Remembering my prison sentence

Photo courtesy of Gipics

I have recurring dreams. There are two or three of them that recur every few years. One involves walking, then running, then losing contact with the ground and flying or leaping in huge, light bounds. Another of them involves a mad scientist using giant flies to turn the whole world into excrement. Not sure of the meaning (if there is any) to those dreams, but the subject of today's post is a third recurrent dream.

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Every so often I have this strange, unsettling dream in which I remember being imprisoned as a teenager for a year for having gotten in a fight and hit the wrong guy - some VIP's son or something. The particularly disturbing part is the fact that the dream/memory is so vivid that upon waking it seems as if the memory remains. I dreamed this dream this morning, and when I woke I had to spend a couple of hours perusing my memories of those years trying to figure out if I'd really been in prison or not. Again, I'm not sure of any meaning to this dream, but it reminds me of Paul's constant reference to servitude and imprisonment, both corporeal and spiritual, throughout the New Testament. For example:

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Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? (Romans 6:16; ESV)

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For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. (1Corinthians 9:19f; ESV)

Patrick Parker, is a Christian, husband, father, judo and aikido teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282

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