Man of Sorrows Painted by Kathleen Carr – http://www.carrfineart.com/

Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for [someone] to devour 1:Peter 5:8

I had another strange dream last night.   I felt as though two worlds of mine had been meshed into one.  The world where I was younger and more care free with less worry, and the world of my present where I am married and have children.

I was at a party and it was in a mansion and there was a swimming pool outside.  Everyone in the mansion was young and beautiful, but they were also drunk.  I was the only sober person there.  I was aware that I was older and had children at home, but somehow I also was young and at this party.

I ran into a friend of mine from elementary school.  He was drunk.  In real life this friend committed suicide at the age of 17 in 1989.  I remember thinking in the dream, I am so glad he is not dead, but I realized quickly he was one of the most drunk at the party.  He was incoherent.  I pleaded with him to stop drinking and to sober up.

Suddenly I heard a noise and looked up in the sky.  I saw hundreds of bomber planes flying over head.  I knew our country was being invaded and we were about to be bombed. People were screaming, but too drunk to figure out what to do.  I looked for my friend and could not find him.

I decided I had to go home to get my kids with my husband.  I also discovered the enemy who was invading (it was never revealed who the enemy was in my dream) had been keeping a list of people they thought were subversive so that they could kill them.  I discovered also that my name was on the list, though I didn’t know why, other than the fact that the enemy hated God and I love God.

I made it home.  My son had a disguise for me, a wig, because my family also knew I was wanted.  We left for the airport and we knew that our cell phones were being tracked so we destroyed them.  We watched as the enemy army was shooting people in the streets who were not cooperative.  I was in a state of constant anxiety, yet I prayed the whole time.  I felt in my dream as if each next step I took was guided by God.  I also knew my goal is heaven, so not to fear death either.  I decided if earthly death was to come, God would prepare me, but I didn’t think I would die on this night.  Then my alarm went off and I awoke.

Upon further reflection the passage above stuck in my head.  Be sober and vigilant. I felt a sense of urgency of preparedness.  Not of “prepping” preparedness, but of spiritual preparedness.  Like we have to get our priorities in order.  In the past when I have dreamed of my friend who committed suicide I took it as a sign to pray for him, that perhaps he’s in purgatory.  But this time I had a larger sense that he represented something besides himself.  That he was representative of our society.  The mansion, the swimming pool, the alcohol, it all represents the material items our society is addicted to.  We are drunk on goods, alcohol, drugs, money, sex, you name it, anything but God.  The enemy attacking, to me that’s the devil coming, and we are not prepared for it.  We are so focused on anything but God we won’t know what hit us if our comfortable lifestyle is taken away.  I see suicide as rampant among people who lose everything and don’t know God.  Those who know God are unattached to earthly wealth so they can remain at peace even when all seems lost.

I feel as though we have asked God to leave our society.  And so, He waits, waits for us to come back to Him.  But if we want Him removed we have to deal with the consequences of removing Him.  A society without God is a society of war, death, confusion, lies, and addiction.  It is a sad society and it is what creates Jesus the Man of Sorrows.  He is sorrowful for the sin of the world.  He beckons us back to Him.  It is fitting my cousin felt compelled to paint the Man of Sorrows as her latest painting.

If you are without God in your life I urge you to call out to Him.  His mercy and love are immense.  He waits for you, so be sober and vigilant.