Have you ever had a vivid dream?

Have you ever had a really bad dream? One so vivid you feel as if you can't catch your breath because it feels so real?  Have you ever woken up in a cold sweat, and jolting awake because you were falling from a large height?

Dreams can often cause us to question reality.  Sometimes we wake up thinking that we just experienced something that we don't remember actually happening.  We can wake up mad at someone because in our dreams they did something to hurt us.  We can spend days upset with them, not understanding why we feel so strongly but feeling like we have a really good reason.

Dreams.  Dreaming.  Oh man, a lot of us have vivid dreams.  Some are great.  Some, not so great.  I remember this one reoccurring dream I had a couple years back.  I would be having a great day.  Things would be really great, but at the end of every dream, someone I loved died.  Someone I cared about.  I would always wake up sad.  Felt like I was depressed, and I didn't know why.  Everything was great at home, with my friends, at school.  My relationship with God was awesome, but for some reason I was always on the verge of tears.  A few weeks later I was driving home from a youth thing with my friend.  She was talking about these dreams she was having about angels and how she thought she actually saw a couple one morning.  I then told her about my dreams.  She was like, "Jessi, maybe that is why you are so sad.  Maybe its because you are grieving the loss of people in your dreams."  I realized then that my dreams really affected my life.  I would let an idea or imagination help shape my day.  I would wake up upset because of this alternate reality that my sub-conscience was believing.

What is your sub-conscience saying to you?  What are your dreams about?  Do you think they hold meaning?  Perhaps its just portraying what you are truly afraid of, or maybe what you deeply desire.  For me, it was portraying my deepest fears.  Everyone leaving.  Me... all alone.  That scared me to death.  But the truth of the matter was, no one was gone.  They were all there but I was allowing the reality in my dreams to affect how I interacted daily.  Instead of enjoying time with them, I was sad when I was around them.  Feeling a disconnect.

Dreams hold so much weight. Sometimes.  Other times they are crazy and absurd.  Like when you realize you are dreaming and it makes you laugh and then you try and fly, cause in a dream, you can.  I woke up one morning after dreaming I had gotten married.  I woke up to the sound of the shower running, there was a ring on my left hand, and I sat up in bed with a jolt because I had no idea who I had married!!! Then I chuckled when I realized that my mom had turned my shower on, to warm it up, the ring on my hand was the promise ring my dad had given me when I was 16, and in fact, I was not married, but a senior in high school, sitting in my room in my parents house.  What a relief!!

So have you ever had a dream?  Have you ever woken up trying to decide what was reality?  Have you ever been so affected by a dream that it took you days to figure out the truth?  Have you ever dreamt the same thing over and over again?  Have you ever?