Do you ever have strange dreams? I do . . .

In this early morning’s dream I met a woman whose last name was the same as mine. As I commented on the name, she introduced me to her husband and his last name was identical to mine. It was an odd sensation because all of the circumstances surrounding him were seemingly identical to mine, just that he had been born and lived in another state. As we talked, he gave me a Memorex replay of things that had occured in my life, only it had happened to him. Had my dream been accompanied by background music, at that point it would have been the  dodododododododo of the Twilight Zone theme song.

It was kind of like looking in a mirror and the image you see does everything you do, but it lagged behind your movements. If you’ve ever seen a television journalist in a remote location and he’s reporting by cell phone image, the image is often jerky like an old fashion movie and his mouth moves but the words follow by several seconds. That was the sensation.

While talking and listening to my dream counterpart, I distinctly remember breathing a proverbial sigh of relief that the fellow wasn’t a scumbag, or an idiot, or a slaggard. I knew that he was me, though in the dream he wasn’t.

Strange. Even stranger were my thoughts as I woke and the verse I read:

Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.  (1 Timothy 4:12)

Did the Jesus Lord give me a preview of the Joe Carr Life Movie?

My sense of relief that the dream Joe had done well was palpable. My waking thought was “do I measure up?” Then to come across the Timothy passage . . .

I struggle to understand how I can make a difference in the Kingdom (because he keeps telling me that I do/will). My dream seems to indicate that at least I haven’t blown it. That alone was worth the dream.

But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life. (1 Timothy 1:16, emphasis mine)