Dear Bro. John:
Reading the responses this week to “our” story, the Lord reminded me of a wonderful dream he sent me in 2009, and also of a question the Spirit asked me around that same time: “Are you willing to suffer for someone to have what you have?”
From 2009 email to PJ
I had a wonderful dream last night.
In the dream, someone close to me in the Lord was dying. I took this person to the doctor, but when we came into his office, instead of treating him, the doctor came over to me and put his hands on my neck and very gently turned it just a little bit (I heard it “crack” when he adjusted it). He looked so tenderly at me and very kindly asked if I could breathe okay and if I thought I could live with the adjustment that he had just made. He said that if I could not, he would adjust my neck back to where it was (as he was saying this he put it back just so I could feel the difference). Then, he glanced over at the person who I had brought in to see him and said to me, “I can put you back like you were before, but then (nodding toward the other person) I would have to put him down” (meaning that he would die). Without hesitation, I told the doctor that even though my neck was in a different (and noticeably awkward) position, I could adjust and was more than okay with it. I did not want the other person to die.
Brother John, when I awoke, I asked the Lord, “Lord, what was that about?”
He started showing me how much we in the body of Christ are connected to one another. How much we can hurt or can help one another. How much we depend on one another for Life! Whatever correction or adjustment is needed, someone else’s life is connected to ours, and we are dependent on one another to do the right thing in God. We have to be willing to humble ourselves to accept that adjustment for the sake of others. And above all else, for the edifying of the body of Christ and the namesake of Jesus.
In the dream, I would have been more comfortable with the position my neck was in to begin with, but it was not about my comfort. I did not want the other person to die – – I loved them. I had to be willing to accept the adjustment so that they could live. I pray that we all learn how very much we need one another and are connected, that we be willing to humble ourselves to the hand of God so that the body of Christ may live.
“And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.
Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.” 1Cor. 12: 26-27
Sandy 🙂