Prisoner of War

I had this dream the night of September 2, 2011.  Sorry for the delay.  I know you’ve been dying to hear what’s been going on in my head while I dream.  This one began with me, an old friend from high school, and a new friend from Missouri standing in the middle of a train station.  There were lots of people around us…some I recognized and some I didn’t.  Again, my subconscious brought Harry Potter into my dreams because this train station was big and historic like King’s Cross Station.  Sadly, this one was not magic…no Platform 9¾.  Or at least it wasn’t magical in a Harry Potter kind of way, but, it’s a dream so everything is kind of magic, right?

So, we were at the train station and I pulled out a pre-paid credit card, which had little to nothing on it.  For some reason at this particular train station, you only had to pay a small amount of the total cost of your trip up front, and then the balance would be charged at a later time.  Mischievously, I thought I would charge however much I wanted on this card because it wouldn’t come right away, but at the same time I was nervous because what if they found out that all I had to my name was $60 in cash and whatever was left on my pre-paid credit card.

So…bought a $600 ticket to India.  I don’t know where we were coming from for the ticket to be so much, but I’m guessing we were somewhere in the Eastern Hemisphere to take a train.

To my luck, the small amount we had to pay to get on the train was $60 on the dot, so I stood in line to pay hoping we’d be far far away by the time anyone found out that I had just jipped them 540 bucks.

As I was standing in line to pay, the line was getting backed up because the credit card machine was misbehaving.  One of the cashiers yelled out, “does anyone have cash??  Ill take $60 in cash right now otherwise you will miss your train!”  “Today is my lucky day!” I’m thinking.  I gave the cashier the money and my credit card information and ran for the train knowing that later she would be one very angry cashier $540 poorer.

My buddies and I were on our way to India!  The train was well on its way and night began to fall very quickly.  Before we knew it, it was dark outside and we were in India.  I’ve never been to India, but from the pictures I’ve seen, the cities are very congested.  Our train ride went from riding through the beautiful countryside to riding through the streets of a very old town.  This old town was beautiful and the streets were tiny and curvy.  There were tons of people in the streets and there were no other vehicles around except our huge train (there were no train tracks either might I add).  As were riding, we were trying to sight see/figure out where in the heck we were.  Then the strangest thing happened.  The more the train traveled through the narrow streets and the crowd, the smaller the train got.  It started falling apart…almost disintegrating!

I remember the last place our train had tried driving through was a small restaurant, but the owner would not let us through the back doors.  He kept saying, “no, no!  You are too big, too big!”  And that’s where our train finally disappeared for good.

It just kept getting smaller and smaller until we were just sitting in seats without a train in the middle of nowhere…in India…by ourselves…with no money.

Within a blink of an eye, we went from standing in the middle of a restaurant in India to being held captive in a narrow, concrete, war bunker below the ground.  It wasn’t until then that we even realized there was a war going on.  That’s why there were so many people in the streets and no vehicles in the roads (except for our then huge, but now nothing but seats train).  It was a war or some kind of protest.  We had been captured by rebels and were begin held as prisoners in this bunker in the middle of nowhere…in India…by ourselves…with no money…then I woke up.

heaven

The second dream of my double feature was ironically about heaven.  I say ironically because in the same night the first dream of my double feature was about demons (which you can read in the blog posted right before this one).  The dream started out a little morbid, so brace yourselves.  There was yet again a hospital, but this time it was a real hospital.

The dream began with me and a bunch of people sitting down in a hallway.  Yet again, i didnt recognize any of these people, but they were suppose to be my friends.  Well, i did recognize one person.  He was sitting right next to me.  His name was Micheal.  I would say he was a cross between Michael McKenry and Grant Ross.  I understand most of you dont know both of these people, so for those who know at least one, you may get the picture.  It was Michael’s turn to go next.

Michael held onto my hand tightly as this lady, who im guessing was a nurse, did something to his back.  Seconds later, Michael slumped over.  You would think something like this would scary me to death, but…it didnt.  In fact, it didnt scare me at all.  For some reason, it made sense to me.  Then, it was my turn.

The nurse lady came up to me and, just as delicately as she could, she cut the tiniest slit on my right shoulder.  I looked over to where she had cut, and said something like, “is that it?  that’s all?  that didn’t hurt much.”  She replied back to me, “no, that’s not it.  there’s one more i have to do.”

I’m sure you all are wondering, what the heck is going on!?  Well I’ll tell you because at this moment in my dream, i knew exactly what was happening.  The nurse lady was killing all of us…morbid, i told you.  But it wasn’t like she was murdering us…it was like she was doing her duty.  All of us who were sitting in the hallway were waiting patiently to be killed.  It was as if we all knew it was our time to go and we were at peace with it.

So, as im looking at my right shoulder and the nurse lady is telling me “no, there’s one more i have to do”, she pulls out a box cutter and slowly inserts it into my back.  I began bracing myself thinking this is going to hurt, and then…nothing.  I didnt feel a thing.  I opened my eyes and said, “i didn’t feel anything, that didnt hurt.”  I dont know if she numbed the area first or not.  If she had, i didnt feel her do that either.

Now, all i can think of is that the first slit made on my shoulder was to relieve blood pressure, and the second insert was to cut a main artery or something.  Either way, in a matter of seconds, i was no longer sitting in the hallway of a hospital holding Michaels hand as he laid slumped over…i was in heaven!

This is where the dream becomes amazing!!  I dont think ill ever be able to explain how incredible I felt in heaven, but ill try (if real heaven is anything like my dream heaven, then i cant wait to get there!)  I’ve had only one other dream about heaven and I had a very similar feeling.  I will definitely blog about my first heaven dream soon.  So, the moment I arrived, I had this overwhelming sense of peace and joy in my spirit.  The only comparison i can make to this feeling on earth is when the weather 75 and sunny, you’re out on a sail boat, theres not a care in the world, you are happy, and life as you know it is perfect.

Once I realized i was in heaven, i began to notice everything around me.  The grass was the brightest green I’d ever seen, the sky was the deepest blue I’d ever seen, and there wasn’t a cloud in sight.  It seemed as if i was in some kind of park.  There were no streets, just sidewalks.  No cars, or the noise of traffic…only the quietness of the land.  Oh, and some random shopping centers far off in the distance.  This was especially odd since, as most of you know, i highly dislike shopping.  The next thing I noticed, or person i should say, was my mom!  I immediately ran up to her and hugged her tight.  It was as if she was expecting me.  I was so happy to see her.  We hugged and talked about how amazing our spirits felt being in heaven.  I only saw one other person way off in the distance.  She was too far for me to get to her, but she was there. For once, I did recognize one of my dream friends…her name is Allie Becher and she is from MO.  She is an amazing girl and i think the world of her!!

The odd thing was, i didnt see anyone else in heaven.  It’s not that i saw people and i just didnt know who they were.  There was no one else there…just my mom, allie, and me.  So immediately i started asking my mom about people in our family, “where’s dad, where are my brothers, where’s jonathan?”  Sadly, she looked at me and said, “they arent here.”  I began thinking, “they arent here?  what!?”  I didnt understand.  I became very sad very quick.  Then i realized, what a second…God says He will wipe our tears away and that there will be no sadness in heaven.  At once, I began thinking, “this can’t be heaven!”  This must be a place right before heaven or something.  A place to wait, a place to experience the peace you will eventually feel once you get to the real heaven…the heaven where all your loved ones are, your friends and family…and then i woke up.

This dream really made me think…”how can heaven be amazing when the people i love may not end up there?  is there redemption beyond the grave?  There are a lot of people out there that debate this very topic everyday.  Now, there is no way for me to answer these very important questions, but it does make me want to love on my family and friends and reach out to those who are at the moment just acquaintances.  I cant imagine heaven without the ones i love…so, i want to share God’s love with them and anyone else i meet as much as i can.  I can’t wait to get to heaven WITH all those who i love!

on the other side of the mote

This is the first of a double feature dream i had last night.  I first called it “Angels & Demons,” but I had to change it because it wasnt really about angels & demons, just demons…demons and a really strong invisible protective barrier.  I guess you could say that barrier is also an angel.  I would categorize this one as kind of scary (or at least it was scary while I dreamed it).

Let me just say it was a cross between I Am Legend and a little bit of Avatar.  It was me and a bunch of people that I don’t know.  Of course, I knew them in the dream, but once I was awake, I didn’t recognize any of them.  So, me and all my “friends”  created an army on one side of a mote (there was an abandoned hospital type building behind us) and there were these demon type creatures that created an army on the other side of the mote.  They were big, hairy, animal like creatures that I’m only guessing were demons.  During the day light they could not come over and attack us because there was a super strong invisible protective barrier between us.  So all day long, the demons just paced back and forth growling angrily because they could not get to us.  Though, at night, the invisible barrier became weaker and weaker.

Once it was night fall, the demons decided the only way to get to our side would be to sacrifice their most beautiful demon.  This is why i said “a little bit of Avatar” because their most beautiful sacrifice looked like Neytiri (the main avatar character in the movie).  She had slender features like the avatar in addition to the big, hairy, animal like features she shared with her fellow demon friends.  She also had bright blue eyes instead of bright blue skin.  The demons killed her and threw her over to our side.  This sacrifice, along with the weak night time barrier, broke the protective barrier completely.  Once this happened all of the demons rushed over to our side to attack us.

We all ran into the abandoned hospital type building behind us (though we figured out it wasn’t really a hospital).  We squeezed into four secret elevator compartments.  They didn’t move like elevators, but they were the safest place to be.  There was no way the demons could get to us because they didn’t know where we were.  See, this abandoned hospital was more along the lines of a Hogwarts because there were tons of secret passage ways.

One of my friends, who had a striking resemblance to Neville Longbottom, needed to run out of the elevator compartment to grab something.  Who knows why he needed this “something” at a time like this, but it’s a dream right?  As he was getting it, all of the demons were coming into “Hogwarts Hospital”.  They couldn’t hear very well, but they had eyes like eagles, so Longbottom could rustle around and gather what he needed just as long as he wasn’t seen.  He almost had what he needed when all of a sudden one of them caught eye of him.  He started running back to the elevator compartment…bad idea…I know that was the only safe place to hide, but the demons followed him, so they found out where we were hiding.

Even though we were suppose to be in the safest place, the demons’ hands started squeezing through the cracks of the elevator doors.  As we all started freaking out, the sun started rising.  The demons quickly retreated back over to their side of the mote.  They had to get to their side before the strong protective barrier came back and trapped them outside of their side of the mote.  For some reason they could only survive on their side of the mote during the day.  Once the demons raced back over to their side of the mote, they realized something…they had saracfised their most beautiful demon the night before to get to our side.  So they were forever trapped on the other side of the mote with no more chances to ever attacking us again…and then I woke up.