Dreame

When thou knew'st what I dreamt, when thou knew'st when
Excesse of joy would wake me, and cam'st then,
I must confesse, it could not chuse but bee
Prophane, to thinke thee anything but thee.

-"The Dreame", John Donne

I have been waking up from some strange dreams lately. Every once in a while that happens. I will have such a vivid dream, one that I wake up from so it feels real, and it takes all morning to shake it. I tend to have dreams in categories like genres of movies. They are usually action/adventure, but in my dreams I am brave and do not fear whatever danger is lurking. I run a lot in my dreams, and I never seem to get tired. Are these dreams perhaps an exaggerated version of how I feel sometimes in my life?

I don't feel as brave in real life as I am in my dreams. I have dreams where I am chasing (or being chased by) bad guys who want to do me harm. I have dreams that are like puzzles, where I am lost in a tall building and every turn I take brings me to more turns and similar looking halls, but no way out. And the worst dream of all, where I was at the airport about to fly to London, and I got to the counter realizing that I forgot my passport at home. That is what I call a nightmare.

I just don't know what to make of dreams. Sometimes I will have a good, happy dream and I will wish that to happen in real life. But usually they are about bad guys trying to get me. Perhaps this is part of the spiritual forces of evil that can creep in anywhere to feed fear into me by whatever means. We are all exposed to the evil forces all the time, so why would we be perfectly safe in our dreams?

Paul writes to the Ephesians about wearing an armor of God at all times, so that we can stand up against those schemes of the devil because we are in a spiritual battle. He writes:

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, stand firm. (Ephesians 6. 12-13)