A Dream that I Had

I had a nightmare a couple days ago.

I was in a large building and it was full of people. I don't know what we were doing there but suddenly the door bursts open and masked men with guns appear.

Their leader yells, "Fifteen of you will die. Choose amongst yourselves."

Immediately, panic breaks out.

For some odd reason, this building is combination of rococo architecture and futuristic design.

People run into plastic pods and are immediately suctioned away somewhere, escaping our captors.

I don't remember running, but I end up in an enormous room with many many doors on each side. It had varnished wood on the floor, and I think a chandelier.

I know that they are coming soon, but I need to make a choice; which room will I hide? Probably not the last one furthest away from the door; that would be too obvious. The closest one?

I decide to hide in the room fourth to the right of the entrance.

As soon as I hide, the terrorists enter.

"I know you are in here!"

One of them stops just short of my room, and lights a cigarette.

Then I look outside.

There is already a line of people waiting outside, awaiting their execution.

But, one of the victims starts impassionately talking about the merits of justice! of Love! of humanity, goodness, and joy!

At the climax of his speech, the guard cuts him short.

"Alright, I'm going to kill the person next to you. Or, you can take his place, and I will kill you instead. Will you do it?"

Defeated, the orator backs down and the person next to him is condemned.

From my room I think, "I have no right to be hiding here. I could save that person's life."

The vividness of dreams help cement unlikely experiences. They provide a much-needed blow to the head. It is so easy to say, "Of course I would give my life for a friend," but dreams encapsulate you in an alternate reality in which you are often forced to either take back or seriously rethink the easiness of false certainty.

The thought that immediately came to mind was Christ. Here I was, quivering over the saving of one life. How my life was valuable, even more valuable than one life. In Gethsemane, what could Jesus possibly have felt? What horror, uncertainty, doubt, value of his entire mission? Not just for one life, but to be responsible for the fate of mankind! I could not make my mind over one person, and in so doing, I already stood condemned.