The Heavenly Dreams that Make Earth a Living Hell
Dreams and visions are powerful. They inspire us, give us hope, and fill us with energy to attempt the seemingly impossible.
Whose heart does not climb into their throat in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech when he declares, “I have a dream that one day out in the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood”?
That single line simultaneously moves me to do all that I can to hasten that day of unity, and also to be thankful for the reality that I get to feast at that table of brotherhood in ways previous generations did not.
In the midst of these divisive and trying days, it would do us all good to stop and ponder for a moment that dreams are still alive. I am afraid though, that our dreams might destroy us.
You can decipher that people still have big dream by paying attention to the slogans that dominated 2020. You will need to suspend your political ideologies for a moment to do this analytical exercise.
Examine carefully the slogans “Black Lives Matter” and “Make America Great Again.” Consider the hopes and dreams contained in these slogans and how they permeate the hearts of their proponents. Even an outsider to American life would pick up on the themes of equality and greatness that are buried deep in these slogans. These short phrases are pungent with a sense of longing, anguish, hope, and struggle.
The Problem with Dreams
The very best dreams and visions are big, bold, and potentially transformative. They have the power to reshape the world to be a more loving, just, and good place for everyone.
What happens though, when our dreams become unrealized, when our grandiose visions are blown away like a vapor? The “real” world has a way of crushing bold dreams with its pragmatism and stubborn slowness to change.
In 2009, I was blessed to launch City Church York with a group of young, enthusiastic families who wanted to be a church “for the Gospel and the City.” These were hard, but sweet years, full of meaningful relationships and numerous efforts to live out a dream of sorts.
One of the realities for a new church is that there are always people unhappy with their current churches who visit to give you a chance. I recall receiving a visit from a middle aged woman (I’ll call her Amy) who was full of energy and vibrant faith. When you are a small congregation, you are glad to add numbers to your small flock. Amy spoke highly of our work and how excited she was to be a part of it.
She shared her story with me over time, her disappointments with other churches, their failures and seeming lack of care she had experienced elsewhere. This was not hard to believe, since I was fully aware of the flaws of every church I had attended, including those of City Church.
But Amy was happy at City Church. It reinforced my hope that we would get it right where others were dropping the ball.
It didn’t take long for Amy to ask to meet with me. She had “ideas” and a “perspective” that she wanted to share as a new person to the church. Over the course of a short period of time, Amy shared her disappointments and frustrations with City Church. There was a certain pride in the way she told me how she was doing everything right and everyone else in the church was doing everything wrong. I tried not to be defensive, knowing that we were not a perfect church. Her short time confirmed in her mind though, that we were falling short of God’s vision for the Church.
It was hard for me not to be defensive of my little flock. Though imperfect, I saw the ways they were loving each other and doing their best to unselfishly love our City. How could she have so quickly become disenfranchised with people she barely knew?
My mind was drawn back to a passage in Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together. I was struck by the following:
“Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than they love the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial. God hates this wishful dreaming because it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. Those who dream of this idolized community demand that it be fulfilled by God, by others and by themselves. They enter the community of Christians with their demands set up by their own law, and judge one another and God accordingly. It is not we who build. Christ builds the church. Whoever is mindful to build the church is surely well on the way to destroying it, for he will build a temple to idols without wishing or knowing it.”
Bonhoeffer’s words have never escaped me. It occurred to me, that while City Church had legitimate room to grow, Amy had a wish dream for the Church that no human organization could fulfill. I am confident that if the Apostle Paul himself were leading a 21st century church, that Amy would label it a failure.
If I can be so bold, I suspect Amy loved her dream of Christian community more than she loved the local embodiment of that community itself. The vision was more captivating than the feeble, broken, image-bearers of God in front of her.
Amy left City Church shortly thereafter. I have seen her pattern in church shoppers for years, men and women disheartened that the earthly church doesn’t resemble the heavenly one.
Had Amy stayed at City Church she likely would have grumbled and been like a rotten apple infecting the whole bushel with reminders of how disappointing the church can be.
Even though her intentions may have been sincere and honest, her idolization of her dream for the local church would have destroyed that little community. The demands, steady stream of alleged failures, and spirit of judgment would have demoralized the most impassioned of us.
The Heavenly Dreams that Make Earth a Living Hell
All of us have dreams and visions. We should never lose sight of them. Dream big dreams for your marriage, family, place of worship, business, industry, school, local community, nation, and our world. Thank God for people who dream big dreams!
The problem though with big, bold, audacious dreams and visions is not their magnitude, but that they entice us to fall in love with them. “This is the way the world should be.” “Just imagine what life could be.” “If we all try hard enough then we can make these changes.”
If you are not resistant to the romantic woo of your dreams, you will quickly become disenchanted with the seeming lack of progress from the real people in your life. When the people around you fail to help you realize your dream, you will be tempted to be puffed up with a pride that says, “Why don’t they care like me?” “Am I the only one putting in any effort?”
You will eventually be tempted to despise people you formerly loved: spouses who fail to live up to the dream, employees who just don’t get it, neighbors who are out of touch. “If they can’t get their act together, then I don’t need them.”
You will definitely be tempted to demonize, attack, and potentially do violence to those who oppose your wish dream.
In your attempt to transform earth into heaven, you may be more likely to make life a living hell.
Even in our efforts to advocate for the truth and to promote justice, we must never resort to the hatred of those who oppose us. Dr. King said, "Let no man pull you so low as to hate him."
Don’t lose your vision of heaven! Keep up your energy and good work on this earth. I am not advocating an escapist mentality that says life will only be good on the other side. God calls us to a life of love and faithfulness on the earth.
Just remember that God gave us visions of heaven to excite our hearts with hope for that better country, not so that we would despise this pilgrim land and the people God placed here. We have visions of heaven to remind us that the sorrows of this life will not have the last word.
Even the best experiences of this life, those we would do all within our power to make last, are also just glimpses of better things coming. The brief glimpse of unexplainable joy, the rush of tears at a strange, holy, and unexplainable religious experience, these exist to stimulate our hearts to look above.
CS Lewis in The Weight of Glory says,
“These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.”
Lewis reminded us that we were made for another world, that our desires are tuned to make us long for that promised land. That better country is a world that will one day be a transformed version of this broken one but bubbling over with God’s love, goodness, and justice.
I would be a terrible pastor if I discouraged you from dreaming about heaven.
Please don’t stop dreaming big dreams, God-sized ones for this earth.
But don’t allow the love of your heavenly dream to make earth a living hell for everyone else. No dream is so great that it turns a neighbor, an employee, a spouse, or even a child into an enemy.
Lewis beautifully wrote that your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. Holy objects are to be separated, guarded, honored, protected, and yes, loved.
God is love. Hell is the absence of God’s presence, simply put, a place where love is never experienced. If you want to make this world more heavenly, plot and scheme to fill it with love.
If I find that the pursuit of my wish dreams has led me to despise one of these holy objects, then I have become guilty of loving my dream of community more than the community itself.
This is why God hates wish dreams. They make us proud and pretentious, leading us to despise people that God loves.
So, check your slogans and the dreams they represent. I hope they are big enough to inspire us all to throw our energy into making this world better for everyone.
I just pray that our love of these dreams never surpasses our care and concern for our neighbors, because that would make this world a living hell.
Heaven help us.
