Gladys Young! Anybody out there remember our 10th grade English teacher from Hasting High? Some of us have fond memories of our time in Mrs. Young's class... some not so fond... especially if you forgot to spit your gum out before class.
So... I was haunted by Mrs. Young in a dream I had last night. Here's the dream...
I was in her classroom and Mrs. Young announced we were going to be taking a test over the next ten weeks... ten questions to be answered on a single piece of paper... every Monday morning for a total of one hundred questions to be answered over the ten week period. I had not studied for the weekly tests and as the tests were handed out each Monday, I realized I didn't know any of the answers. All one hundred questions I had to guess the answer. At the end of the ten weeks the grades were handed out... I got a perfect score! I got all one hundred answers correct! I was thrilled... until Mrs. Young came to talk to me...
"Daryl", Mrs. Young explained, "I knew every answer you gave had to be the right answer because of how well you knew the material." I gulped... "Knowing that whatever answer you gave had to be right, I used your answers to grade all the other student's tests. I even went so far as to contact the publishers of our textbooks and gave them your answers and told them they needed to change their textbooks to go with your answers." Now I started to sweat! Then she finished by saying, "This afternoon, we are going to have an all school assembly and announce to everybody you were the only one in the school with a perfect score and all other students were graded against your score!" That's when I woke up!!!
Okay, God! This has to be a prophetic dream, right?
"Yep" , was His answer...
"If you look at your calendar, you will see that we passed the 100 day mark of this pandemic last week. This is your test. I want you to review your past 100 days of how you lived your life during the pandemic and ask yourself, 'Would I want to see those around me live their lives based on my grading scale?' Did you live in faith vs fear? Love vs judgement? Generosity vs Greed? Prayer vs Worry? How would the world feel today if they ate what you ate yesterday? If I graded society... the church... the government... the world... on how you lived your life over the past 100 days, where would we all be?
Some things I did well... some not so well... most definitely there’s room for improvement! Although... in my defense... Donna’s peach crumble was hard to resist yesterday and I’m convinced the world would be a much happier and better place with more peach crumble.
I heard a message this week where the speaker said, "If your life isn't supernatural, it's superficial". God is calling me higher... to live a supernatural life not a superficial one. Our time is short here on earth. We need to be watching for opportunities each and every day to present kingdom life to those he brings into our world.
Thank you Gladys Young for the reminder...