Ready

 February 14, 2023

It was Saturday, and I wasn’t ready. The next day I had to preach; I hadn’t even chosen a text, and I was panicking. Preachers who are able to wait all week long before putting thoughts down on paper baffle me. Maybe it goes back to that first year when I needed someone to fill in for me one Sunday. I was a student at Houghton College, living off campus in the parsonage of the Alma EUB church southeast of Wellsville, NY. Each Friday when I left campus to drive home, the fellow I had asked to preach for me would ride with me as far as Wellsville before hitching a ride east to his home in Binghamton. Each Friday I would ask him how the sermon was coming. “The Holy Spirit will lead me,” he said assuredly. I wasn’t so sure.

The week after he preached I asked some of the congregation how he did. “There was a lot of “ums” and “ahhs,”” was all I could get out of these gracious people. Many were the times back then when I was up late Saturday night finishing up, but even with a full course load and a full time job, every lunch hour would find me holed up working on the sermon. I don’t like being unprepared, which is why this Saturday was so disconcerting. I was frantic, my mind racing to find words for thoughts I didn’t even have.

I have never been so glad to wake up as I was this morning! The burden was gone, the weight lifted from my shoulders; it was all a dream! I looked over at Linda sleeping beside me and thanked God for waking up beside her. I actually felt almost giddy.

The prophet Joel speaks:  

““And it shall come to pass afterward That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions.” —Joel 2:28 

I don’t see visions. I hate to have to say this, but I dream dreams, which tells you where God places me on the chronological charts. Most of my dreams are pretty crazy, and most of them are erased from my memory when I wake up. I’ll have a vague awareness that I’ve dreamed, but couldn’t give any particulars. So when one is so vivid that I remember it, I begin to wonder if God isn’t trying to tell me something. It’s happened before.

Weird things are happening in our world. From Covid to Hunter’s laptop and Chinagate to UFOs, strange things are going on. And just this week we are getting word from Wilmore KY, about the revival that is sweeping through Asbury University and Seminary. War rages in the Ukraine, hundreds of thousands are starving in Uganda, while the earthquake in Turkey and Syria has killed thousands. And though it’s not in the mainstream news, Israel is under constant threat from Russia-backed Iran.

In my dream, I wasn’t ready for Sunday. If indeed it is a word from the Lord, the question is, “Am I ready for Christ’s return?” The fear I felt in the pit of my dream-stomach urges me to search my heart before I answer this question. That is what I’m doing tonight. I hope it’s what you’re doing, too.