My dreams can get pretty interesting in emotionally intense times.
Last night I dreamed that I was playing Marian, from the BBC Robin Hood, and my role was to be imprisoned in the stocks, be mercifully set free by sympathetic bystanders, then be ambushed and killed on the way out. My comrades kept telling me things were going to be okay, and I was mournfully insisting that I did die at the end.
I posted that dream summary on Facebook this afternoon, and got this response from my friend Lisa: "Good characters are always willing to die for the sake of the plot." She said, "I think writers have to love their characters, but they have to love their story more."
Which reminded me of 2 Corinthians 4, the "jars of clay" passage that talks about suffering being used by God so that Jesus Christ shines through all our broken places. (A clay jar doesn't show what is inside of it if the vessel is intact.)
It is a good thing to recall, as you are dying (2 Cor. 4:11); a good thing to speak into the darkness against the crouching enemies:
I am willing to die for the sake of the plot.
