What Could This Mean?

I have been having horrible, but weird dreams this week. Last night I dreamed that I had this big important test with 20 questions that I had to pass, OR ELSE. Or else what? I have no idea. I think I might not have graduated college or something.

In the dream, I was sitting at a desk in a classroom, with a bunch of other students. The test questions were read aloud, by a professor, and we had to remember each question and write down the answers. The first question was: What’s the square root of 2756? (The answer is 52.49761899362675, by the way.) I was completely freaked out about this question and how to even go about tackling it, when the professor asked the 2nd question: what’s the full name of Chicago Bulls player Nocioni? I actually knew the answer to this one! Still, I raised my hand and asked the professor, “Do you mean his real name or his nickname?” The professor replied, “His name.”

Just to be safe, I wrote: Andres Nocioni (AKA “Noche.”)

The next question was, “What is the name of another Bulls player?” I confidently wrote down “Kirk Hinrich.”

I don’t remember the rest of the questions; but I remember all of a sudden I had this huge headache and I took some Ibuprofen from the bottle that was sitting, conveniently, on my desk. Then the professor walked up to me and said, “I think this will take care of your headache.” He handed me a bottle of Valium.

It was then in my dream that I thought, “What is this all about? Why am I so stressed out?”

Then—at this point we were halfway through the test—the professor announced, “Just a reminder that after the test, you all will be giving your speeches.”

I have to give a speech, too?!?!?!?! I started panicking even more.

Then I thought, “Wait—this is what it’s all about. They’re just testing me to see how I react to stress.” And then I extrapolated this idea further, “Maybe that’s what my life is about. Maybe God is just testing me to see how I react to stress.”

I know it sounds weird, but it sort-of made sense to me in my dream.

I don’t know if I ever passed the test----but maybe that’s what I have yet to find out!

I mean, I believe in an all-loving, kind, and gentle God…but what if he does put certain obstacles in our way…maybe not to test our faith, but perhaps—in a strange way—as a reminder that he is there to help us through them. And that if we truly believe in the power of God/the Universe/Ourselves, that there will be even bigger and better plans revealed to us…

Or maybe I just had one weird-ass dream.