The Lord: Master of our Soke

When Soke was a teenager, he had a dream that he was killed in an accident and went to heaven. At this point, it sounds like a dream with a happy ending, but there was one problem. Someone thought he was a Christian and let him through the gate. St. Peter must have been on vacation. That is the only way he could figure that he had gotten inside.

Then, Soke saw a friend who he knew was blown to bits in Vietnam, but now he looked better than ever. Soke reached out to touch him, but the harder he tried the more he just couldn't reach him, though they were only a foot apart. It was like there was a great gulf of worlds between them. Soke yelled to him, but he didn't respond. It was like being locked up in a glass jar with nothing but the pale stench of death inside. The hard part was looking through the glass, seeing the extreme beauty and the freshness of life passing before him on the outside.

Suddenly, Soke bolted upright in bed, still in shock! He had just regained conciousness from a serious motorcycle accident. He began to recall going over the handlebars and his life flashing in front of him as he slid along the roadway. However, what he had just seen in his dream of heaven was causing him more pain than his injuries from the accident.

There was Soke in heaven. He could see the beauty, happiness, and the excitement of this place, yet, because of his lost, sinful nature, he could not feel any response of contentment within himself. All that he could sense was a vacuum. People would just walk by without seeing him. Some were old friends from his past. They seemed so filled with joy as they spoke with each other about someone they called "Lord."

During the next week, Soke pondered his dream. He began to rationalize his lifestyle; reminding himself that he had always been a good churchgoer and was kind to most people, in spite of his drug use and his very vulgar mouth. He just shrugged the whole thing off and continued to live with death as his companion.

Then, by the grace of God, Soke's brother was brought into the knowlege of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior! Through his brother's love and concern, it was only one more month before Soke met the "Lord" the people in his "Heaven Dream" had been talking about. At this point, he knew why they were so happy and why he could not sense the source of their happiness in his dream. It was because he had not yet found Jesus Christ, his Lord and Savior!