Dreams and Other Things // Martha Mason

This project has been a dream come true and the first interview makes it all the more special. Today, I interviewed someone who has shaped my journey in art and my relationship with my One True Creator. My professor and mentor, Martha Mason has a great God story that I’m honored and privileged to share with you.

Thank you, Martha for helping me dream big and for being the first artist to come on board with Christian Creative Art. 

God speaks to us, He hears our prayers, and answers. This does not mean life here on this earth will be perfect, because it cannot be. But, He promises to stay faithful to us through it all. I’m honored to share just a smidgen of Martha’s story and how God revealed Himself to her.

// Interview //

Kandyce:
You once told me about a dream that you had that involved your foster father and I was very intrigued, can you tell me more about that and what it represented to you?

Martha:
Well, it was very visual dream. I dreamt I was in a room and I was looking into a hole. Instead of a house there was just a deep pit. My foster father was in the dream too. My foster father was the kind of guy that would stand and chew on a toothpick while he was thinking. But, anyway, I recognized from what I had studied about dreams, that the house represented my life and my foster father represented God. My foster father was a carpenter and builder. He was an important person in my life and an example of how I thought about God. He was a godly man. Not a perfect man but, he was a very godly man. I knew that at this point in my life I was not talking with God or acknowledging God and that this dream was kind of bringing me back. The dream was saying God is good and He's paying attention to me and caring about my life. God is working on and helping me reconstruct/build where I lived, which had pretty much gone to nothing.

Kandyce:
That dream, did it come to you while you were living in San Francisco?

Martha:
Yeah, I was having a bunch of dreams like that and they were all about God coming and saying I care about you and He was using just different language (dreams) that I could relate to.

Kandyce:
You also told me about some lights from across the street
that you saw out of your window of your apartment. Can you share about that experience?

Martha:
Around the same time that all the dreams were taking place, one night I looked out the window of my apartment down to the park. There's a church in the park – St. Peter Church and it was in August which is a celebration of Mary in the Catholic Church. The light they were using on the towers was a blue light for Mary. One of their ways of kind of visualizing that particular holiday and I just thought that it was so beautiful. I wasn't thinking about Mary; I wasn't thinking about anything I was just thinking about how beautiful that this little community could celebrate God and how that I could have no part of it because I was not a God person.

I made a prayer then. I just basically said, if I could ever be connected with God again, I don't know if it's possible because my life had not been very good – but, I said, “If I could ever reconnect with God, I would love that.” I wanted to be like this little community of people who in my mind where you know, happy Christian kind of people.

I know I simplify all this kind of in my mind I think that's what we do a lot of times. We make up little stories so that we can make an explanation for things and God is just as happy to use any of that I think.

Anyway, that was the blue light story. After that, a voice in the middle of the night said, “You could go back to church.” I asked my husband at the time, I said, “Did you hear something?”

He goes, “No.” and I said, “Well, I heard a voice and it woke me from my sleep.”

After that dream and that audible voice, I started visiting churches in San Francisco, which was kind of fun because there's a lot of wonderful old buildings - all the different downtown churches which I still love to visit. But, I did go to the one across the street with the blue lights and there was a quartet. They sang the mass but it was in Italian - and it brought me to tears and I thought to myself, “Why are you all emotional, if you don't have any faith?”

I think God was using my emotions because I'm a very emotional driven person. So, that was the language He used and it worked.

I had to find my way, it was the back door. I was too stubborn I had bad attitude about a lot of things for whatever reason. God knew we had to go our own way, so He took me to dreams and took me to people who were kind and didn’t have any agenda for me and that was a radical, radical thing. People that could just love me.

Kandyce:
Then what happened?

Martha:
You know Morris Venden came on the scene and that was the big turning point because once I got exposed to his ideas I was like wow that is something so totally wonderful and opposite from what I grew up with, you know?

Kandyce:
How did you hear about Morris Venden?

Martha:
From a book that I received when I went to the Adventist church.

My boss at the time who was also a Christian invited me to their Easter services. So,

I did go to the church, the Adventist church in San Francisco and I did find Jesus there. I was taken by surprise. The message was a simple Easter message and I said to myself, “Your emotional problem is that you do believe in Jesus and do you believe in this religion. I said, “Okay God if this is for real You need to get me some stuff, some reading material because I don't remember too much about it.”

The next week I did go to the church again and someone brought a bunch of books to me. The person said, “You might be interested in these.” And I sort of looked up to the ceiling like okay someone's listening – this is dangerous. I had to say, “Ok God.”

So, I looked through the books and they were a bunch of things in there that I couldn't relate to - BUT, there was one book called, Faith that Works by Morris Venden - it was like a morning watch book and I started to read that and I read it straight through - not day by day, straight through. Because, it was too good.

Basically, it said it's not about your behavior it's about who God is. I thought what a fabulous turnaround from all the things that I had grown up with.

Kandyce:
After you read the Morris Venden book what happened?

Martha:
Well, you know I was hooked. I would go to church every Saturday and finally, one of the deacons asked me when I was going to be baptized. I said, “I don't know I didn't know if anybody was ever going to ask me.” I was very passive. But, I was learning from Morris Venden to spend time with Jesus every day. In other words, I have to wake in the morning and talk to Jesus and read the Bible and not just skip over but, really spend time until you know He's with you. And it does take a commitment of time and energy but, that’s how I got through those days which were very tense. I didn't really have any answers for anybody. I just asked people to bear with me because you'll see that in the end it is a good thing.  

Kandyce:
How did you end up in Walla Walla?

Martha:
My family, part of my foster family introduced me to Jerry Mason and that was when Jerry and I got together and were married in 1992. I left the city of course because he was up in Placerville area. We lived around there for a while and we actually worked at Weimar for a while.

I think we were at Weimar for about 9 months and then we got a call from Walla Walla College. I would come and teach there and that was a fabulous, fabulous journey and both Jerry and I were really blessed. So, we started a whole new life in Walla Walla. Long journey – we met lots of memorable students and friends.

Kandyce:
Are there any other things you’d like to add about your journey with God?

Martha:
Oh, yeah there’s so many things. The main thing is to stay with Jesus and stay in His Word. He does, I don't think He needs to, but He does go outside the Word, like He did with me. But, He wants us to stay in the Word and it's fresh like manna. We like to read all kinds of good books and things but, a fresh connection with the Word every day is like a place, a service or a little chapel where He meets us and comes and gives us ideas.

“I feel the richness of His presence in those experiences and His leading which is the most precious thing.”

I love that He guides my thoughts so, I ask Him every day, “What do you want me to do, who do I connect with?” He doesn’t give me an audible answer, but I can look back each day and say I did this or I said that or I met this person and I feel the richness of His presence in those experiences and His leading which is the most precious thing. Then you can relax and enjoy your life and survive things - like my husband just died and I have to live alone and I don't know what I'm doing or where I'm going but, every day I know that Jesus is helping me.

I realize nobody knows what their life is going to be we take each day and we try to be faithful and confident that He will guide in whatever is happening. So, that's my little journey right now and I appreciate it all.