If Only I'd Listen

I had a dream this week. About a guy who really exists but I've never met. He used to be my friend's boss. In the dream, his college age son dies when he gets hit by a car while riding his bike.

In my waking moments, I hadn't been thinking of this man, his son, bicycles, accidents, death or anything that was even remotely connected to this dream. So I chalked it up as completely random and emailed my friend so we could laugh about this "stupid" dream I had.

A few days later my friend responded and I discovered the dream was anything but "stupid." A very close family friend of hers, a college age girl, had committed suicide. The man in my dream also knew the family and took part in the funeral. They all attend the same church and have a lot of history together.

As I read my friend's response, I became completely overwhelmed. I started shaking and then found myself crying. God had given me a message and I missed it. What I chalked up as "random" was actually a prompting to pray for the people in my dream. I was so sidetracked by the strangeness of the dream that I completely missed the fact that God wanted to use me to help those who were hurting.

How many other opportunities have I missed simply because I didn't recognize God's voice?