Bad dreams. Everyone has them. But does everyone have “night terror” experiences?

Occasionally I will have a dream that is so scary and so realistic that I act out physically in real life. I call these experiences “night terrors.” They’re different from regular bad dreams in that instead of just waking up with your heart racing and maybe a small gasp, you do something extreme and noisy like you would if this “night terror” were actually in the room with you. They aren’t just bad scenarios; they are physical bad things getting near to you so that you feel the need to physically react to them.

This is kind of what the crab in my dream looked like. Photo by bob in swamp (flickr.com)

Last night I had the first night terror I’ve had in a year or so. It was a doozy. I dreamed that there was a large black crab-like thing quickly coming toward me. I don’t remember anything else from the dream, no chase scenes or character development. Just a huge scary crab trying to attack me. In my dream, I was in bed and the crab was about to crawl over the blanket onto me.

Apparently I screamed in real life, “snaked” off the bed at top speed, opened both the door to the bathroom and the door to the living room, and army crawled into the living room before I fully woke up. All of this took about 5 seconds because I was in such desperation to get away from the giant crab.

When I became fully awake, on the floor in the living room, Matt was sitting behind me asking, “What’s wrong? What is it? Are you okay?”

“I don’t know,” I said uncertainly. I was definitely awake now, but I could have sworn that the crab was real. But if Matt was asking me what was wrong, he obviously didn’t see a crab, so it must have been a dream, right?

“What happened?” he asked again.

“Um, there was a large spider or crab-looking thing coming at me,” I said. “I guess it was a dream.”

Here is a major point where night terrors differ from dreams. When I have a dream, I know that it was just a dream when I wake up. Even if things are realistic and people are familiar, I know that I wasn’t just flying or talking to someone in real life. I’m in my bed, and the line between dream and reality is quite clear. But with night terrors, I have to turn on the light and see with my own eyes that whatever was happening right before I woke up is not actually happening in real life. My brain is initially convinced that the terror was completely real.

After realizing that the crab was not real, I went back to bed with Matt. I felt horrible. I had terrified myself and Matt, and we could hear all of our neighbors awake and moving around too. (It was about 4 in the morning.) At first, Matt was kind of mad at me. He thought I had been having a seizure or something since I had screamed so loudly. But when I started crying because I felt so bad for waking everyone up for something so stupid, yet uncontrollable, he apologized and said he was just tired. He prayed for us and asked God to give us peaceful sleep and keep any demonic attacks at bay.

Matt said he sensed an oppressive feeling in the room, so he thought the dream was demonic.

I’m not so sure. I think there have been times when I know I’ve felt demonic oppression in dreams or at night. But I didn’t feel that way last night. I wasn’t upset before I went to bed; I wasn’t particularly stressed out. There are difficult things that I’m dealing with in life right now, of course, but I wasn’t feeling oppressed when I went to sleep or when I woke up.

Who knows? Maybe night terror experiences are always caused by spiritual attack. But I feel like they could also just be the body and brain preparing for extreme situations in real life. Now I know that if I need to, I can escape at top speed from a giant crab. Or at least have the courage and energy to try.

Does anyone else out there have night terrors? Have you woken up and found yourself running from danger, screaming, or fighting to escape? Do you think these experiences are a normal part of life, or something darker?

Max Lucado's newest title

Until now, I haven’t read a book by Max Lucado that I liked. Granted, I haven’t read many of his books. My experience has been limited to his more “giftable” titles – compilations of quotes and snappy sayings. There was nothing wrong with those books, but they were far too shallow for me. I wanted more depth about the nature of God, more willingness to wrestle with tough issues.

This book has made me realize that Max Lucado can wrestle with those deeper, tougher issues. In Max on Life, Lucado’s newest book published with Thomas Nelson, Max shares questions that he has received from fans and responds with pastoral answers.

Questions range from basic theology (“Can we believe the Bible?”) to relationships (“I’ve been dating a girl for three months. She says she is in love. I’m not sure I am, but I feel different when I’m with her. Is that love?”) to painful struggles (“I just spent the afternoon at the hospital bedside of a dear friend. She just gave birth, and her baby was born with one foot. What purpose does this serve? How can a good God permit such deformities?”).

The book reads like an advice column for Christians and those wondering about Christianity. The advice is short, sweet, and to the point, but I was surprised by how thoroughly and wisely Lucado responds to difficult issues.

In several of his responses, Lucado breaks down the original Greek and Hebrew text of Scripture. For example, when answering a question about the purpose of confession, he explains that the Greek word for confession is homologeo (homo meaning “the same” and logeo meaning “to speak”). So, Lucado says, confession means to agree with God, not to tell Him something He doesn’t already know. I wasn’t expecting Lucado to give deeper looks at Scripture like this, since there isn’t much exegesis in his gift book titles.

I was also impressed by Lucado’s response to social concerns. Lucado strikes me as a conservative author, so I was curious to see what he would say about issues like poverty, racism, and the environment. Would he fully engage, or would he shy away from politically sensitive material? To my surprise, he engaged such issues with honesty and hope. My favorite quote from the section on social justice was this:

“Here’s the math. There are 145 million orphans worldwide. Nearly 236 million people in the United States call themselves Christians. From a purely statistical standpoint, American Christians by themselves have the wherewithal to house every orphan in the world” (34).

I was convicted and filled with hope by Lucado’s encouragement that we can all do our part to make the world a better place. And we are called to do so as believers in Christ.

For me, the part of the book that was the most encouraging was the way Lucado addressed the subject of death. Toward the end of the book, Lucado answers a question about death like this:

“We all have a start date and an end date, known by God before we were born. The clock began ticking the moment we were conceived in the womb. . . . Life is never too long or too short. Then again, it’s never long enough as we say good-bye to loved ones and never short enough when we watch them suffer. On this side of the grave, death is so final and so difficult. A time is coming, though, when death will be tossed in the garbage. Revelation 20:14 says death and the grave will be things of the past and thrown into the incinerator. Yesterday’s news. We won’t think about the concept of death any longer. Do you think about the trash you threw out last week? That’s the way death will be” (205).

Having experienced the painful loss of loved ones, I think that dealing with death is almost always a critical point in a person’s faith. If you can forgive God for taking someone “too soon” or allowing someone to suffer “for nothing,” then there are few other issues that will stand in your way of a love relationship with Him. I have seen even confident Christians move away from God over bitterness about death.

Lucado’s willingness to acknowledge the pain and sorrow that death brings is refreshing. And yet, like a true pastor, Lucado does not stop with cathartic grief. He reminds us that there is hope; resurrection and eternity await us in Christ.

I would recommend this book particularly to new believers or those searching for information about Christianity. It is also a great resource for anyone dealing with a difficult situation, no matter how far along in their walk with God they may be. It is not a theological treatise, but it is a great resource for relevant advice in times of struggle.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

About that staying-on-task thing…blogging took a backseat to vacation (and consequential catching up from vacation) these past few weeks.

The week before Easter, we visited some family members in Arizona. We had a great time with my uncle Kris, aunt Trish, and cousin Nicole. They moved to Arizona last fall, so we thought we would take a vacation to see them and get some respite from a not-nearly-warm-enough Chicago spring.

It was fun relaxing by the pool (in 90-degree-heat), playing games, and seeing the sights. Matt and I hiked a mile and a half into the Grand Canyon. We were toying with the idea of going all the way down and camping overnight, but time and cost stood in the way. We would like to hike all the way down someday, though. I guess that is the first official thing on my “bucket list.” (I’ve never had one before.)

Item #2 on my bucket list will be finishing this confounded book. Speaking of which, my survey is now 110% anonymous, so if you haven’t yet filled it out, click here to answer some questions about childhood/adolescent views of sexuality. All questions are optional.

Well, I have to get back to some work I’m doing now, but just wanted to throw a blog post out there to say we’re back and waiting for Chicago to warm up! It’s been sunny this week at least, but I can’t wait for tank top weather!

When I have time, I’ll get our AZ pictures on Facebook, but for now, here’s a teaser:

(Click to enlarge.)