It's coming on Christmas, they're cutting down trees...

I'm not exactly sure what to write in this post. Normally I wait until something inspiring hits me in the face and then I expel my thoughts onto the keyboard, which transfers it to the screen, which transfers it out into the cyber world where you and I eventually brush fingertips and sensational ideas.

This post is merely in the interest of keeping an updated blog.

I did have a wicked awesome dream, though:

I don’t remember if it was a theme park like Disnelyand or if it was a kooky organization sponsored event geared toward cult propaganda and like-minded conversion, because it started out as the latter and concluded as the former. But Matt, Gregory, Natalie and I were at this park and for some reason I didn’t want to buy a ticket to be able to ride on the rides or see the shows, so we spent much of our time dodging ticket sellers and even swimming through ponds to get to the other side of the park so that we could get into places for free. I think I had some moral dilemma about paying this organization for any entertainment and mostly I wanted to sabotage their event.

Then, while we were waiting in line for a ride that seemed like Splash Mountain, we were wondering how we were going to get around the ticket taker. We got to the front of the line and saw there was no way around her, so we went back into the line and looked around for alternate escape routes. But everything had chicken wire or barbed wire or chain links surrounding it. We would have to try to climb the fence inconspicuously without getting caught. Well, on the other side of the little garden courtyard that divided this Splash Mountain line into two queues, there was a tree. So Nat, Gregory, Matt and I went up to the bridge at the top of the line to get to the tree on the other side. I think I signed something to Matt about how we could use the tree in our escape route. But then, a bunch of hooded figures came out onto the grass in the garden between the lines. They were creepy, medieval looking folks with bows and arrows, while the authority figure carried a crossbow. They started talking to everyone in the lines about how sign language was an evil mechanism and that it was only meant for people with no soul. They said they could feel someone in their presence using sign language, that was when they zeroed in on us. This authority figure said he was going to kill all four of us so that we’d learn our lesson.

All four of us had congregated around the tree at this point, so Matt and Gregory hid behind separate trunks of the tree (it had a split trunk), Nat hid behind Gregory and I hid behind Matt. We were all so scared. I don’t know why everybody else in line was doing nothing but we sat there for a second, awaiting a terrible doom. It was here that I started praying saying, “Father, please watch over us.” Immediately, a distinct character came to my mind: Samuel the Lamanite.

Whoosh! What a rush, eh? I felt so inspired and encouraged and strong and relieved. I knew we would be okay. I said to the others, “Guys, I know for a fact that their arrows will not hit us.” And they all took courage and we braced for the worst.

All at once, arrows came flying towards us, whizzed by our tucked in arms and faces. I felt my hair get whipped back as arrows swept past my head. This went on for a long, long time, yet it was exhilarating, and almost in slow motion, like a moment from an action movie only with arrows instead of bullets and a creepy cult instead of covert assassins.

Then it was done. None of us had even been grazed.

(Perhaps I'm a softy for the philosophical, nay, theologically pregnant blog posts. And yet it's the only thing I can bring myself to write with any purpose in this sort of situation. I am not writing for myself, I am writing for you. What is the most important information I can give you? Generally it is pertaining to the divine, unless I'm feeling particularly egocentric).

What a wonderful dream, eh? I don't believe I've ever had revelation in a dream, and yet I took it so clearly and used it so boldly that I cannot ignore the instance. Right now I find myself barely keeping my proverbial head above the metaphoric water. I'm not sure where I'm going, why things happen, or what's to become of me. But I do know that all too often I lose sight of the most important truth to keep me grounded in the hubbub of life: God will keep our ultimate happiness His first priority. We cannot fail when we turn to him.

When we lose our lives for the Lord's sake, we find it. We find it.

Oh what a test of patience it can be to step back from our many worries and remember that this is life eternal: that we might know God and Jesus Christ. When we do that, our lives become more productive, more meaningful, richer, and happier.

So I say--while I'm stressing over my grades, my finances, my dating life, my future--I think I'm going to take the night off from my worries, say a hearty prayer, and go to bed.