Have you ever received encouragement from a nightmare? It doesn’t seem that those two words – encouragement and nightmare deserve to be in the same sentence. But maybe we are too quick to judge those encounters. When we awake from those awful nightmares, we often pass them off as horror films and want to forget them as quickly as we can without attempting to wonder what the experience could mean or teach us.
This last week I had one of those nightmares. Wow! It was a tough one to get through, but in the end it provided peace and encouragement.
My worst fear is falling from a cliff or some sort of frightful edge. Whenever I’ve closely approached an unguarded edge my heart rate spikes and my respirations multiply to twice the normal rate. My hands get clammy and my stomach churns. It’s enough to give me the heebie jeebies just thinking about it.
You can probably guess where this is leading in context of a nightmare, but let me give you some background into my perilous subconscious incident. A group of 5 or 6 women, including myself, began piling into a Suburban. Some aspects of the dream are hazy as they often are. I wasn’t particularly good friends with any of these women but we had a destination in common so someone suggested car pooling. For whatever reason, (another hazy detail) the vehicle’s owner wasn’t wanting to drive and one of the other women volunteered. The driver made a wrong turn and we found ourselves in a one lane small private parking area behind a home. Unfortunately, the home rested very high on a tall, steep cliff with the severe drop off at the edge of the paved parking area. The Suburban was a larger vehicle than the driver was accustomed to. She began to inch the vehicle backward, but it was soon obvious she was nervous about backing her way to the street. As soon as the pavement widened just a bit, she began to attempt to cramp the wheel to turn the vehicle around. I was nervous…but not to the point of panicking…yet. However, as the minutes went by, my body began to react. I felt my jaw clench and I grabbed onto another passenger’s hand with my sweat drenched one. And then, as I could feel us inching closer to the cliff, full panic set in. I clenched my teeth, held my breath and squeezed my eyes shut tightly. Intuition told me disaster was eminent. The other women gasped and screamed as my stomach parachuted upward and I felt the stability of ground disappear. We had just gone over the cliff.
The fall seemed to be geared in slow motion, taking much longer than it would have in real life. We cried out to God. I can’t remember my specific prayer but I can still feel the intensity of it, even now. I began to sing the first song that came to me – “Jesus Loves Me”- and the other women joined in. I was less scared of dying than I was of mass injuries and pain. The singing helped keep my mind off the terrible thoughts of crashing. In a dream – where all things are possible – the Surburban zigzagged as if floating through the air. This continued until the last few seconds before impact. It then took a direct vertical descent to the ground. We held our breath as we prepared for the massive, jolting crash. I wondered if this would be my last conscious breath before impact. But then impact came with a totally unrealistic surprise – a soft and easy landing; less noticeable than a plane coming in on a smooth runway. The spectators on the ground were as awestruck as we were.
I couldn’t imagine why or for what purpose I had had this completely unrealistic nightmare. Wide awake now, I lied in the darkness and pondered the aspects of the dream. It had involved my worst fear. We thought we were all doomed to die a horrid death or at the least, terrible injuries. Yet, we were calmed by bringing God into the situation and knowing that Jesus loves us. Lastly, He had brought us safely through.
As I thought about it, that is what I would learn from this very unpleasant experience. This nightmare had placed me in the worst situation with my most dreaded fear, yet when the women cried out to God – He was there extending His hand to help us. I know Bible verses, like Psalm 136:12 and Isaiah 41:10. He acted like a strong hand and powerful arm and I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. But, sometimes it takes a visual to grasp the full meaning. This is a visual that I’m not to forget soon and I’m grateful for that.
I came to understand that night how “nightmare” and “encouragement” aren’t necessarily an oxymoron and how there’s a life lesson in most everything.
Until next time – keep on readin’ and I’ll keep on writin’.