The night before the Inauguration, I had a very troubling dream. It wasn’t about politics or who would be selected to lead our nation. It was about the spiritual condition of the Church.
In the dream, I was conducting a wedding ceremony. The ceremony unfolded like many others I have conducted over the years. Before I got too far along, a disturbance broke out among the people.
At first, there was a bit of back-and-forth criticism between people sitting in different rows of chairs. I thought people would calm down and allow the ceremony to continue, but the discord only increased. After the arguing intensified among the people to a very uncomfortable and potentially violent level, they began to criticize me. The situation got so bad and physically disruptive, that I felt I had only two options – punch out the perpetrators or simply walk out and discontinue the wedding ceremony. Then I woke up from the dream.
The dream was so intense and real that when I woke up, I was shaken to such a degree that I remained awake. The emotions I experienced in the dream made it hard to get back to sleep. In the darkness, I began to pray for anything in me and those within the Church who see the recent events of culture from a different perspective of faith.
This morning, as I was reading through Ephesians, and came across the following verse, “For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). The verse reminded me once again that all of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus are currently seated with the Lord in Heaven unified with Him. It is our current reality.
In Heaven, while are seated together with Christ on His throne, those assembled there will arrive in eternity having a variety of interpretations of how this life and our faith should be lived out. We will be gathered there in Christ, not their opinions.
The wedding scene in the dream had become an angry and argumentative gathering. I wondered what would happen if those in the wedding audience realized they were sitting with Jesus and other believers on His throne. Would they allow their anger over earthly issues to start an argument with Jesus just to prove their point assuming their limited opinion had a higher ground than the heart of God?
As dual citizens, our citizenship is both here on Earth and seated with Christ in Heaven. Understanding that we already are united with Christ, we should think again about how we respond to fellow believers when something significant like the results of an election takes place. Hell is always looking for ways to divide the Church over issues that are not eternally important.
In the dream, I had two choices. One way was to respond in the flesh and the other was to walk away from the conflict and not be drawn into the fray. The latter choice is the way of wisdom and love. It is a choice that doesn’t try to win fights but takes conflict resolution to the throne of God where the Prince of Peace will reveal how to live our lives in times of conflict united not in our opinions, but in Christ alone.
Today, just this afternoon, I, too, had to choose how I was going to react to a difficult situation. I chose to hand it to Jesus, to walk away…and I chose to love those that had hurt me. As I walked away, I said to the Lord, “Sometimes this is hard.” He didn’t respond. He didn’t have to, but I felt His arms wrap around me. I knew He knows exactly what it feels like to give them the other cheek, to give them His cloak, to bless them. It is so comforting to know that, everything we go through here on earth, He has gone through as well. You are so right, Garris. We always have a choice. Join in with the battles of this world…or choose to love….and go and sit, on the heavenly throne, with our King.