Tethered to Christ

The other night, I had a dream that I was part of a surveillance team. There were about ten of us & we made our base at a house in the country. We entered through the back of the house, which faced a pond & small forest beyond the pond.

I took charge & gathered everyone in the living room to go over rules for our surveillance (who or what we were watching, I do not know!) I had a list of rules, supposedly from a previous time, & started to read them. My goal was to cover the three or four rules already in place, then add any others we as a group felt were necessary.

We got through the first two, then one by one, people started leaving to go off on their own. No one was listening to me...I'd lost control of the group & began to grow angry. Instead of confronting anyone, I just shut down & went to bed. Because I was so angry, I couldn't sleep & decided to go outside for a walk around the pond.

As I was walking, there were three men walking toward me. They were tethered together by what appeared to be a large spider web. I realized that one of the men was Jesus & I knew that I did not want to be in His presence, especially in my angry mood. I started to back away, but when I looked down, I noticed a couple strands of the web were attached to the lower part of my shirt. I started to pull them away, but w/ each part coming undone, more enveloped the rest of my body. I was stuck to Jesus!

One of the attached men was playing a game on an iPad. He grew angry & threw it down. As his anger grew, he broke loose of the web & ran in the opposite direction of Jesus. I don't know where the other man went...he just faded into the dream.

Throughout this time w/ Jesus, He never once spoke to me or even looked my way. However, the closer the web pulled me to Him, the less anger I felt. There was a sense of peace growing inside me. As that peace grew, the web loosened & eventually fell off. By then, I had no desire to leave Jesus' presence. All my anger disappeared, replaced by peace & rest.

The following morning's Gospel (Aug. 12) says, "Unless you turn and become like children..." (Matthew 18:3). Then The Word Among Us reflection for the day stated, "Even if you feel the weight of all your responsibilities, you can still take up a childlike attitude. You can do this by putting a priority on prayer because that's where you'll hear your Father teaching you and guiding you through the pressures of your life."

The prayer at the end of that reflection was the following:
"Father, strip away my self-sufficiency so that I can look to you for guidance. Teach me how to be your child."

WOW! What a message the Holy Spirit sent me through that dream, the Gospel, & the reflection! By allowing myself to be tethered to Christ, not resisting the web that pulled me closer to Him, I was able to find peace through my anger...unlike the iPad man. He let his anger get the best of him, taking over & pulling him further away from the peace that Jesus offers.


The timing on all of this was perfect (isn't that the way w/ the Holy Spirit?) It was later that day that we picked up Matt's car from some major repairs & it stalled on him in the middle of a busy intersection. Remembering my dream & the readings from the morning, as well as keeping my verse for the year in mind ("Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice." Philippians 4:4), I was able to remain calm & peaceful throughout a stressful situation!