Happy Tuesday!

I had some of the weirdest dreams of my life last night. Cant remember them all… I just know that I woke up very stressed this morning. In one of the dreams, I sitting with a group of people as another person watching Chuck Balsamo as someone pulled a tasteless prank on ME with a water hose in a muddy field.

Everyone was laughing at me while I was running from the hose and slipping in the mud… it was nighttime. The person pranking me was relentless and I could not get away no matter what direction I ran. In fact, as I started getting out of reach from the hose… sprinklers started popping up! Then it happened, I snapped and said a bad word… and everyone went CRAZY. I could hear people saying, “What did he SAY? I can’t believe he would talk like that… I have no respect for a person like that!”

The weirdest part of the dream was that I was not me, but I was another person hanging out with the group watching me! I remember thinking, come on Chuck hold it together. Every few moments I would enter into my body and FEEL my emotions… and the pressure in my chest. Once I even felt tears running down my cheeks as the night breeze blew across my face. I was running and sliding… so confused, I could not find a way off of this muddy field.

The last thing I remember was that I was running around some large beautiful house from the backyard where I apparently was, to the front yard… and I got out of reach from the hose and the sprinklers… and I started crying because I had cracked under pressure. I remember feeling my heart thumping like a drum… and thinking so many bad things about myself. I was all alone and up against the house in the dark at the corner of the front yard. Then I woke up in the middle of the night with a deep sense of hopelessness.

This was not the only dream I had like this last night… there were others that I cannot remember enough details to record. Each dream was just as painful and abusive as the first one. I woke up at my usual 5am wake up time so exhausted and troubled that I fell back to sleep… and slept later than I have in several months, waking up at 7:57 feeling like I could sleep for a few more days.

Do you guys ever dream like this? Dreams that are so intense they alter your physiological state! I woke up feeling like I had just witnessed a bloody crime scene and I wanted the images to go away!

Sometimes life feels like this doesn’t it… just like last nights nightmare… a tasteless prank with a water hose on a muddy field @ night! There are times when life is cruel and even violent. Times when no matter what direction we turn, there is no visible way off the muddy field. In slow motion all we see are falling drops, each one muddying the field more and more… we slide and fall and fight to maintain our character… slamming to the ground, losing our wind, climbing back to our feet… soiled with mud. We know that we are being watched, especially in our darkest moments. We know that people are waiting for us to slip up and give them a reason to hate.

Jeremiah 20:10 I have heard the many rumors about me. They call me “The Man Who Lives in Terror.” They threaten, “If you say anything, we will report it.” Even my old friends are watching me, waiting for a fatal slip. “He will trap himself,” they say, “and then we will get our revenge on him.”

If we just keep running… even if we fail to do this perfectly, we will STUMBLE upon a pathway that leads to a new place. If you’re living my nightmare today, remember this: nights don’t last forever… the sun will rise over you again! And as I ended at the front corner of a beautiful house… on a soft grassy front yard… so you too will be brought from the BACK to the FRONT! You will live beyond this… you will not only SURVIVE, but you will THRIVE in a place of new beginnings.

Psalm 23
A psalm of David.

1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,

3 he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.

4 Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, [a]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.

6 Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.

I hope todays blog adds tremendous value to your amazing lives. You guys are making such a big difference in this world… so don’t get discouraged… stay with the Good Shepherd and HE WILL SURELY LEAD YOU TO THE GREENEST PASTURES EVER!

I just finished praying for you… with lots of GRATITUDE… thanks for being here! Have a most outstanding day!