Faith & Culture... In My Dreams?

I am a dreamer... literally. Since childhood I have experienced the wildest dreams while sleeping and at times lived them out. My poor wife has been the unwilling victim of these wild dreams. One time while living at Fuller Seminary, I experienced a very vivid "waking nightmare". Somehow, I imagined that the point of a laser scope was targeting our bed. I immediately grabbed Marilee, threw her off the bed while madly yelling, "Sniper, sniper, 10 o' clock!" I leapt on top of her body to protect her from the ensuing sniper fire, all the while oblivious to her yelling, "Get off me, you're asleep."

So, as you can see, my dreams play very active roles in my life and my life in them.

Last night, I had another dream. Many times, in order to shut off my brain, I will fall asleep to an old television episode or movie that I have seen many times. This time I dreamt that I had fallen asleep to an old Jesus film. Yet somehow, I entered the life of the movie and became Jesus' 13th disciple. We would walk around and heal people and cast out demons - you know, regular everyday stuff.

Here's the twist: Jesus and the disciples were played by the cast members of "The Office". Steve Carrell played Jesus - he had a beard in this movie. And the personality of each disciple was characterized by who they played on "The Office". I think I remember Peter being Dwight Schrute, pompous, outspoken, and obnoxious. John was played by Jim Halpert, easygoing and providing a running commentary on the rest of the group. Unlike real life, I remained pretty silent through the whole movie.

When I woke this morning two thoughts presented themselves to me. First, "Wow, I watch a lot of T.V." and second, "Can I ever escape the struggle between faith and culture?"

I'll finish this tomorrow after I get some sleep - maybe I'll have a sequel tonight.