The Dream
Many months ago, I had a dream.
In this dream, I was at some kind of event, and I encountered my old friend, Britt, from my middle school days. I told him how good it was to see him again. Later, I made a point to find him again before he left the event.
When I found him, I said, “Hey Britt, it’s really great to see you again. If I think of something that you might be interested in, I’ll invite you over. I’d like to invite you over if you’re interested.”
He responded immediately, “Interested!”
Then Britt said, “Hey, I’m going to be going to Jamaica.”
“Jamaica!?” I said, a bit surprised.
“Yeah,” Britt continued, “I’m going to be going with Billy Graham.” Then he looked at me and said, “And you’re going to go later.” He said it as if he knew something that I didn’t know. He said it with a smile on his face. It was that old smile of confidence that I remember him having.
Then he looked past me, as if he was thinking.
Then a young guy walked up that I didn’t know.
I looked at this young man and said, “He’s going to Jamaica.”
The young man simply replied, “Yeah,” smiling as if he already knew that.
At that point, I woke up feeling great about reconnecting with my old friend, Britt. In the dream, it felt like we really were spending time together again after all these years. Britt was one of the few true friends that I had in middle school when we were both 14-year-olds in eighth grade.
The Obituary
Months passed. I never saw Britt again, and I forgot about the dream completely, never understanding what it meant.
One day, I happened to see a posting from a former classmate on Facebook saying that Britt had died unexpectedly. The posting had a link to his obituary. I stopped everything that I was doing and read through his obituary.
I’ve had a lot of people die in my life—family members, friends, students, acquaintances—but Britt’s passing really affected me deeply … and, at first, I didn’t really understand why. The loss that I suddenly felt at his passing seemed deeper than the loss of some family members. We had only been connected for a few months in middle school, and then our lives took different paths. Even though we attended the same high school, we were in different classes, and we rarely saw each other. There were 2,500 kids in my high school, so that was not unusual.
As I read through Britt’s obituary, I thought back to the times that we shared together in 8th grade. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it slowly dawned on me that Britt had been more than just a friend. Britt had changed my life in a powerful way.
I was painfully shy all through school. I didn’t have social skills, and I only had a few friends. I was not one of the popular kids. I was not involved in clubs or social groups in school. That whole world was a mystery to me. I always seemed to have trouble fitting in. I never really felt that I belonged in any particular group during my school years, so school was often a painful experience.
In the middle of all this awkwardness, Britt befriended me. I don’t know why, and I don’t remember how it started, but Britt latched onto me and made me his friend. When that happened, it instantly made somebody out of me because Britt was the big man on campus. He was the quarterback on the football team. He was the star point guard on the basketball team. He was Mr. Popular.
Being his friend validated my existence. Since I was Britt’s friend, I seemed to be instantly accepted by the popular kids. Britt had given me a nickname that only he and I understood. A few of the guys asked Britt what it meant. He explained that it basically meant that I was “cool.” After hearing this, a few of the guys also started calling me by this nickname, especially when Britt was around.
Looking back, it’s funny now when I remember how some of the kids thought that I must also be one of the starters on the football team because I was friends with Britt. I was not an athletic standout at all! Sports was such a struggle for me that I choose not to play at all in high school.
I was not good in sports. I was socially awkward. I did not qualify to be one of the popular kids, and yet Britt accepted me as I was. He treated me as an equal. More than that, he treated me as a friend that he truly valued. In doing that, he gave my life value. He made me feel like my life really mattered. When I was Britt’s friend, he made me feel special.
Neither one of us understood what we were doing. We were just 14-year-old kids. I wasn’t trying to be socially awkward, and Britt wasn’t trying to make me feel special. We were just being who we were. Britt was not trying to be anything other than who he was. He was a genuinely nice guy. After he passed, someone wrote in a comment that Britt was “one of the nicest guys around.” He truly was!
His obituary describes the Britt that I knew in one line:
“He was the definition of a true friend”
He truly was for me! Thinking back on his friendship, I think that what impacted me the most was his loyalty. When other kids were bullying me, or when other “friends” turned on me and made fun of me at times, Britt never joined in with them. He never made fun of me. He never treated me badly. His friendship was always true and genuine. To me, Britt seemed to model Proverbs 17:17, which says,
“A friend loves at all times” (AMPC)
Or, as it reads in the another translation:
“A friend is always loyal” (NLT)
Britt wasn’t perfect. He had his faults, as we all do, but he got the main things right. He was a true and loyal friend, and the love that he showed to the people who were important to him was real and genuine.
I can’t seem make it through Britt’s memorial slideshow without tearing up. I see photo after photo of a man who genuinely loved his family, his friends, and his colleagues. A few photos from his school days are sprinkled in with the rest, and his senior picture from our high school comes up near the end of the slide show. That’s how I remember him. The good memories come flooding back when I see my old friend as he was then.
Death of a loved one has an amazing way of bringing the things that really matter into sharp focus. When someone close to us dies, all of the things that don’t matter just drop away, and we are left with memories of what really mattered in that relationship.
It was only after he died that I realized how Britt came into my life at a critical time and changed my life forever. Britt saw me as a person of real value. I was finally important. He gave my life meaning in a way that no one else did. Finally, my life mattered to someone that I looked up to and admired.
I believe that the impact of Britt’s friendship in 8th grade was critical to preparing me to survive the living hell that I went through during my high school years.
There is no way that I could ever repay him for what he did for me.
The Meaning of the Dream
Britt passed in October of 2020. But it was only just last week that I finally understood the dream.
I came across the dream again on Saturday as I was clearing out messages on my phone. I was actually looking for something else when I came across the voice recording I made after having this dream about Britt. I had completely forgotten the dream until I stumbled across this recording on my phone.
Again, I stopped what I was doing and took time to listen to this dream because of the deep feelings I had for Britt after his passing.
Finally, the meaning became clear. I believe this dream was literally about my friendship with Britt.
In the dream, he immediately told me that he would be interested in coming over for a visit when I made that offer. That let me know that he was still interested in continuing our friendship.
Then Britt said, “Hey, I’m going to be going to Jamaica.” Since this did not seem to be literal, I looked up the meaning of the name “Jamaica.” It speaks of a land that is “rich in springs of water.” I believe that Britt was symbolically speaking of going to Heaven. The Bible seems to speak of this in verses like Isaiah 49:10:
““They will not hunger or thirst, Nor will the scorching heat or sun strike them down; For He who has compassion on them will lead them, And He will guide them to springs of water.” (AMP)
Britt’s next statement seemed to confirm that he was talking about going to Heaven. He said, “Yeah, I’m going to be going with Billy Graham.”
Billy Graham died in 2018, so, if Britt was going with Billy Graham, he must be talking about going to Heaven.
Then Britt seemed to share some divine insight that God had given him about my life.
Britt looked at me and said, “And you’re going to go later.” He said it as if he knew something that I didn’t know. He said it with a smile on his face. It was that old smile of confidence that I remember him having.
Then he looked past me, as if he was thinking.
Britt did precede me in death, and I will be going later.
I believe the young man in the dream that I didn’t know was most likely an angel, or a heavenly being of some kind, who was there to confirm what Britt was telling me, and possibly to let me know that this was a “God thing.” God was reconnecting me with Britt after all these years.
I had a sense that this was more than a dream. It felt like a real spirit-to-spirit encounter with my old friend. I’ve been a bit overwhelmed with the significance of the dream since I began to understand its meaning. I believe this reconnection with my old friend was just the beginning of an eternity of shared experiences with him. I believe we were reconnected for a reason, and that the friendship that we had so many years ago will continue without end. We have so, so much to look forward to!
Until I saw his obituary, I had forgotten that Britt and I share the same first name. I believe that it is one more indication of the eternal bond of friendship that Jay Britt Johnson and Jay Alan Drake share. It’s like a seal on our friendship.
In fact, I feel now that my reconnection with Britt has opened a new awareness of the eternal nature of relationships that I didn’t have before. Think of those treasured relationships that you have had with friends and family members. For believers in Jesus Christ, those relationships never end. They continue on forever.
As I think about this dream, I am also overwhelmed by the goodness of God. Of all the people that God could have connected me with in this dream, He chose my old friend Britt. I had not really thought much about Britt in many years because our paths went in different directions after the mid-1970s. But God, who knows my heart better than I do, reached back and reconnected me with a friend from my past who had meant much more to me than I realized at the time. It was perfect. Britt was the perfect friend for the message of this dream. In reconnecting me with Britt, God gave me a desire of my heart, even though I didn’t know that I had that desire.
“Find your delight in the Lord. Then he will give you everything your heart really wants.”—Psalm 37:4 (NIRV)
And it also made me aware of much more that I never realized way back in 8th grade. I realized God was able to know how much Britt meant to my life, because God was the one who had brought Britt into my life in the first place, all those years ago. I was finally able to look back and to see God’s hand at work in bringing the perfect friend into my life at a critical time to change my life forever and to prepare me for what I would face in the future. I needed Britt in my life for that short time. Without his influence, I would not be the person that I am today, and I might not have been prepared to fulfill my destiny in life.
What is remarkable to me is that I was not even following the Lord when I was 14 years old. I was a believer at that time, but I did not really give my life to the Lord Jesus until I was 18. And yet, years before I was even serving God, He was bringing key people and key events into my life to prepare me for my future. It reminds me of the verse that tells us that Jesus laid down his life for us while we were still sinners! He did not wait for us to clean ourselves up before he loved us.
“But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”—Romans 5:8 (NLT)
Now I am thinking back to other key relationships and events in my past, and I can see God’s fingerprints so much clearer than I did before!
I am sure that it is the same for you!
Who are the people, and what were the events, that God brought into your life at key, critical times to impact your life forever, not just to help you feel good about yourself, but more importantly, to change your life significantly in order to prepare you to fulfill your destiny? I am sure that if you take some time to look back, you will see the hand of God in those key people and events in your past, going all the way back to your childhood, in some of the darkest times of your life. You will see that before you ever knew enough to love God, He was loving you and guiding your life to prepare you for your great purpose!
“We love him, because he first loved us.”—1 John 4:19 (KJV)