Concrete Filled the Doorways

When there are so many confusing things going on at once, I tend to have dreams of the wildest, and sometimes the most terrifying, nature. This is one of those dreams. At the end of this post, you'll see what was going on and maybe you could offer some insight that I hadn't considered. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I was attending an auction. The auction was over and I was the last one to leave. As I walked across the cafeteria and toward the exit, I passed a young woman cleaning a table.

She started speaking to me very secretively but looked, to everyone else, as if she were deeply cleaning the table near me. She kept looking down at the table and scrubbing, then said, “you’re one of those.”

“I'm sorry, what?”

She never looked up, just scrubbed harder, as if someone were watching her, and mumbled, “you’re one of those aren’t you? I can tell. You’re not scared. I’m just cleaning, and that’s all I’m doing, but I know you’re one of them and others know too.” Then she looked me in the eye and said again, "Others know too," and quickly looked back at her table to scrub some more.

I had no idea what she meant by this so I kept making my way to the exit, but when I looked back, there were other girls cleaning and every one of them had their eyes fixed on me. They were sending a message in unison, "move quick ...others know too."

I left a bit shaken by the whole experience, and the dimming of the evening light didn't help any. 

I drove to my grandma’s house located in a less-than-nice neighborhood. There were several vehicles parked in her driveway, but it was the very tall box truck in the center of the drive that got my attention. I parked to the left of it and got out. Immediately, I heard someone park to the right of it and get out of their vehicle, but I didn't look back. I couldn't see who it was, but since I couldn't shake the look I got from the cleaning girls, and the voice saying, "...others know too," I just instinctively, I started walking faster.

"Others know what?" I whispered and just tried to shake it off.

Then I heard quickening footsteps behind me. It got me a bit paranoid, so I moved a little faster. As I rounded the truck and turned toward the front steps, I was hidden from my follower just long enough to cross in front of the box truck and to the other side. I started walking soft and quick while looking under the truck for feet. There he was, stopped in my line of view. I could see the bottom part of a man dressed in a long black robe with black shoes and a black cape. I waited for him to move forward so I could sneak back around to my car and leave. That's when he ducked down and looked right at me. He was wearing a mask with a long bird-like nose to it, and he had a knife in his hand. I tried to scream, but I was so taken aback by the mask that I stumbled backwards barely making a sound and just trying to keep my footing. He came under the truck and reached out to grab me. I picked up some sort of pipe off the ground to fight him with. About the time he touched me, a small, crazy-eyed woman started screaming and grabbed him by the neck from behind. Before she could cut him with her own knife, he got free and they began fighting each other. It was something she said that made it clear to me that she was going to kill him so that she could kill me and collect a reward. I had a bounty on my head, and they both wanted the payoff. This is what the cleaning girl was talking about. I took the distraction as a chance to run for my life.

I ran into my grandma's house. It was quiet and dark. It was a small house but somehow the hallway was filled with an endless number of doors. I kept looking for a place to hide, but the only place I could go was down the hallway. Every door that I opened was sealed with a solid block of concrete. One door after another opened into an immovable block of concrete. I was down to the last door. Feeling anxious that I was at the end of the line, I closed my eyes and pulled the door open. No concrete block. The door opened into a large, completely empty room with one tiny light in the far back corner. My plan was to make a run for the light, break it, and pray that my killer couldn't see me when they opened the door. I got to the small light but before I could break it, I saw the faint outline of another door. The light was so dim that it hadn't been visible until I was right up to the light. I pushed on it and it opened slightly. It was an entrance to an underground sewer system. I took the light and quietly walked through the tunnel and to the end of the spillway. That's when I saw a tiny fire, partly smoldering with embers. A thin, old man dressed in rags jumped up and said, “Someone found us!" Then he began to beg me, "Please don’t tell.” I saw metal bars behind him, someone sitting near him, and someone sitting on the other side of the bars. They appeared to be friends. It was obvious that people 'knew about them' too.

I knelt next to them and said, "I won’t tell, just teach me how to do this. Teach me how to survive. They know about me too.” 

Then, I woke up.

A Little Insight

This dream came to me in August of 2020, five months after the world quickly became divided over a virus that spread like wildfire. On one hand, there were Christians in several parts of the world being arrested for 'unlawfully' gathering, Italians being confined to their flats, and Australian authorities using drones to keep their citizens from taking their trash to the curb. On the other hand, there were Christians in America gathering anyway, U.S. preachers defying orders to shut down their churches, and in my small Western Oklahoma communities churches and businesses were told to carry on as we saw fit. We carried on.

This incredible divide throughout the world was unnerving to say the least. Countries across the globe were begging the United States citizens to fight for our freedom. They said, "If you don't stay free, there is no hope for the rest of us." Christians in the U.S. pushed back. We sang hymns in the San Francisco Bay, stood outside hospital and nursing home windows to keep family from being alone, and brought neighbors and families into our homes for meals and prayer. We weren't being defiant, we were choosing to live free.

American citizens stood on the Constitution, suffered at times, filed a few lawsuits, but pushed back enough to hold on to our freedom. As powerful as that visual may be, the real strength came from the prayers of our brothers and sisters around the world. They built a pyramid of faith for us to stand on.

Soon we saw preachers in Scotland running 'authorities' out of their churches, Italians singing songs of encouragement to one another from their balconies, and Brazilian beaches begin to teem with summertime life again.

Life was not normal by any stretch, but I could see that the worst was behind me.

That's when it was time for me to dream. It's how I process things that I don't understand. A tool that helps me work out my fears of the unknown and find the light of good in all things again.

Messages Behind the Dream

Now I'm no dream expert.

I only have hindsight, so if you are an expert on dreams, feel free to enlighten my limited understanding. I would love to consider your perspective. Here is my best interpretation.

My mind opened door after door looking for answers to what was going on with C-19.

Was it biological warfare? Concrete block, you can't go in there.

Was it the next plague? Concrete block, you can't go in there.

Was it an experiment gone wrong? Concrete block, you can't go in there.

Was this one huge political distraction? Concrete block, you can't go in there.

Question after question, and they were just too deep for me to understand.

The last door was my last hope. I closed my eyes and asked a completely different question. One that I've asked myself many times before: "What do I do to I survive?"

And that huge room housed one tiny answer: "Go to the light. You'll find a way."

That tiny light led me to the secret doorway that led me to another light that led me to people who had been living 'underground' for much longer than I had. They held secrets that I did not understand, but desired to.

Who were these men? Do they represent survival techniques of the older generations?

Maybe they represent our forefathers who survived the founding of our nation.

Why was one of them on the other side of the bars and how did he get over there?

Maybe he represents those who have survived by faith alone.

Or...

Maybe they knew who I was that whole time.

Maybe they created the room and the secret doorway and were just waiting for me to show up.

Maybe they weren't startled at all.

What if it was the Father, the Son, and the ...

I guess I'll never know for sure.

One thing I do know, the man in the mask and the crazy-eyed lady with their weapons were nowhere to be found. I never even thought to look back. Something told me to keep my eyes on the light and I'd find my way. So when I woke up, that's what I did.

Life Carried On

Most of Western Oklahoma carried on as if very little was happening. We couldn't afford to stop feeding livestock and working ground. Our animals were still having babies, eggs still need gathering, cattle still needed haying, neighbors still needed checking on.

I came out of 2020 just about the same way I went into it. It is not the significant marker for me that it became for many, but I also left the big cities for good, so I'm sure that helped. In fact, 2020 was good to me. I worked for a radio station for the first time in my life, I built my very first home, and I used both to create my very first podcast.

In Conclusion

Do your best to keep your eyes on the Light of the Lord, no matter how dim it may seem in the midst of crazy times. You may not know where you're going, but He is guiding your way and you're going to be just fine.

I hope my dream and this story reminds you to hold on to peace in the midst of whatever chaos you might find yourself in. God is with you always.

-Shauna