Martin Luther King had a dream that racism would finally be ended in America. This dream, and the sense of purpose it lent him changed our entire nation. I have a dream as well. Two of them actually. Mine aren’t nearly as noble, but they are recurring. Maybe that makes them special. Anyway, here’s the first one.
The One About the Truck
It’s my birthday, and I find myself at McDonalds. All my friends are there to celebrate my birthday, so it’s a pretty good dream at this point. But there’s a problem. People are hungry and there is an obstruction in the way of the little cash registers where ordering happens. To be specific it’s a green ’57 Chevy truck. Well, half of the truck, anyway. Someone has inexplicably cut a ’57 Chevy truck in half and placed the front end in front of the counter at McDonalds facing out (thus blocking the way of people hoping to order).
Well, it’s my birthday, so I make the most of this strange obstruction. I climb on top of the roof of the Chevy and sit down on it, looking out at my friends waiting to order like a king looking down on his subjects. Then I look out to my left and there it is…
A mob of people are coming into the McDonalds from outside. I say mob, because it is obvious that they are pissed. And then it gets worse as I realize that this is a mob made up entirely of my ex-girlfriends. And for some reason they’re pissed at me.
The dream ends with me trying to get out of this McDonalds before all my ex-girlfriends get a chance to string me up.
Although I had this dream several times throughout high school, I’ve had the next one for far longer. I can’t even remember how many times I’ve had it. And unlike the last one, I actually know the meaning of this one.
The One About the Kid
This dream begins with my waking up. I leave the small room I find myself in and am greeted by the African Savannah. At this point I should mention that in this dream I look nothing like myself. At this point in reality I am six feet tall with very short hair, and a slightly athletic build. However, in the dream I am roughly eight feet tall, very muscular, and incredibly hairy. You might wonder how I knew that it was me. The only way I can explain this is that as I dream it I just know that it is me.
I am standing outside what I assume is my hut when a cry goes up on the other side of the village. I rush over to see what the noise was and find that a young girl has become deathly sick overnight. It is apparent that without medical attention she will die. The problem is that the closest hospital is over a hundred miles away through the jungle where there are no roads. Without hesitation I pick the child up and put her on my shoulders and begin to run.
I run with this little girl on my shoulders for over a hundred miles through the thickest jungle imaginable nonstop until finally we arrive at the hospital.
With this the dream ends.
Who We Truly Are
This may seem like just a crazy dream to you but the first time I had it I awoke knowing exactly what it meant and what it was meant to teach me. The only reason I can account for the fact that it has recurred so many times is that I have not truly learned this lesson.
There are three main things to notice about this dream:
- The person I am in this dream is someone whom I could never become on my own. I could never grow another two feet and put on all that muscle, let alone grow all that hair (or even a simple goatee).
- The dream takes place in a place I have never been before. Furthermore, it is an environment where even the eight foot version of myself is not in control of what happens. On the Savannah, you are entirely at the mercy of nature.
- The things that I do in this dream are things that I could never do. Even an eight foot superhuman me could not run a hundred miles in the African heat carrying a child.
These things alone are not important nor do they constitute a lesson or message from God. People have dreams about flying all the time which would certainly be very similar in these three respects. The important thing here, the thing I woke up knowing this dream to be about is this:
God wants to make me into the kind of person I could never be on my own, take me places where I could not go on my own, and use me to do things I could never do on my own.
Sound weird? It is. It is both completely insane and absolutely normal all at the same time. But it’s not just me that God wants to do this with. It’s everyone.
If there are any psychologists out there who would be willing to try and interpret this, please be my guest and contact me at the website on page ___.
The abundance of hair should be noted twice. Not only because in my dream I am covered in body hair with my head hair reaching down my back, but because in real life I could not grow a beard that could compete with that of a seventh grade boy even if I had a month.
I’d like to note that I don’t AT ALL mean that God wants to make you wealthy. He wants to make YOU into something more, not make you some more money. The thinking that God intends to make his followers lots of money assumes that who we are has ANYTHING to do with how much crap we have, which is bullshit, of course.
