What Kinds of Dreams Are Key?

The plane took off for Springfield at 8:00 sharp. Seated behind two families with babies and toddlers, the screeching began before we’d made it off the tarmac. I’ve got nine kids.  I get it.

Still, with that kind of noise, I couldn’t write.  I was also headed to my mom’s house for an indeterminate length of time. How busy I’d be… I didn’t know.

What else was there to do but try to get ahead on future book reviews.  My paperback was in my checked luggage, so I went for the next ebook on the list. Self-Surrender: The Key to Dreaming Again.

Self-help and Christian living books are some of my favorites, so I expected to enjoy at least some aspect of it. So, with a can of Coke in one hand and my laptop turned into a tablet in the other, I began.

At about twenty percent into the book, two things happened.  First, the author wound up in Springfield himself.  Second, I found out this wasn’t a “self-help/Christian living” book after all.  By the end of the book, I just hoped I’d have an idea of what it was about. I wanted to know:

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What Kinds of Dreams Are Key?

One thing The Key to Dreaming Again does and does well is that it points the reader to the only One who can make our dreams what they should be and then make them come true. A verse that fits well is Psalm 37:4.

Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.”

Readers looking for a “how-to” guide to evaluating one’s dreams and aligning them with the Word will be disappointed. This isn’t that book. I’m not sure why the book is listed as “Nonfiction Inspirational.”  It’s a memoir.

Sure, Rick Unruh has a point to his memories and the stories he tells, but from page one through to the last, it’s a story—of his life, those he loves, and the lessons he and they learned from the Lord as they navigated it all.

While well-written and interesting on the one hand, I wouldn’t have purchased it had it been put in the memoir category, and had I not been given a free ARC to review, I would have requested a refund. It’s just not what the title and the category portray it to be.

I am assuming that my ARC was an uncorrected proof. There were a (very) few typos that I assume will be corrected in the final printing.

Recommended for people who enjoy memoirs and stories of what the Lord does in His peoples’ lives. Trigger warning: there’s a lot of death in this book—including child loss.

And what kind of dreams are key?  Those that the Lord holds the key to, of course.