Choklit Blog #33: Courage

Two nights ago I had an interesting dream. It started off in my house, playing a game with my mom and a friend of hers. We all three had guns and we were shooting at each other; my mom and I were one team, and the other guy was his own team. These were real guns, by the way. My mom was shooting at the guy, not very well hidden, because on our side of the house there wasn’t really any cover that we could get behind and still have a good shot at the guy. So I was behind a wall, crouched down and shaking, and my mom was just out kinda out in the open, crouched down shooting across the house. The guy on the other side had a bush to hide behind. Not that bullets can’t penetrate bushes. But this was a dream, so maybe they couldn’t; although he did start shooting the wall and chipping away little pieces of it to hit me. So maybe they could penetrate bushes. But anyway, I was too scared, so I told my mom I wasn’t playing anymore and ran out the back door into the yard. I came back in after a few minutes, once the game had stopped. The guy said he was going home and he would see us later, then jokingly pointed his gun at me. At first I was scared by the fact that he had pointed a gun at me, but then I remembered that it wasn’t loaded. Because that makes it safe.

I’m not quite sure what happened between that and the next part of the dream, but the next thing I remember is being in my house with my best friend Joy, my brother Brent, my dad, and another friend named Nicole [this Nicole person was not someone I recognized from real life after I woke up. I’m guessing she was supposed to be my online friend Nicole.] Oh yeah, and Jon Micah from Kutless. And then there were a bunch of guys with machine guns. I think they were Nazis or something, but I’m not really sure. If they were, this wouldn’t be the first dream I’ve had about being taken captive by Nazis. So these Nazi machine gun guys gave a handgun to Jon Micah, and another one to... I don’t remember who they gave the other one to. Maybe there was another person there. Or it may have been Nicole. But that’s not really important. They told Jon Micah that he was going to execute my dad, and they told the other gun person that they were going to execute my brother. All of a sudden, we were all in the backyard of my old house in my hometown. The setting and number of people present is constantly changing in my dreams. That’s probably why I can’t remember the second gun person. There were 3 machine gun guys, and then the rest of us. I think they were going to shoot Nicole too, but Joy and I hadn’t been told we were going to die or anything. Well, my grandma’s house was right next door to mine, and we each had a fence around our backyard that was like 7 feet tall. The Nazi guys couldn’t see over it. I asked them if I could just walk away for a minute and take a quick break because I was really stressed out. They said yes. So I went into my grandma’s backyard and rang her back doorbell. I only rang it once, though, when I heard how loud it was. It pretty much shook the whole house. So I quickly ran to the other side of the yard behind the shed. I didn’t see anyone look over the fence, but I was afraid they would be over there any second to kill me, so I jumped the fence on the other side and ran around to the front door. Now they hadn’t said I couldn’t go in a house, so I have no idea why I was so scared that they would kill me for it. But I didn’t want them to know where I was going, which is why I went to the front door. Of course it was unlocked. There are only guys next door with machine guns, why would you lock your front door? So I walk in and someone was there... at first it was my grandma, but then later she turned into Joy’s mom. So I’m not really sure who she was. But she was glad to see me alive, and I told her what had happened so far, which was basically nothing. I stayed there for a few minutes trying to think of a way I could stay safe and get everyone else into the house. While I was thinking, Brent and Joy ran in the front door. My plan was to get everyone in the house, then have my grandma walk calmly outside like an innocent bystander and get in her minivan and start the engine. Then we would all go outside and get in and she would drive away before the machine gun guys had a chance to see us over the 7-foot fence. We would drive away into the abyss and be safe forever. It was perfect. But there was really no way to get everyone out of the yard without the machine gun guys getting suspicious. Of course, they had already given 3 of us permission to just walk away, trusting we would come right back. We could have run right then, but I didn’t want to leave my dad and Nicole. I guess I didn’t really care about Jon Micah. I wasn’t sure whose side he was on anyway. So I asked them if Nicole had gotten out, and they told me she hadn’t. I decided to be the hero and go figure out how to save her and my dad. I walked outside and went into my grandma’s side yard [her house was on the corner]. Then I heard someone come to the front door and start ringing the door bell. It was the leader of the machine gun guys. I jumped the fence back into my grandma’s back yard and tried to go in the back door, but it was still locked. At this point, I was afraid to even knock or the machine gun guys might hear me. So I panicked instead. I went back into the side yard to listen for the guy at the front door. I peeked around the corner and he was there. I was scared out of my mind, so I stayed beside the house until I heard him leave. I walked into the front yard to go back in the house, but then I stopped and thought, “There’s no way I can get the two of them out of there by myself. I can’t make myself go over there because I’m too scared, and I can’t just leave them there. I know, I’ll pray!” So I prayed that I would be able to find a way to get them out, and that I wouldn’t be afraid. All of a sudden, my dad opened the gate and walked out of the yard. 


       Apparently, the machine gun guys had lost consciousness or something, and my dad and Nicole just walked right now. I have no idea what happened to Jon Micah. I still don’t know who’s side he was on.

Now, that ending wasn’t very exciting because all they did was walk out of the yard, and I think I remember someone pulling out a bag of frozen vegetables and dumping them on the ground. Not sure what was up with that. But either way, it wasn’t very cool. So when I halfway woke up, I made up my own alternate ending. After I prayed, I suddenly had this huge dose of courage and adrenaline. I walked to a spot few yards in front of the fence that was between me and everyone in the back yard. Throughout the dream, I had jumped several fences... but I didn’t just jump over them, I always grabbed the top of the fence and flipped myself over the top. And so from the spot where I was standing, I got a running start and flipped over the fence. I happened to know that the leader of the machine gun Nazis was standing just on the other side of the fence with his back to it. So when I flipped over the fence, my feet landed right in his face and knocked him out. I grabbed his machine gun before the other obviously dumb guys could do anything and shot them. I pointed the gun toward Jon Micah and yelled “Drop your weapon!” He put it down and was like “Whoa wait, I’m with you guys! I don’t wanna hurt anyone!” So I picked up everyone’s weapons and... well there was no real ending, other than that. I’m assuming everything ended up ok.

So anyway, that dream just made me think of three verses. The first one I thought of was Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (NKJV). The second was Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (NIV). The third was Romans 8:37: “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (NIV). Whether you’re trying to save people from Nazis with machine guns, or just trying to survive everyday life, it’s always a mistake to try to do it by yourself. But with God’s help, we can do all things, all things work together for good, and we’re more than conquerors.