I Interpreted My Dream

I had a two-part dream last week. You know, where you dream about something one night and the next night your dream is like a sequel to the dream you had the night before? Yeah. I had one of those. Furthermore, I think an allusion to Christianity could be made with my dream. All things point to Him, right? Let me tell you my dream first.

Part I
The dream first started off with my mom and I cruising down some country road in our car. She was driving. When we came to a "T" intersection, for some reason she didn't stop. We drove right past the stop sign. We were heading for death. At this moment, a big truck came through the intersecting road and hit us.

So you're thinking now, they're dead either way! No. This was where the noteworthy part of the dream started.

When the truck t-boned us, instead of killing us anyways, it saved us from death. For some reason, when the truck made contact, our car didn't get destroyed. Instead our car bounces off the truck and started floating sideways. Friction was totally unaccounted for in this moment. Our car just floated sideways down the road. This went on for who knows how long, and then finally we stopped. In a town somewhere. Although we didn't die from the accident, I had a terrible headache. I told my mom something (which I forgot) and then I left the car. I then randomly entered a building. There was a big black dog in this building. Vicious. It took me a second to realize that I was in grave danger, but by then it was too late. Before I even had time to react, the dog came at me. It clamped down on my left arm with its powerful teeth. I tried shaking it off, punching it in the head, nothing worked. I was done. At this point I woke up with my heart pounding.

Part II
This night, my dream brought me to the same building again. Upon entering, I saw the same black dog. But this time, it was turned around facing the other way. For some reason I walked further in. The dog continued to ignore me. Since the dog was ignoring me, I contemplated about how to kill it. There was a door to the side of the dog. I thought I'd kill the animal by luring through the door and then crush its head by closing the door. Proceeding with my plan, I stepped into the adjacent room. With the door halfway open and the door knob in my hand, I whistled. The dog perked up and turned around. It began to run towards me. Before I realize it, it was past the door and to the side of me! I thought I was gonna "die" for the second night in a row. To my surprise though, instead of killing me, the dog began to lick my hand and wagging its tail. I woke up confused.

Analysis
I believe my two-part dream was symbolic for my fear of death. In the Part I, I thought I was going to die. I mean, that usually happens when you get t-boned by a semi going at full speed, right? Yeah, but death probably doesn't turn out the way we think it does. Instead of being painful or something scary, "death" result in me floating away in my car...? It doesn't make much sense, but neither do a lot of things in life if you think about it. Therefore, I think, whenever we die, whatever happens is probably not going to make a lot of sense.

So, the part with the dog. I think the black dog symbolized death, seeing how it killed me... It further symbolizes death because I feared it. I fear death. The first night it got the best of me. Second night around though, death surprised me. Again. Instead of completely demolishing me, death licked my hand and wagged its tail. What?

I think the point of my dream was that, death should not be feared. Well, I guess one would fear it if they know they're going to hell. But for me, as a personally lesson, I should really let go of this irrational fear. All that dying means is that I'll be with God. Quite awesome when you think about it.

I Wanna Do Things Right for Once

I read an interesting quote couple days ago. Here's two variations of it:

"Practice makes permanent." --Bobby Robson

"Practice does not make perfect, practice makes permanent, only perfect practice makes perfect." --Norton Juster

Unfortunately the Internet isn't always 100% accurate, so my apologies if the proper person/persons is not given credit for this quote.


Anyways,

There's a cliche view of practice. The word practice generally has a positive connotation. Without too much thinking, I would say practice is good because practice equals getting better at something. If you think about it though, practice can be bad. There is such a thing.

What if you practice sinning?

You would get better at it wouldn't you?

Wouldn't it become permanent?

I know I'm a master of sinning. Whether I like it or not, I practice it way too much. In fact, I'm so good at it it has become a habit. Second nature. Sometimes I sin without even realizing what I'm doing.

I cannot break this permanence. This permanence of sin.

God can.

I'm back!

My apologies to anyone out there that have been reading my blog. I had been on a hiatus last month due to winter break. I really have no excuse for my non-posting. I was just being lazy. It was wrong on my part to be lazy....yes, yes it was.

Anyways, I wanna start off my postingness by introducing to y'all a C.S. Lewis quote which has lots of meaning for me. It is from the book Mere Christianity. In the chapter on Social Morality, he writes:

"You will find this again and again about anything that is really Christian: every one is attracted by bits of it and wants to pick out those bits and leave the rest. That is why we do not get much further: and that is why people who are fighting for quite opposite things can both say they are fighting for Christianity."

This quote has a lot of "stuff" to it, so to speak. First of I really like how he states that every one is attracted to bits and pieces of Christianity. "Every one" would include non-Christians in this context I believe. This is true, don't you think? If you happened to bust out a verse such as Exodus 20:15 (Ten Commandments) or something, wouldn't it be likely that you'll find people of various religions and even atheists agreeing with you? I mean, i'm sure the motive to not steal would be different for each person, but in the general sense people would find this verse agreeable.

Of course though, that verse would only be agreeable if it is not in the context of the bible, which brings us to my second point. The "every one" in the quote includes Christians, as well. When I read this line, a redlight popped up in my head. Stop. Is this something that I'm doing? Yea, it is. I could really be quoting the "nice" verses all day; not so much the harsh ones. An example would be John 3:16 versus 1 John 2:15. The former is the good news that God cares about us and allows us to achieve salvation through Jesus (cool!), but the latter tells us that if we love anything worldly, we cannot love God (ouch!). So.......it would be optimal for you to think about this point in regards to you own life before you read on, although it is really optional.



Thinking yet?






Okay, third point! the words "that is why we do not get much further" pretty much tells us that, you know, if you only stay with the stuff you like, you'll be forever be a lukewarm Christian. I've read and heard many things that talks about being "totally on fire for Christ" or "I'm a fervent Christian!" But really, what are you fired up about? It really does feel good to be totally on fire about Christ's love for us, but there's more. Until you're excited about being a Christian that lives in a sinful world, being persecuted for your faith, and totally happy about giving up your love for wordly things, you won't get much further. Nothing wrong with liking the bits and pieces of Christianity, but there is something wrong with not growing in Christ.

The last line in this quote talks about fighting for opposite things but all the while fighting for Christianity. Example: whether we're fighting to accept the fact that God loves us or fighting to accept the fact that God has infinite wrath, in both cases we're fighting to become a better Christian, right? God is multi-dimensional to say the least, and resultantly some of the dimensions are gonna be different ends of a spectrum.

Today, let the journey be renewed. Let's pick up more of the bits and pieces of Christianity, but this time, let's pick up the nice and the harsh. Especially the stuff that doesn't appeal to us. Sin did not appeal to God, but He still picked us up as sinners.