#146 - Unpacking Dreams {Reflections Re-Release}

A five minute nap on a plane turns into a dream that won’t leave Ryan alone and it starts with a strange detail: he’s reading Carl Jung’s “Man and His Symbols” right before he falls asleep. When he wakes up, the dream feels less like random brain noise and more like a mirror held up to midlife, purpose, and the quiet fear that time is moving faster than we admit.

We walk through the scene in plain language: Ryan’s nephew Isaac, a living symbol of youthful energy, stands on the porch wearing a shirt Ryan loved years ago and says, “Bye, Ryan.” That single goodbye opens a bigger conversation about dream interpretation, spiritual growth, and what it looks like to enter the second half of life with intention. We talk about putting away childish things like selfishness and narrow thinking, and about growing from self centered living toward deeper service, wider compassion, and a more grounded sense of your place in the world.

Then we add the twist that makes the dream truly useful. A friend suggests it might also be a warning: don’t abandon the best parts of your childhood self. We connect that to Christian faith and the Bible, holding Paul’s call to maturity alongside Jesus’ words about becoming like a little child. The result is a practical invitation: let adult wisdom steer the car, but keep childlike wonder, hope, and joy alive so your life doesn’t harden as it gets more responsible.

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Transcript

Why We Are Re Releasing

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Hey everyone, Olivia here. Pastor Ryan is on Sabatical this summer, so until he gets back, I will be re-releasing some of the most favorite episodes from the Reflections podcast. Today's episode originally aired in October of 2023 and was actually the fourth episode we ever released. It also comes from Pastor Ryan's dream interpretation era. Enjoy.

A Vivid Dream On A Plane

SPEAKER_01 0:46

What is up, everybody? My name is Ryan Brayley, and I am the pastor at a wonderful church in Elk River, Minnesota, Central, uh Central Lutheran Church, and I am here in studio with Mike. What's up, Mike?

unknown 0:58

Not much.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

How you doing, buddy?

unknown 1:00

Living the dream as always.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

I living the dream. Hey, speaking of dreams, I had a dream about a month ago, and I want to share it with you guys because I think it was this incredibly profound moment. And I've been having some pretty vivid dreams lately. And anyway, I want to tell you one. I thought it would be helpful to talk about it with you all because I think it's maybe a call to each of us, even though I had the dream, but I would say that what I took from the dream is applicable to each and every one of us. But anyway, I I found this book. I was at a bookstore in Ohio. I was visiting my sister in Ohio, and the book was by a famous psychologist called Carl Jung. You probably have heard of him. Anyway, Jung wrote a book called Man and His Symbols, and it's basically a book about dreams. So I pick up this book and I'm flying home and I'm reading this book about dreams. And I'm not kidding. I I fall asleep on the plane, and I had about a I think a five-minute nap, but in that nap, I had a dream. It was an incredibly vivid dream. And when I woke up, I'm in the middle of the plane, and I remembered it instantly. And I wanted to shout to the whole plane, like, hey, everybody, I just had this dream. I'm reading a book about a dream, about dreams by Carl Jung. I had a dream, and it was incredibly vivid and moving, and I think profound. But of course, I didn't do that. Maybe I should have, but I didn't yell out on the plane. But here's

Isaac On The Porch Says Goodbye

SPEAKER_01 2:20

the dream. So I'm at my in-law's house. They live in Elk River, just down the road. And across the street from them are live my brother-in-law and his wife and their two sons. Anyway, on my in-law's porch stood my nephew. His name is Isaac. He's just a he's a wonderful young lad. He's um he's almost five years old. And just a bundle of energy. I call him Bam Bam from the Flintstones because he's just a wild, like Huckfin kind of a kid. They live on the river. He's out catching frogs, running around with his shirt off. Just a little boy. I love he's always dirty and just a wild man. And I love grabbing him and squeezing him and like just being physical with him. I just love the little guy. And he in my mind, he always embodies what I think like youthfulness and young boyhood looks like. He just he really does. So in my dream, Isaac was standing on my in-law's front porch, and he was way-he's got like long, flowing uh blonde hair. It's real curly, and it's like bleach blonde hair. And he's wearing this blue polo shirt, like a Ralph Lauren polo shirt with a little red horse. It's like a navy blue shirt with a red horse. And it's the exact same shirt I wore a bunch when I was in, like when I was younger, I was in high school, and I love that shirt. So here's my nephew who's on this porch, and he's like sort of this embodiment of youthful energy and young boyhood, and he's wearing my shirt, and he looks right at me and waves and says, Bye, Ryan. And I then I woke up and I was like, yo, everybody, I had this crazy dream. Uh but again, I didn't say that, but in my head, I knew immediately what the dream

Entering The Second Half Of Life

SPEAKER_01 3:54

meant. And it was something like this I'm 40, I'm 40, uh, how old am I, Mike? I'm 43. I forget. 43. And uh and I'm kind of coming into that, you know, almost that middle age, and I'm I'm trying to be intentional as I live about going into the second half of my life and being about the right things, growing deeper in uh in a number of things, but just caring about the right things, and I'm I want to be intentional about how I do that. And so I'm trying to look into this next half of my life and be a man who's present and giving and you know, serving all those kinds of things. And here is this little boy in this dream who again embodies youthful energy and maybe my own childhood in some ways, and he's waving goodbye. And I thought immediately this was an invitation to move into the second half of life and to really put aside childish things, uh, maybe selfish tendencies that I have. You know, children tend to be sort of egocentric, they think about themselves a lot. And when you're really little, they think about themselves entirely and think that the world revolves around them, like literally. And then as we grow older, we we begin we go from ideally, we go from being egocentric to maybe like family-centric or like tribal-centric, which is a great leap to make. But then ideally, you want to keep going and become not just tribal-centric where you only care about your tribe. You want to become sort of global-centric and have a sense of a global community that you're a part of. And then from there, the next sort of phase of growth, like becoming cosmic-centric or having a just a grander view of life and your place in it. And so, in many ways, to grow and mature and uh and and to become that person, you have to you have to let go of sort of these older ways of doing things and seeing things and being a young, selfish, you know, sort of ego-centric, in my case, a young boy. And so I felt like it was an invitation to do that, and I thought it was beautiful. But here's the

Grow Up Without Losing The Child

SPEAKER_01 5:46

crazy thing. Like, Mike, um a week later, I was thinking about this dream some more, and and I was actually talking about it with a friend of mine, and um, he said, I wonder if it's an invitation, also, uh, not an invitation, but really like a warning. And I was like, What do you mean? And he's like, I wonder if it's also a warning for you to not let go entirely of your childhood self. And the moment he he said that, like, it totally resonated with me. Like, yeah, I I think there was also this warning, like, Ryan, don't let go of your youthful self. So Jesus says this in the gospel, hey, truly I tell you, unless you change and become like a little child, you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven. And so I thought it was like, yeah, of course, grow up, you know. I mean, Paul says in 1 Corinthians, when I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, and I reasoned like a child. But when I became a man, Paul writes, I put away the childish things behind me. But I also think there's this invitation to all of us, like, don't lose that childhood self. Be like a child, like Jesus says. Like, never lose your hope for things to get better or your wild-eyed wonder at the world. Like children always just have this wonderful capacity to have wonder. And they're enamored by many things, ideally, you know. And so I think this dream for me was an invitation to move into the second half of life with my eyes wide open, to be a man who gives and serves my community and grows from being egocentric to ethnocentric to then global, maybe even cosmic-centric for sure, and to grow and mature and sacrifice, but also a warning to never let that little boy go. Like, I my little boy can't drive the car because he'll crash the car. But I want to maintain that youthful exuberance and joy and excitement and wonder at the world.

A Practical Invitation And Closing

SPEAKER_01 7:31

So, my invitation to all of you is as you grow and mature, of course, move into your second half of life or your next phase of life with your eyes wide open, give and and love and sacrifice and let go of childish things, but also never lose that inner child that wants to see the world the way that Jesus sees it. Alright, that's it. That's what I got for you. So, love you guys. We'll talk to you soon. Peace. Hey, if you enjoy this show, I'd love to have you share it with some friends. And don't forget you are always welcome to join us in person at Central in Elk River at 8 30, which is our liturgical gathering, or at 10 o'clock, our modern gathering. Or you can check us out online at clcelkriver.org. Peace.