Christ-centered clarity

Christ-centered clarity:

Last night I had a dream that I was trapped in darkness, in my dream I reached for my phone for light but it wouldn't turn on and I had nothing.  The darkness felt so scary and lonely. 

I ran to find someone to be with me, to be a source of comfort for me, but the person I found was a person who was stuck in a nightmare of their own.  The person was half awake and half dreaming like myself and I was shouting for that person to wake up saying it was me, because that person was someone I was close to but that person couldn't hear me.  Instead, that person was trying to hurt me because that person was stuck in a nightmare too and thought I was trying to hurt them.  It was the weirdest thing, but I woke up (for real) and I began to pray.  When I woke up my body was so tired, but my mind was a violent storm making it impossible for me to fall asleep despite the weight of exhaustion heavy on my body and eyes.  So with whatever physical ability I had, which was so little, I prayed for God to help me in the name of Jesus.  I prayed for God to help me fall asleep in the name of Jesus, to calm the storm in my head, the violence in my spirit, and He did.  But before He did He spoke to me. 

I was so scared because in my dream the person I went to for safety and comfort became the killer, but I realized oftentimes when we are stuck in our own self-centeredness we don't mean to hurt others but we do because when Jesus is not at the center of our lives then destruction is automatically at the center because people are all then trying to take and take from other people.  When we live self-centered lives we, too, become hurting machines, expecting things from other people that only God can give us, stuck in our dark sleep state expecting other dark sleep-stated people to give us what they can't!  They are trying to take from us to help them but we are trying to get from them and two negatives do not make a positive.  We destroy each other unintentionally. 

I think I dreamt this because the night before I got so upset and hurt by my close friend.  God reminded me that if my friend (or any person for that matter) is not living a Christ-centered life then they are stuck in a sleep state of self-centeredness.  

I will never find comfort or safety in another person stuck in a nightmare of their own.  Only in Christ.  When we are all Christ for one another we can be a source of comfort and safety for one another, but we ourselves need Christ at the center of our own lives first.  What I needed to do was see that I needed to find my security in Christ again, and not blame my friend who could be stuck in a sleep state of their own and unable to wake up let alone provide for me what I could only find in Christ.  

I needed to wake up from my self-centeredness first.  Press into my source of Life which is Christ and then I could help my friend only by giving them Christ through my actions and words.  Treat them the way Christ has treated me, give them what Christ gave me.  Compassion.  Forgiveness. Grace. Unconditional love.  Mercy.  My life. 

The ones who are awake can help others, but when we are ourselves are stuck in our own self-centeredness we are like sleeping zombies.  Let's wake up so that we can give Christ to others instead of take and expect things from them....we won't find what we are looking for in another zombie if we continue to be zombies ourselves.  We will end up hurting one another over and over.  What we can do is wake up and realize that our help comes from God alone--our comfort, our love, our acceptance, our hope, and our life comes from God at the center of it all.  When we wake up we can then begin to help others wake up too and point them to the source of life, Jesus.  

I'm just a fellow woken-zombie bringing Christ to my fellow sleeping zombies; the only One who is able to wake them up and bring them back to life.  Not I, but Christ. 

Jesus is the only way, truth, and life. 

We come as we are because Christ knows our deepest darkest secrets.  We are like the Samaritan woman at the well who meets with Jesus and is exposed for everything she has done and tried to hide.  Jesus calls out her promiscuity or whatever shame it is that makes her lie about not having a husband, and He gives her the truth.  She starts to question Jesus about whether He is greater than Jacob, the man of God, and Jesus is like "Yep, yes, I am."  

Haha.  

Because He is God.  

None is greater than God Himself.  

 

“You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are You? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.” 

Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again.  (When we try to find life in anything or anyone other than God we will end up thirsty again, eventually.) 

But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again — ever! In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up within him for eternal life.”

John 4:12-14

Let's wake up and give Christ to one another today, the only source of true life.  This is indeed the truth, and the only way.  

I was gently given the truth again to wake up from my self-centered life and put Jesus at the center of it all.  That is to have life everlasting.  Any other person or thing at the center of my life is eventually going to run out, and when it runs out it means the end of life: destruction.

"Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

-John 14:6 

Let's not remain zombies, but Christ is able to wake us up and live.  

To Him be all the glory and honor forever and ever, Amen. 

Jmegrey