Early this morning I dreamt I was in a war zone on the road to Haifa, Israel. A rich older woman talked me into going with two girls and two other guys so I could write about the experience. It was such a scary place to be. Men were driving by in big trucks with machine guns. Somewhere along the way there was a DeWalt chop-saw, and someone had been using it to kill other people. There were bones and remains scattered periodically along the side of the road. I wasn’t able to keep track of who was on which side, and both sides threatened us. I remember a man who, eyes crazy with zeal, threatened to kill us with his AK-47. I answered very softly and calmly, and he turned away. I remembered the passage from Proverbs 15:1 – ” A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”
The dream didn’t have a conclusion, and I woke up fearing first for myself, then for the people who will actually live that nightmare. My first thought this morning was to pray for Israelis and their Palestinian and Arab neighbors.
Intense.