happiness-seeking process outside of themselves, never experiencing the joy that I believe only God can provide.

This is why I’ve been more still in my life these past few years than ever before, but I must admit it’s been really difficult, and I do mean difficult, to live like this. I’ve felt a profound amount of emptiness in all this sitting and waiting, constantly having to battle my ego’s incessant demands of wanting to fill it with a bunch of illusions. Yet I know I’m doing the best thing for my spiritual journey by waiting.

I’m sure some of you are thinking right now, why do we always have to wait on God for things like joy? Well in my opinion, the answer is pretty simple.

If we just had all our “<fill in the blanks>” always given to us by God, then we wouldn’t ever know what it felt like to be lacking in anything. And if we never knew what it felt like to be lacking in anything, we would never be able to be filled by something only God can fill us with, because we’d always be too full to experience it.

That’s why I’d rather remain still and continue waiting on God, sitting in all this emptiness and uncomfortability, because in the end, I know the joy that God can fill me with is going to last far longer than any of the happiness my ego will try to seek through some person, place, or thing in this world…

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson