Reflect Accordingly

I had a dream of Jesus once.

It was my senior year of college. I had no idea where I was going to go or what I was going to do after graduating. I had hoped college would give me some direction for my life but it hadn't cleared anything up. This was causing me a great deal of anxiety.

Then one night I had a dream.

I dreamt I was standing on a covered porch in front of a large wooden door. The porch was old-fashioned, Southern looking almost, with big pillars on either side. I had a sense the house was huge, but I couldn't see anything other than the porch.

The door opened and a bearded man stood there, eying me suspiciously. He didn't say anything. I asked, "Is He here? Can I see Him?"

He scoffed, as though it was ridiculous for me to ask, but he moved aside and let me enter. He showed me into a large living room, and then he left me there. Along one wall was a fireplace and the solid wood mantle stretched from one side of the room to the other. On the mantle were hundreds, maybe thousands of picture frames with individuals and families represented. 

I was looking at the photos when He entered. I knew it was Him; I could feel the change in the room. I turned towards Him but couldn't raise my gaze up past His chest. He was taller than me, but not very tall, broad in the shoulders and barrel chested. He wore a white gown or a robe, perhaps. Very clean. No adornments of any kind. I had a sense of dark hair but again, I didn't look up to His face. I couldn't.

In a soft, gentle voice, He asked, "What is it you want?"

I took a breath and said, "I want to know if everything is going to be all right."

While He spoke no more words, I felt the answer. I felt it in the wave of love and compassion that poured from Him into me. "If you only knew what I have in store for you..."

Then I woke up. That dream gave me peace for a long time. 

I've been thinking about that dream recently. Thinking specifically about the different ways God reaches out to us, speaks to us, loves on us. 

I am beginning to believe God is speaking all the time.

Only we aren't listening.

We dismiss the quiet voice or the strange dream or the intrusive thoughts for our mind playing tricks on us. Or maybe we don't hear it at all because our minds are full of the busyness and noise we have packed our lives with. Social media notifications and work meetings and afterschool activities and medical appointments and Netflix and podcasts and nights out and of course all the millions of things we worry about on a day to day basis.

Perhaps none of those things in and of themselves are bad, but when we consume them as if they are our daily bread, it is those things which fill up space in our heads and our hearts crowding out any room for God to speak and be heard.

Are we living for the world, or are we living for Jesus?

They say, "You are what you eat." If you are eating of the world your thoughts and focus and actions will reflect accordingly. If we are eating of Jesus, consuming His Word and falling in love with Him, our thoughts and focus and actions will reflect accordingly. It's like a couple who has been together so long they have picked up each other's quirks and sayings and behaviors. Have we picked up Jesus' quirks and sayings and behaviors? Are we reflecting Him?

Jesus has great plans for us. Plans to be His hands and feet. Plans to make the world - or at least our corner of it - better and brighter. Plans for us to use the blessings and gifts and call He has given us to bless others. To bring others to know Him.

How will we ever walk in His plans if we are not seeking Him? If we are not seeking His face and spending time at His feet?

We won't.

Jesus promised us, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened" (Matthew 7:7,8).

This is not a blanket promise as some have used it saying we will receive anything we want, like greedy children in a toy store. This is a promise that if we seek God, we will find Him. We will find Him because He is near. He is here. He is with you.

He is in the hospital room. He is in the back alley. He is in the jail cell. He is on the bathroom floor in the middle of the night when the tears won't stop and we can't sleep.

He is in our homes and in our workplaces and in our schools.

And yes, He is in the churches.

But we don't listen. Or maybe, we don't hear. We don't find Him because we don't seek Him.

Be still, says the Lord. Be still and know that He is God (Psalms 46:10).

If only you knew what He has in store for you...