The Dream vs. Reality for a Christian

By Katherine T. Phan

Ahh..the Kingdom of Heaven, what will it be like, we often wonder. It must be a lovely place where peace overflows like a river and where we are eternally joined with our bridegroom Christ in blissful love. Everything will be beautiful and just perfect.

When many of us think of the future of mankind together with God, we think of something good, something beautiful, something perfect. The dreams of God show us a world where the every being lives in harmony and becomes one in Christ. The dream captivates us and gives us hope for the future.

But what happens when we wake up?

Reality returns and brings along a friendly wake-up reminder that we wouldn’t be something that would fit in such a beautiful Kingdom. The reality is that sin is always crouching at our door and although we recognize its knock, we let it in time and time again. Each time we let sin in, it only reminds us how unsuitable we are to be called God’s children. The reality is not beautiful. It’s something that stings. It hurts us.

”I’ve accepted Jesus Christ into my life and I try everyday to follow him. Why do I keep falling?” we wonder. Then, we begin to give up and think, “Maybe, I wasn’t meant to this path.”

It seems that although we call out to God to take the sinful reality away from us, God doesn’t answer.

In 2 Cor 12, Apostle Paul also experienced suffering from what he called “a thorn in my flesh.” Not only that, he was tormented by a messenger of Satan. Although he pleaded with the Lord three times to take it away, the Lord responded, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

That is also God’s answer to us when we call out to him to rid us of the thorn living in us, the sin that seems to endlessly repeat in our lives. God wanted Apostle Paul to know that He was together with him in his suffering and that through the weakness, God’s grace was able to rest on him even more.

Even though we repeatedly fall, God comforts us and tells us not to worry since“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

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