Sweet Dreams are Made of This

Terri Whitney-Jackson

Sweet dreams are made of this,

Who am I to disagree?

I travel the world and the seven seas

Everybody’s looking for something. (The Eurithmics)

Seek to see the face of Jesus In everyone we meet;

And pray that everyone we meet

Will see the face of Jesus in you. (St. Mark’s Church Creed)

Holy Spirit, Come Let this be your home.

Come and dwell among All of us who sing this song.

Come into this place, Shine on every face,

Fill us with your love and grace; Holy Spirit, come. (Praise Hymnal number 93)

 

I’m sure you’ve had the experience of having a song gets stuck in your head. “Holy Spirit, Come” has been rolling around in my head for a couple of weeks now. In fact, today, I woke up singing it. This is an awe-some prayer, or psalm, if you will. It embodies what we, as Christians, believe. We sing it each during worship as a prayer for transubstantiation.

I really dislike going to the grocery store, and especially today, the day before Thanksgiving, I was truly dreading it. But today is different. I walked in this morning with a spring in my step, feeling totally sated by the Holy Spirit. I pray for this all the time, because life can get in the way - all the cares, worries, burdens and problems - and create a spiritual desert. This is not a wonderful place to be. Unfortunately, although I’ve looked for the path of light my entire life, I have lived much of my life in that desert.

This song was a pop tune somewhere in the 1980’s, a decade which is totally lost to me. I was in that spiritual desert. For me, that means I was in the grip of active alcoholism and drug addiction. I was in my 20’s and living “life in the fast lane”, or so I thought. I did know, on some level, that something was wrong, but I did not know what it was, only that a pervasive sense of “wrongness” was there. Yet, I felt powerless to be anything different than I was.

I didn’t drink during my pregnancy, because of that sense; but when my daughter was 6 weeks old, the call of the bottle was too strong and I picked up a drink and spent 4 ½ months in that desert. When my daughter was 6 months old, I found out what that “wrongness” was when I heard God speak to me. I was alone in the apartment, except for the baby when I audibly heard the words “You have to do something about your drinking.” I whipped my head around to see who said that and realized I was alone.

Thus began my journey of recovery and discovery of God in my life. Now, this is not to say that for the past 18 years I have never been in that desert, because I have. The reality is that for the last 7 years, I’ve been there. My spouse lives in a spiritual desert and because of my own wounds, I had not been able to break free of that oppressiveness either. That is, until Ash Wednesday of this year.

I found myself sitting in a pew at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and hearing a message of hope. I came back the First Sunday of Lent and discovered two crucial things that told me I was in the right place at the right time: First, the pastor was also in recovery; and second, they were looking for someone to do the design and layout of a pictorial directory. Graphic design and layout is a big part of my job as an Office and Facility Manager at a church in Newton, and I had just completed a pictorial directory for them.

Coincidence you say? No. God-incidence.

Tired of living in the desert and desperate to fill the “God sized hole” in my soul, I started to become involved in the life of St. Marks, by singing in the choir, introducing myself to people and being open about my search to know Jesus; not just know about him, but know him personally.

When the Lenten Study Series was on the book The Shack, I decided to read it, too. It was through reading this book, A Purpose Driven Life, talking with Father Jim, talking to the members of St. Marks; and prayer that I began to know, to really know, Jesus.

OK, so you’re thinking, “what does that song from the Eurithmics have to do with any of this?”

In the fullness of His time, God calls each one of us. If it takes 12,227 times to get through to us, at each attempt, God will say, “Great! Only 12, 226 times to go!” With such a task at hand, we humans would be so daunted that we’d never even begin to reach out.

Yet, this is exactly what we are called to do as Christians…”Everybody’s looking for something.”

A personal connection to God incarnate, Jesus, is that something; sweet dreams are made of this.

The creed of St. Mark’s is to “Seek to see the face of Jesus in everyone we meet; and pray that they may see the face of Jesus in us.” That is vision being fulfilled by you. Supporting the Beacon of Hope, your Prayer Ministry, Prayer Shawl Ministry, Thanksgiving dinners for folks in need, the Linus Project, Operation Christmas Child and even making the Word available to all by projecting the Order of Service on the wall. I am truly grateful to have found a church home so blessed by the Holy Spirit. I’m no longer in the spiritual desert, but b by the Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit, Come Let this be your home.

Come and dwell among All of us who sing this song.

Come into this place, Shine on every face,

Fill us with your love and grace; Holy Spirit, come.

Amen.