The Transition
A couple of weeks ago, due to some article I read online regarding a near death experience. I began to question God about the transition from life to the afterlife. I realize that many of the stories from these people are completely false. However, there will come a day when I will truly face that change myself.
Ignoring the pain potential, depending on how I die, I was asking God if it was going to be brighter, more colorful, or will I become much more aware. What is it like? You know, stuff we have all wondered about every so often.
I didn't get an answer that week so I forgot about it entirely. The following week, however, I had a dream. The dream itself was not a God dream. No, it was a normal goofy dream that went all over the place and basically made no sense at all. In the dream though, I was stressed over a number of things. I was late for this or that. I forgot to do something important. Those kinds of things. As you know when you have a dream like that, the feelings of stress and worry are the same as though you are awake, even though the dream is nothing but a bunch of senseless images and situations.
I woke up. As I woke, the first thing that happened as my conscious mind began to take control of my wandering brain, was the wonderful realization that it was just a dream. Upon that realization, the stress just melted away. None of it was real, none of it was important...it was just a dream...NICE!
It was at that moment that the Holy Spirit spoke...”That is what it is like”.
That night, which was last Thursday, we had our men's bible study for Pillar Church. The discussion was about Romans Chapter 12, verse 12
12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction,faithful in prayer.
I shared my experience from that morning. It seemed to fit. You see, we should be joyful in the hope, the hope of our adoptions as sons when we transition from this world to face Jesus Christ. We worry about so much, instead of trusting God to use all of our circumstances to mold us and shape us to what HE sees us to be or rather become. Without that hope, we could not possibly be patient in affliction. Yet, here we are, afflicted, and learning to be patient...all because we hope.
I shared my experience, and also a thought, or better yet, a realization from a lifetime of experience. God gives us our faith. Affliction or trials will come to test that faith. This drives us to seek God in prayer.
Not prayer of petition, no, rather prayers like...”Why?”
These are not bad prayers. On the contrary, these prayers are honest and born out of pain and struggle. God wants us to know him, as I said in the earlier post. How can we know him unless we ask him about his heart and what he is working on in us.
Sometimes, he answers, sometimes all the prayer does is help us to get a wee bit closer to the one we call Lord. Either way, the result of the prayer is to increase our faith, which then needs to be tested.
It is a cycle of growth. It is a really good thing, though in the times of testing, we are not all that happy with it.
God is making us more, much more. From flesh and blood temporary, time based, beings into eternal sons and daughters of God. This is a big deal.
We can get so stuck on our lives here. The bible shows us that this life and world are as temporary as our slowly deteriorating bodies.
We should not cling to this life. No, we should embrace the process this life presents. It is boot-camp for eternity. Knowing that we will be made perfect, we should face the trials as they are, exercises to increase our faith by driving a conversation to know God more. Because after all, very soon, we will wake from this life and do just as he said to me last Thursday morning...”Oh good! It was just a dream!” “Life is now perfect.”