I Love This Passage

I've been chewing on this passage by Eugene Peterson for about a week now. I've read it almost daily during that time and every time I read it, I come away encouraged and hopeful. Here it is:

     "Prior to the vision, St. John is on the prison island in isolated exile. He is cut off from his churches by a decree out of unholy Rome. Rome is the ascendant power. The gospel has been proved a weak and ineffective sally against unstoppable evil. Two generations after the euphoria of Pentecost it is thoroughly discredited. Everything St. John has believed and preached is, to all evidence, a disaster. And then, without a single thing having happened in Rome or in Asia--no earthquake to change the face of the earth, no revolution to change the government in Rome--St. John is on his feet. He has a message. He has a job. He has a means for bringing God home to the people and the gospel to the world. The difference between St. John the prisoner and St. John the pastor is Christ, in vision and in reality.
     St. John away from his churches, fretting from lack of intimate knowledge of his people, sees the penetrating, attentive eyes of his Savior. St. John, weak from confinement, sees the strong, burnished feet of his Lord. St. John, used to speaking with authority to his apt-to-stray sheep but now without voice, hears the authoritative voice of the Ruler of church and world. St. John, homesick for his congregations, sees them held in the right hand of the Shepherd of Israel. St. John at the mercy of the political sword of Rome, sees the word of God proceeding swordlike and not returning void. St. John, nearing the end of his days, the energy of his countenance in eclipse, sees the presence of a radiating Christ throwing blessing on all.
     By virtue of the vision, the crushed exile becomes a vigorous prophet. In time of crisis, like ruined Samson in the temple of Dagon, he receives a fresh visitation from God which delivers the people from oppression. Visions, if they are truly visions and not wish-fulfillment dreams, make things happen.
     St. John exiled is now St. John empowered. The vision did it." (emphasis mine)

What a breath of fresh, encouraging air to be reminded that even in the worst possible circumstances...if God blesses you with a vision of His direction, His leading, His will...you will no longer be known as "the exiled"...but rather..."the empowered". None of us will go on to write the vision and it become known as "The Revelation". But "visions...make things happen."

Amen!

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