Disturbing but useful dream: Was walking through various scenes in which I saw differing reactions from Christians to the realties of life, particularly its harsh realities. Some were reacting in anger against distress they had known, some were reacting by escape, some were turning to a series of emotional fripperies, some were focussing on trying to improve tiny irrelevancies… etc. The sense was I was just to observe and that trying to “help” would not have been the right thing at that moment.

The sign of maturing faith is not that we deny facts or reality as they emerge, nor shut them out, nor cope by living in a smaller and smaller world of spiritual experiences where harsh realities are not allowed to show their disturbing distressing face. Faith sees facts of all types, pleasant and distressing; sets itself to live fully in reality, in truth; refuses to create false spiritual reality into (non)existence separated off from factual reality. Faith sees the way things are. It is more aware of the way things are than the closed mind and limited awareness of facts that unbelief and atheism suffers from, for it sees – sometimes with ease sometimes with struggle – that God is, and that He always is…

If something has hit you hard in the face recently, or even this very day, Jesus is praying for you, that your faith fails not. I pray that even if it is like a smouldering wick, it will not be put out. If you are like a bruised reed, remember Jesus is there to lovingly help you not be broken as you may fear this very day you might be. Easy to say…not always easy to believe or live out…

God bless your faith and deliver us all from fantasy. May we know the difference.

Kenny