So in this dream, I am suddenly thrust into the limelight. I don't want to be president, but I ran on the platform that in general, the American political process as it is today sucks. I ran on a platform of reducing the national debt, even though it means cutting funding to worthy programs. In this dream, I remember standing in front of Congress, and asking them, "Why am I here? Am I here because I want to be? Am I here because I desire power? No. I'm here because the American people hate the way you do business. They're sick of laws being passed with addenda that have nothing to do with what the law is for. They're sick of people deciding for them what's in their best interest, based on who yells the loudest or who has the deepest pockets. They are sick, in short, of you. Therefore, I will veto any bill that does not focus solely on one issue." And I did. It took them a while to figure out how to write laws that couldn't be understood without an advanced degree in cross referencing, but eventually there were laws passed that did one thing and one thing only.
I remember touring the White House, having all these busy little bees (not literally bees, but just people who buzz all over - I felt I had to clarify since this was a dream, and talking bees usually aren't out of the question in dreams) showing me all the different rooms, and while this is happening all I'm thinking about is how huge it is and how hard it will be to get used to living in a place so big. And as we are passing through staff quarters, I find rooms more my size, and end up actually trading bedrooms with a staff member, for the express purpose of staying humble. Living directly among the people who are being paid to serve me and making sure that I don't get comfortable having whatever I want whenever I want.
I also remember having to stand up for my beliefs. Coming under fire because of things said by my pastors. Many sermons from my church are available for free download as mp3s. There's even a podcast subscription you can get in iTunes now. And in this dream, there are people who want nothing more than to tear me down and discredit everything I say. And that's really easy to do if you take snippets of what I listen to week after week out of their proper context. It doesn't take me being president for people to take Mark's words and twist them to make it seem as though he is a hateful, bigoted man. It already happens. There have been websites devoted to slandering him – to saying he preaches hate, and it's all a lie. You can't take a small chunk of a sermon to know what the man stands for. Honestly, even a whole sermon isn't enough. But after many years, I know the character of this man, and he is a loving, deeply compassionate, extremely zealous but often incendiary man. And in this dream I had to answer to that. And my answer there was the same as it is here. I deeply love and respect Mark. Not because he's my pastor and I feel this loyalty to him, though I do, but because after observing his life... his attitudes... his habits, I know him to be a man who seeks God's will. I know him as a man who speaks the truth, even though it often makes him unpopular. He's not always right. I don't always fully agree with what he says. But I do know this - he speaks with the wisdom that comes from decades of passionately seeking God.
What really struck me though, was that throughout this dream, I was doing the same. I wasn't using my position of authority as authority to do whatever I wanted, but rather I sought out what was good. I chose to do what was best for the people I served – the American people. And what was best didn't make them, or me, happy. I sought the council of aides and staff and advisors, but also in everything, I sought God's council. I would stop meetings with generals and world leaders to pray. I would call Mark on the phone for a brutally honest assessment of "how am I doing?" I listened to people's concerns and addressed them.
Throughout this dream, I am in a position of what in many cases is absolute authority, but I never saw it as that. I never behaved as if it was. In one part of this dream, I was sitting in on the Great Commission pastor's conference, and one of my secret service guys was going to turn up the heat to make me more comfortable (Mark is well known for keeping it cold to keep people awake and alert) and I told him that if he touched the thermostat without Mark's say so I'd have his hide. And that moment was a beautiful summary of the entire dream. Can you imagine the leader of the free world, sitting in a room with dozens of ordinary men - men any one of us could approach with confidence - and submitting himself to them? Can you imagine the reaction from the people if the man who leads them openly, publicly, in everything, allowed himself to be led by not just other men, but God?
I've been sick with some stomach stuff recently, and on Friday I wasn't feeling well enough to go to work or church. So as I'm sitting at home all day, doing the normal things people do when they're sick - laying around, drinking Gatorade, watching TV shows, taking naps - and as I'm alone Friday night and Lori is at church it struck me that in my entire day I'd been so into doing what was out of the ordinary for me that I hadn't stopped all day to spend time with God. He gave me an entire day off from doing what I have to do, to do what I want to do, and I didn't once stop to thank him, or even think about him. Of course, once I realized that I immediately put down what I was doing and spent the couple hours until Lori got home reading and praying. While I was reading I came across the story in Matthew 8 of an encounter between Jesus and a Centurion. A Centurion was a Roman soldier. A commander in the army of a nation that had no respect for Jews, their laws, customs or beliefs. And here he comes to a Jewish man, who at this time is mainly known as a healer, a wise man, and often a public nuisance. And he says "Lord, my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering." to which Jesus said "I will go and heal him." This was not an unusual request, nor was it an unusual response. Up to this point Jesus had been going from town to town preaching and healing people with all kinds of disease. But the Centurion's reply is what struck me, and has stuck in my mind. He said "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it." Jesus was astonished at this man's faith, and used him as an example for our time as well as theirs. That though this man was not a Jew, not one of God's chosen people, his faith in Jesus and who he was put him "at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven." Whereas many Jews, who were called by God, will be thrown into the darkness for their lack of faith. And of course, Jesus healed the man's servant without ever going to his house.
Here's the weird thing though. In my dream, it was so easy for me to be sitting in a room with military men, deciding if we should go to war, to stop and pray for wisdom for the situation. To be meeting with world leaders to decide the fate of the planet and pray for guidance. But how often do we... scratch that, do I not seek guidance for a tough situation at work? Or to seek wisdom in dealing with relationships? Why is it that when we are making big, life changing decisions we can throw up a "God, let me know what to do", but not when we're deciding whether or not we should really buy that, or say these words to someone, or whatever the situation? Yeah, God gave us the ability to reason and make decisions and we should trust in that, but only after we've learned to trust in his wisdom. You can trust in your ability to make decisions all day long, but if you don't have the wisdom to use it properly, you are going to make bad decisions all day long. Philippians 4:6 says "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." 2 Chronicles 31:21 "In everything that he undertook in the service of God's temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered." The key words here are "in everything". How much of my "everything" am I hanging on to?
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