The Mission

2005-10-23

As I have written before, I was a swimmer for many years. As a college senior, my last year of competitive swimming, my season was entirely a washout. I did embarrassingly poor in the championship meet: I was disqualified in one race and lost my goggles in another, an event that had not happened in recent years. That final year of school was filled with such events where I was left empty, and I felt something was left unfulfilled. The following fall, I started to swim for my old club team in an attempt to make up for the mistakes I had made, and to see the success I always wanted to see for myself. I trained in the fall and winter of that year, and lifted weights all spring and summer. I then planned to reenter the competitive sport the following fall.

I had trained about two days in the fall when the terrorist attacks struck in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. It was at that time I was called back to the reality of the seriousness of the times in which we live. This country we thought was safe from the struggles of the world found itself in the middle of a new war, and I sensed the presence of spiritual forces at work. I was in between the attacks, with New York in the north and Washington in the south.

I did not get fearful, but I began to get much more serious about the Lord, and abandoned my plans for competitive swimming during that year. The Lord was moving. At one point, I felt a certain anxiety that God was about to do something big. I felt a certain nervousness that God was about to do something, so I waited for Him to move.

Two and one-half weeks later, I had helped my cousin move from one side of the county to the other. I had gotten upset that day over a particular matter, and went home in the early evening. I went to bed at 5:30 PM and awoke the next morning at 9:56 AM. During this night, I had this dream:

I was in an auditorium with many people, and I was in the audience. There was a show or something of the sort going on, and at one point, a man came up on the stage armed with a machine gun, shouting and commanding people to do as he said. I believed that this man was a Muslim extremist. I saw this, and jumped to my feet, and immediately started preaching the Gospel. I got on stage, and did not even look at the terrorist who was on my left, and I spoke to the audience about Jesus. After a bit, I looked to my left in surprise that the gunman had not attacked me, and I saw him sitting down with his weapon away. His head was in his hands, and there were men around him, laying their hands on him in prayer.

The few times I have recounted this dream, I usually had to restrain tears. There are people out there that do not know Jesus. People without Him are hopeless, thinking they can earn God’s favor by committing terrible sins. There are still others that do not even know how to please God. We live in an age where there is no meaning to life. Thank God that Jesus came to the earth and took our sins away on the cross, and saved us from God’s wrath.

But I know, especially since then, that I was put here for a purpose. That purpose is for Jesus to use me as a vessel to accomplish a part of His Great Commission. This is a calling, and it is not unique to me. All those who call Jesus ‘Master’ must be a part of this mission. In these troublesome times, I appeal to myself and also to you the reader to be ready for the cause of Christ at every moment. Know the Word. Let Him who has the power to shape our lives take control. Only Jesus can give us meaning in life that we long for, and I know that when we are used of Him, this is the epitome to such meaning.