A Dream Within A Dream

I did not sleep well last night. I could not stop my mind from going over and over a conversation I had with my Granddaughter Cassie about an end-of-the-year paper she's preparing for her English class. Part of the paper is based upon Edgar Allen Poe's poem:

A Dream Within A Dream

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

What got to me was the despair: O God! can I not save one grain of golden sand from the pitiless wave? That image brought back the pain and suffering of last summer's hurricane Ike here along the Texas Gulf Coast. Above is a photograph I took when walking along that surf-tormented shore many months after the storm had passed.

As I read Poe's poem I see myself as that battered, broken and nearly collapsed beach house. And I ask the same questions as did Poe: Is all that we see or seem but a dream, yes even a dream within a dream? What can be done to stop my days from slipping through my fingers like grains of golden sand?

I stand upon the shore of that vast ocean of eternity, realizing that nothing, nothing at all that I do can rescue me. I who am nearly twice the age Poe was when he died, must also face the inevitable.

That's why I did not sleep well last night. Ah, but that's not the end of the story. I have heard another voice, speaking from beyond the darkness of death. It is the voice of the angel standing before the empty tomb. "You seek Jesus of Nazareth. He is not here. Behold the place where they laid him." Yes, He is risen and it is not a dream. NOT A DREAM!

So I awake today and the songs of the birds continue. The soft morning breeze whispers in my ear. The flowers blooming on the deck outside my study smile at me. Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream? Oh no! Never again. My Jesus lives and I too shall live with Him--forever!

Test the Spirits

My son and I got into a conversation a couple days ago about a DVD about marriage he was thinking about using for his small group's Bible study. It was from a large and very popular church, with a hip, modern, charismatic pastor. As I looked on I was struck by how 'with it' this man wanted to be and how 'current' he wanted his message to be. At one occasion he made a reference to a Bible story that seemed to illustrate his point about marital relationships.

"Hey, guys," he said, "Ya gotta learn how to be, not just do. It's important that ya just learn to hang and not always be tryin' to accomplish stuff. We're too plugged in. We gotta learn to unplug and be present with one another.

"That's how Mary was," he continued. "She learned the important thing was to be with Jesus. She wasn't like Martha who always wanted to do something to prove that she loved him."


After that he called upon us, his audience and anyone else looking in to stop and talk with our spouses about this important teaching about marriage.

As I reflected upon all that I began to wonder if that was the point Jesus was making when he said, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed.Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her" (Luke 10).

Was Jesus really talking about the importance of developing relationships rather than trying to prove your love by doing something? That is, admittedly, a significant problem in many marriages, as well as in our culture. We are often self-centered, focused on accomplishments rather than upon relationships. But again, is that what Jesus was talking about? What was this 'one thing' He said was needed?

Part of the answer has to be in the context of that chapter. Right before this story Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan who showed mercy to His enemy. And immediately before that story is the story of the seventy-two who went ahead of Jesus to announce His coming. Those who welcomed this news were indeed be blessed. And the blessing? To know and love Jesus, the Son of the Father, sent to reveal the Father's love by His life, death and resurrection (Luke 10:21-24), something promised for long centuries through the prophets and kings who wrote about the coming Messianic King.

Back to our hip pastor and his talk about relationships, man! As important as those are, he twisted the Scripture to his own purposes. He deliberately pushed past the point. He jumped over the teaching. He put Mary simply in a position where she wanted to know this man Jesus by talking with him while her sister Martha was busy serving him supper.

But the passage from Holy Scripture is not about about mere human relationships. It is certainly not about the marriage relationship. It's about being with Jesus, listening to Him speak to us, growing in our love for Him, learning His will and His plan for our lives before, while and after we serve Him. And who is Jesus? To us Christians He is God's Son, true God and true Man, sent to be the Savior of all.

All that leads me back to a quotation by the Apostle John:

"Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

"You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood" (1 John 4).

I'm not going to reveal the name of this particular teacher. My point is, however, critical. The Scriptures can be, have been and often will be used for purposes other than intended. I do not give a hoot about how hip a man may be. If he misuses God's Word and fails to give a clear witness to Jesus in his talks or teachings about marriage, relationships, our lives or whatever is his topic, then I'm going to have to reject what he says, because he is failing to glorify the only One whose love cleanses and purifies all our relationships. I'm going to have to test his teaching by asking questions about what he believes and teaches about Jesus. Thousands of teachers talk, write and proclaim something about Jesus, but that does not make them Christians in the Biblical sense of the word. They have become part of the spirit of the antichrist, the spirit of falsehood.

Anxiety and Hope

I grow so weary of bad news and forecasts of disaster. Some current that have come across my desk the past weeks:

* Swine Flue Pandemic Hits Texas
* Few Signs of Recovery from Recession
* All of Europe will be Muslim in another 25 years
* US Losing Drug War

And the list goes on. As I try to absorb this daily dose of bad news, I begin to imagine all sorts of terrifying things about to happen. My next reaction is to try to figure out what I ought to be doing to stem the tide. Should I get some flu medicine? Stock up on canned goods? Contact my congressman?

And then a still small voice speaks within, calling to mind the Words of my Lord's Sermon:

"For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing?

"Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear for clothing?' For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own " (Matthew 6:25-34).

The Apostle James, along with others, reminds us that we really do not know what tomorrow holds. All our worrying about it, together with all those carefully laid out plans, will not change it (James 4:13-15).

I've been watching the TV program Lost for the past several weeks. I've missed a couple years of past episodes already. Sorry, but I had no knowledge about its existence until my daughter told me she was a fan. The program explores a favorite sci-fi topic, time travel, together with the implication that if we could travel back in time to make some different choices we could change the future. That makes for some interesting and complex fiction, but that's all it is--fiction!

Such stories (and there are many) assume that time merely happens--blindly. The universe is some kind of machine governed by physics, scientific laws, understood or not. The only beings with free will are we humans. We make choices. These choices influence these fixed laws, changing them. Then stuff happens. If we could travel back in time to make other choices, then other stuff will happen instead. So goes the story line.

Time, like everything else in this creation, is a creation. The universe is not a blind machine that merely happens to be. We Christians rejoice that God created everything through Christ (John 1:1-4). He not only created all things. He sustains them by His Word of power. It is this same Lord who, in the fullness of time, entered His world to carry the burden of our choices, our godless choices, our sin. He is the One I turn to whenever my heart grows weary with all this bad news. On the first day of a new week He came out of the grave to announce once and for all that in Him our sins are forgiven.

Time travel? Possible? Nope. Fiction. We can't change the past, but in Christ we have confidence for the future. So I'm going to focus on today. How may I give glory and honor to Christ and His Father today? How may I care for my neighbor today? Tomorrow never comes. Yesterday cannot be repeated. All I have is today. And that is enough.