Shot Through the Heart - Who's to Blame?

Seeing or experiencing gunfire in a dream certainly catches my attention. It is so completely foreign to my world that it really startles me and I can't help but take a very close look at that dream. Two times, I've had this imagery come into my dream world - both times, it was important.

The Warning Shot

In this first dream, I was driving and noticed I was pursued by a woman in a vehicle. I pulled my car over to talk to her. She got out of her car and started firing gun at me! In the dream I was shocked.

At first I focused on the shooter but that was a dead end. She did not remind me of anyone I know, and she had not striking characteristics. I spent some time thinking about whether anyone I knew had reason to be offended. That did not lead anywhere either.

Then I realized anything can happen in a dream. So, if she were firing at me and missed, then she wasn't shooting to kill. I was not actually in danger so it must be a warning shot! As it turned out, my dream was issuing a ‘wake-up’ call that I was in danger or putting myself into a dangerous situation and I needed to realize it and change direction, like right now.

Shot in the Back

The Warning Shot dream was in sharp contrast to a later dream involving a shooting. In the second dream, a cousin of mine was shot at the mall unexpectedly. He was weak and sank to the ground, leaning against a wall. When I put my arm around him, I found the back of his jacket was soaked in blood where he had been shot in the back. 

So here was my cousin (me probably) experiencing pain, weakness, and fainting from blood loss. Because he had been shot in the back he did not see it coming. This speaks to an unexpected, shocking injury which I was not prepared for. Dream emotions come from true feelings that spill over from our waking lives into the dream life, as we try and cope with them.

The song that comes to mind is ‘Shot Though the Heart’ by Bon Jovi, but with a twist.



A Broken Heart

 

What to do? What to learn?

 

In the dream, I embraced the wounded person, myself. It is so important to acknowledge how we actually feel. It is a very simple gift we can give ourselves. I think it is so unhelpful to deny pain or suffering, or to blame ourselves for it. Yet, how many times to we say ... I should have known better.  I should have expected this. I deserve this.?

Instead, could we be a friend? Offer some support? Give ourselves a kind word? Still love ourselves and confirm our own value and goodness?

How many times was Jesus betrayed and wounded by his friends - Peter, Judas, all the silent onlookers? And did he say - I should have expected this. I should have known. Why did I love them so much? That would have been very human and very typical. But he knew his friends and knows us now - that is what makes his actions and example so amazing.

Can I be so forgiving? Forget to count up the wrongs? I'm not sure. But in the face of disappointments and unkind words and actions, I can give myself that hug. Maybe I can forget to keep score because I know God understands all of it.

What to do with Suffering?

And I wonder if there is a purpose in the pain? I think the answer is yes. Just two final thoughts from two women who inspire me.

My mother would say, 'Offer it up.'

And Sree Chakravarti says, 'Then I remember that pain is the hammer of God which chisels us into greatness.'



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