Being chased by Jimmie “J.J.” Walker

Yesterday’s sermon focused on Joseph. We looked at the Christmas story from Matthew 1:18-25. I wanted people to consider how much faith Joseph must have had. After all, he was asked to believe that Mary, his betrothed, was pregnant, not by another man, but by the Spirit of God. And we modern-day Bible readers may respond, “Yes, but an angel told him. An angel!” Sure, if an angel appeared and told us something, then believing it would be no big deal.

To which I say, “Yes, but it happened in a dream!” What are our dreams like? Mine are often crazy, ridiculous, and unsettling. I often wake up and feel great relief that I was only dreaming. It was only a dream. I can tell myself that it doesn’t mean anything. Joseph, by contrast, had a crazy dream and, unlike me, he didn’t dismiss it. He believed that God was communicating something important to him through it. That’s faith!

I asked people in the congregation to text me their strangest or funniest dreams. The responses were hilarious. They are as follows:

• I was Superman chasing a bear through my elementary school so he wouldn’t hurt anybody.
• I have dreamt multiple times about a giant ladybug biting my arms off.
• I dreamed that J.J. Walker, from the TV show Good Times, was chasing me.
• A gorilla was my babysitter, and it ate me… I have had this dream a million times.
• I had a dream that my two friends, my mom, and my aunt were on a game show and I jumped onto a platform and my head fell off.
• I had a dream that I was on a water slide. Then I fell off like 1,000 feet and woke up.
• I once dreamed that Timon and Pumbaa (from Lion King) and I were being chased by Scar (also from Lion King) in an eighteen-wheeler in a volcano.
• I once had a dream that there were wolves running through my house trying to kill my family and me. My mom also had this dream the same night.
• I was being chased by huge glowing green dice on a game board with trees. And I was a Barbie doll.
• Godzilla came to Atlanta.
• My most vivid dream is when I am being chased through the woods by snakes! Then I jump from the cliff and fly.
• My weirdest dream ever is: One day I was walking then I fell in a hole and it was like a slide. So I came out flying in the air, and I landed in a dinosaur’s mouth. The I was stuck in his stomach, so I started his insides with a stick. Then I made a hole and I got out, yelling, “I AM VICTORIOUS!” Then a volcano went off, and I got hit by a rock that was on fire… Then I woke up >:)
• I had a dream where there was a building shaped like an evil doll that took me on an elevator to different levels of rooms that had monsters and ghosts. It was really scary.
• I had a dream that Jesus Christ was my brother in H.S. and he was awesome!
• An alien ate me.