I’ve had two dreams recently that have really left an impression in my mind. The details and circumstances of each were different, but at the same time, there were several overlapping ideas. 

In both dreams, there were young people who were dear to me, and there were horrible dangers, but I don’t think the dreams were a manifestation of my fears or worries about the dangers my children and our children are facing.

In both dreams, my focus was on contending with the dangers, sorting through the world’s garbage, for something that seemed important at the time, but was not the really important thing. The important thing in both dreams was the child, innocently along for the ride and unaware of the dangers.

As I’ve reflected on these dreams, I’m reminded of Jesus parable about the farmer casting seed on different kinds of ground. He said some seed fell upon thorny ground and it was choked out by cares of the world.

I think that’s easier to do than we think. I always dismissed this parable as a parable about salvation. If you accepted Jesus you were good soil. All the others, were about people who didn’t recognize Jesus when He spoke to them. They weren’t sheep, and they didn’t recognize His voice.

But I think maybe I was mistaken to dismiss Jesus words so quickly. Imagine that! 🙂

I think we can love Him and want to do good things, but we can get scattered too widely abroad, and parse our minds into too many interests and directions and we can feel trapped by it all and unable to respond to His call to something more profound.

When I examine the roots of these distractions, there is mostly fear: fear of disappointing someone, fear of losing something I’ve worked for to decay, fear of standing before Jesus at the end of my life and being shown all the opportunities I missed.

That one is ironic and I think pernicious, because what I gather from my dreams and from the Gentle Voice of my Shepherd is that all that running to and fro is the very thing that will rob me of the precious and eternal things that God is inviting me into.

Perfect Love casts out fear, for fear is focused on punishment, and Love is root to bud about giving. It is not about rushing about to prevent loss of something or someone in our lives, but about offering ourselves up simply and humbly to another. It is about slowing down enough to see and know the One who would have us draw close.

““He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. ⁴¹ He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. ⁴² And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.” Matthew 10:40-42  What if all He wants from us is to be seen by us in all the little everyday encounters?

I’ve heard sermons about the Bema seat. All our works will be tested by fire. Our works whether wood, straw, stone, or gold will be tried and what remains after the fire has passed will endure.  It is a scripture, but are we hearing Him when we teach it? None of those things can survive a hot enough fire. Nothing material is eternal.

The Holy Spirit is also Fire. What if at the Bema seat we see the difference between the service projects, mission trips, evangelistic endeavors, et cetera that were motivated by fear, by a longing to be able to say, “Wasn’t I good, Father? Wasn’t I enough?” And which ones were us just seeing The Fire and knowing it was Him.

“I have sown, Apollos has watered, but God has caused the increase!” 1 Corinthians 3:6