A Wake Up Call

I took a small nap and suddenly, without warning, the dream began.

I was back in youth, with a mixture of people, mostly ones I didn’t know. They were all ages, small toddlers to adults, and it seemed like the setting was most like the school grounds of Salem Valley Christian School. There was a portion of land with a fence around it, because for some reason we’d been warned to stay out of that certain area. (Dreams always have missing pieces.)

We were all playing a game together. I don’t have any idea what it was, or if everyone was playing. I only know that we’d been asked to stay out of the fenced area. However, some people paid no mind to the warning. They crashed through the fenced off land, never hearing the pleas to stop. I’d heard that there was dangerous animals and anything else imaginable in the fenced off area. I was worried. Wasn’t this going to cause trouble? So I decided to just stand at the gate of the fence and call out that it was dangerous and it would be better to get out of the fenced area. All I received was a few disgusted “you’re so dumb and annoying” looks, while most people completely ignored me. Some walked right past me, others pushed and jostled their way around me. It would’ve hurt if it was just my other youth friends, but it hurt even worse when I noticed most of the adults giving me blank cold stares. While being swept along with the mob of people, I felt someone reach from behind and grab me.

That’s of course where I woke up. But it’s just been hanging in my mind. What were we doing? Where was respect? Was I part of the problem?

It was so disturbing to realize no one even cared if there were rules in place. Everyone just did whatever they thought was best. Their better judgement said that the fenced off area could be entered, so they did. Are we more like them than we think? Is it easy to pass off encouragements about phone use, reaching out to others, or denying ourselves just because we think we’re doing fine? Even just plain old respect. We laugh at others, (of course behind their backs), because they’ll never know. What we don’t know, is that someone one else’s ears heard us laugh, and now they’ve decided it’s ok to laugh too. We say, “You just don’t understand. We’re fine”, or “I need to be on my phone for ___ “ Maybe. But if someone asked us to bring something to their house for Sunday lunch, would we flat out refuse? Of course not. Can we justly refuse small encouragements from others then? Can we accept and respect what others tell us, and leave behind the example of listening and not passing on what we find ‘unique’ ?

Again, I don’t know why this dream came to me. Maybe it was just for me. I know I haven’t always heeded the warnings. But please, especially if someone asks you to respect something or someone, let’s do it. Don’t make someone else stand on the brink of dangerous territory warning you, while you feel you have better judgment and do things your way instead.

“Let it be more of Jesus, less of me;

I’ll get more than my share of glory when I live eternally.

Let me hide behind the cross of Calvary, so the world can always see,

More and more of Jesus, less of me.”