The Power in Heaven? Yeah, I did that….

So I had this crazy dream the other night. I’m at the French Quarter having a few beers with Saint Michael the Arch Angel. Yes, the French Quarter. Hey, you have your divine revelation your way, and I'll have mine. What started as just casual chit chat about the kids, work, and the Cardinals, led it’s way to some weightier subjects.

I guess it started off as a complaint of mine:

“You see Mike, I just have trouble understanding why God, Jesus, Mary, all the angels and saints, don’t just come down here and kick butt for us, and save us from all of this misery and brokenness.  Or better yet, why even allow evil to be in the world in the first place?  The horrible things that happen down here are incomprehensible.  What we are capable of doing to one another, it’s heart breaking.  What is the point of all of this?”

“The struggles that each of you go through have great power Ben.  Great graces come from them.”

“Yeah, I know.  I’ve heard that before.  Offer up your suffering.  When you are at your weakest, that’s when you are moldable clay for the kingdom, blah, blah, blah.”

“Actually, it’s more than that.  Can I let you in on a secret?”

“Of course.  Whatever you tell me will be kept in the strictest confidence and never end up in written form on the internet in a blog.”

“Ok, this is going to be hard for you to understand, but Heaven needs you.  The power of your resistance of temptation and sin, is the catalyst that creates Heaven.  Without all of you on earth, we couldn’t be here.  We are all dependent on each other.”

“Wait…….what?”

“Remember the movie you saw with the kids last night?”

“Monsters Inc.?”

“Yes.  Remember how they used the screams and eventually laughter to fill up their tanks and power their world?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s kind of like that.  You see Ben, we need to allow free will to exist, so that evil can exist.  As evil exists, so does that option to choose good and turn from it.  Every time you choose not to sin, or do something with great love, it fills our tank, and graces go up to Heaven and eventually can cycle back to earth like water evaporating and then falling like rain.  Just know that we all need you.  Not just to become holy so you can join us in Heaven.  We need your “Yes" to God in every little action you do.  Without it, we become powerless to help and intervene in your life.”

For the record, I know this is not sound theology. I’m confident that God did not create Earth to be some power plant to run Heaven like the robots from the Matrix. But the lessons of my dream are not lost on this student. Often at times, I convince myself that my sin is a victimless crime. It’s a secret that I keep to myself and it doesn’t have an effect on those around me, this world, or God. This is is also bad theology. God wants to remind me, in a way that I can understand, that the choices I make everyday don’t just have physical consequences, they have spiritual ones. In the same way I teach my kids about personal responsibility and where they end up in life is directly related to the good and bad choices you make along the way, God is telling me the same thing.

I used to pray for temptation to leave me. For my heart to be pure, and for sin to never enter my mind. I see now that if God wanted to grant us a life like that, he wouldn’t allow evil to exist. He wouldn’t allow free will. He doesn’t want to force us to love Him. That would ruin everything. He wants us to choose Him. To love Him with our free will. And choose good for goodness sake. There cannot be a victory if there is no battle. So grab your sword and go out into this broken world and face temptation. And kick it’s butt. And watch the lights in Heaven flicker with a surge of power from the grace you created.