I joined an internet forum and for a year or so, I participated on almost a daily basis--having a blast; socializing, joking, talking about my favorite subjects, having fun, and bashing Christians. These were good times, indeed.
There were 2 Christians on the forum I had regular discussions with. 1 was named Protosis, and the other was Beetlegunz. Protosis was a loud, outspoken, arrogant, hostile Christian who shouted everyone down. Anyone who dared to cross his path and question him was given a round of insults, Scripture, and kicked out of the way. Most of the forum was regularly dishing it back at him and it was kind of a frenzy. I handled him differently. I wasn't threatened by him at all, but rather, intrigued. I asked him crazy questions and gave him crazy answers to his questions. I was playing with him, but truly in fun. The other guy beetlegunz was a nice, calm Christian who was there to evangelize. He didn't present any harm and never argued, so I would participate in some discussion with him, tell him his beliefs were rather silly, but I otherwise considered him an ok guy.
Somewhere around or before this time, I watched a couple of movies that really resonated with me. I love sci-fi. And I always wondered, above everything else, how all this came about and why. The 2 movies that I really cared for were,
The Thirteenth Floor and
The Matrix. Both movies depicted our world as a digital hologram... a virtual reality. I thought it made sense. I thought it made a lot of sense.
Anyway, so, we all knew each other well at the forum and most of us had been there for years. We decided we should meet each other, (It goes without saying that Protosis was not included in this discussion). We tried to think of a reasonable, central location to meet, here in the States. We'd all meet at a bar, toss down some cocktails and beers, and pat each other on the back; put a face to the name as it were. We planned to meet in Chicago. I was in Indiana and could drive there in just a few hours, so it was really cool with me. We were getting close to setting a date.
A strange feeling came over me. It was foreign to me, and I didn't really understand it. But I couldn't shake it. It was an ominous feeling. I couldn't even decide if it was a bad feeling or a good feeling. I just knew that something major was going to happen. Something Earth-shattering. I told the folks on the forum what I was experiencing. I concluded that it was something subconscious telling me that a major event would take place when all of us got together in Chicago. It had to have something to do with that meeting. I couldn't think of anything else I had plans for any time soon, so that had to be it. The folks on the forum, the ones with kind of an open mind at least, agreed. This intrigued me a great deal and I
really looked forward to this meeting.
Sometime later, I was on the forum, skimming through messages, and I came across that day's message from Protosis. I couldn't wait to read it because by this point, I was loving his messages. They made me laugh. HE made me laugh. I mean, what a character, eh? He was literally screaming at everyone all the time, "the Father!" this and "the Son" that... and all the while insulting people for their disbelief. He was like something out of a movie. I had never seen anything like it. I finally had gotten to the point where I considered his antics as pure entertainment. So anyway, I came across this post of his and opened it up immediately. In his message he was recounting an experience he had that day. He had no money, so he rode the bus all the time. That day, on the bus, he felt inspired. So, he set down his backpack, pulled his trusty bible out of it, and stood up. The bus was moving from stop to stop, but all the while, there was Protosis, loudly proclaiming the Word of God, reading Scripture from his bible! Protosis said he was very disappointed that so many people on the bus were telling him to stop and screaming at him. He said that he turned to them and told them to sit down and shut up. And he would then proceed to read more from the bible.
Needless to say, I was stunned. I'm one to always visualize what I read, so I was visualizing the entire episode. Again, it was like something straight out of a movie. I pictured the whole thing in my mind. I was really taken back by this. It's like, the thought of it pierced my very soul. Here was this Christian, this guy, that didn't fit the mold I had established for
all Christians. He was the real deal. A true believer. I sat there for a while and just took it all in. Though I shook my head in "disbelief," I knew... I just knew.. this guy wasn't lying. He really did that. It blew my mind. I still thought of him as pretty much a comical nut, but still. At least he wasn't a fraud. I was going to have to update my personal definition of what it means to be Christian.
Later, I had a dream. Not just your normal dream; you know, those dreams that you wake up, and say "What a weird dream," and you try to recall it and get just bits and pieces. No, this was a dream for the record books. I couldn't get it out of my mind. I decided I would tell the forum about it. Here is how the dream went:
- I entered what looked like a regular classroom like in a school. The classroom was filled with people, mostly adults, and the only thing different about it was, there was a stained glass window on a side wall, near the teacher's desk at the front of the class. I only knew one person in the class and that was an ex-coworker/friend/mentor of mine. He was my supervisor at a previous job and we became good friends. His name was Danny. So other than Danny, I didn't know anyone there. Behind me was a relatively short guy, about 5'2" with long blonde hair, who wore a tattered, flannel shirt. To the left of me was a big African American guy... not much taller than me, maybe about 5'11", but he was huge. He could have been a football player. And in walks the teacher. Interestingly, I never saw the teacher. But the class stood at attention, and the teacher announced that our homework for tonight was going to be to memorize some verses from 2 Timothy 2. Immediately the big guy to my left rolled his eyes and grumbled. The guy behind me, the short blonde haired guy, asked the big guy, "What's the problem?" The big guy said it was so difficult to memorize all these verses. The little blonde glared at him and said in a raised voice, "WHAT? You can't even be bothered to memorize a few verses? I could stand here and recite the ENTIRE book of 2 Timothy 2! Right now! So stop your complaining!"
I was thinking... whoa, dude. Calm down... and then the little blonde directed his attention at me. I was a little frightened, to tell you the truth. With a disgusted look on his face, he set his eyes on me and shouted in an angry tone, "And YOU! What are YOU doing here!!!" At first I didn't know what to say. But, I looked at him straight in the face and in a quivering voice, I said, softly, "I... I'm here to learn." The little blonde walked up to me and made a gesture like he wanted to whisper something in my ear. I bent down to listen, and what came out was just some weird, high pitched tone. Nothing else.
The next thing I knew, I was flat on my back in the class room. I looked up to see the people in the classroom gathered around me, looking down at me. The little blonde dude was kneeling above me, his knee pressed down against my chest. He let down a lock of his hair. When the lock sort of unrolled or uncurled over my face, some liquid dripped down. It dripped right into my mouth which I was holding wide open. Drip... drip... drip...
And that's it. That was the dream. But it was a powerful dream. This one, like no other, I could remember from start to finish, and all the details in between. So I decided to share the dream with the folks on the forum. I was curious about it and wanted their opinion.
... to be continued....
