Dreams of a Different Kind

Typically I'm all for late night movie nights with the guy from down the shore, but tonight I hesitated saying yes to a midnight screening when I learned the film we'd be watching has zombies in it.  I'm not a huge fan of zombies, in general - and especially not when I have to walk a quarter mile down the shore - by myself - through patches of woodsy areas in the complete dark.  

Reluctantly I agreed and then spooked myself mad on the walk there, before we had even watched the scary movie.  I probably would have been okay with vampires, but zombies dig up my childhood, when I use to dream that zombies would come out of the lake and come after me. 

In chapter 9 of my book I explain...

My dreams as a child were inspired by Michael Jackson.  They were nightmares, actually.  After viewing Jackson’s Thriller video at the age of four, I couldn’t quite seem to get those zombie-like monsters out of my subconscious mind.  They frequently came after me in the middle of the night when I should have been dreaming about more pleasant things, such as Candy Mountain, My Little Ponies, or the day I would go to Disney World and meet Minnie Mouse.

Sometime around 2^nd grade I told my dad about the nightmares and he instructed me, “The next time you have a one, I want you to say, ‘I rebuke you Satan.  In the name of Jesus I command you to leave.’”  I didn’t know what the word rebuke meant, but the very next time those zombies came around I rebuked them in the name of Jesus and it worked like a charm.  All the Thriller-like zombies scattered and I haven’t had a nightmare since.  

* Excerpt from I Hate Books on Christian Dating

Thankfully the zombie movie wasn't too scary and the over arching theme stressed the importance of relationships and connectivity.  In fact, the message of the film almost felt Christian - a reminder that when we stray from being who God has designed us to be, life has the potential to be a zombie-like hell.  But when we are in good relationships with one another, there is a richness to our life experiences.  In this film many of the zombies transform, becoming human as they learn to love and feel once more.

On my walk home, rather than being spooked by what might come out of the lake or out of the woods, I stared at stars in the sky and listened to the lake's sound track of the waves gently lapping the shore - thankful to be fully alive.