Last Night I had the strangest dream

Last night I had the strangest dream; it was one of those dreams that sticks with you in the morning, that wakes you up and you never quite get back to sleep you just think about it. I was there working for someone, an old friend, at a church it felt like a nursery or a youth department or something, some parts are blurry, and I had another friend working for me. This was a newer friend and not really a close friend just someone I tolerate. The old friend was someone that I aspired, at one time, to be really close to but it never really happened mostly because he was the kind of guy you could never get close to if you were with him 24 7.

Anyway, I guess he was my supervisor in this dream or something, maybe even our pastor. On principle the young guy refused to do something he was asked to do by the head guy and on the same principle I took his side and refused to make him do it. It was as if we went on strike and said “no” we were not going to do whatever it was we were asked to do. To do so would have been wrong. So we had a sit down strike. We didn’t say anything. We just sat there.

The old friend of mine was furious- he lashed out, he was vehemently angry at us and his true colors began to come out. I saw that he was not the kind of man that would stand by you in a jam but rather he would sell you down the river in a heart beat if you crossed his path and messed up his agenda.

In shepherds terms he was one of those wicked shepherds that didn’t really care for the sheep at all but was just in it for him self. And there I was sitting beside a man that I didn’t really like all that much, whose doctrine I don’t really agree with but who on this point was right and I supported him in his position. I stood beside him.

In this dream I was able to see the condition of hearts from the outward actions. Here was a man with good doctrine and a bad heart and a man with so so doctrine, maybe even bad doctrine and a good heart and at the time the choice wasn’t all that hard to make I went with the good heart.
The fact is it is who you are that is important not what you know. It’s what you do that matters not what you say. You can say you love the body of Christ all day long but if you skin the sheep and sell their hides as soon as they no longer fit in your vision for the church then something is wrong deeply wrong.

I woke up before there was a resolution to the situation but seeing the condition of hearts was perhaps all I needed to see. I never thought I would be one of those old men who dream dreams but this one is going to stick with me for awhile.