Think of flies in real life -- they annoy by landing on us, buzzing, getting into food; bring potential disease, spread quickly, waste time trying to stop each individual one. We stop what we're doing, bc we won't get much done until that's resolved.

Or we could calm ourselves and ignore, but that takes self-control.

The larvae prey on dead or decaying things, transforming and removing them. Like people pick on weak spots, or swoop in to take advantage, when they see an organization dissolving.

Churches weakened during the pandemic, losing attendees and finances. We also saw an increase in greedy leaders who took donations for themselves; and scandals floated to the top, with info of abuse and corruption. So now there is even more reason for saprophytes and parasites to pick on a dying org.

Each fly doesn't live long, but they multiply so quickly that we do need to stop them.

Each non-Christian may not gossip long, but they fuel the fire.

In the US, half of society is already lumping Christians together as though all are intolerant. They equate Christians with all sorts of political and societal issues. Media has worked on that for at least a decade. There are entities funding media bias -- some with intent to divide, maybe stir conflict; others to steer society for certain reasons.

Hotel rooms are temporary stays, borrowed spaces. Maybe a reminder that your existence is eternal, and life on earth does not need to be protected as tightly as we imagine.

Overall, I think the dream helps you be ready. Cautious in your wording, savvy in how you communicate.

Hopefully it spurs prayer, leaning on God daily for how to deal with what comes.

I'm not sure whether it is violent persecution, but that does truly happen in different parts of the world, so we should pray for those suffering.

And pray over the mindsets that build into hatred and violence. God can turn hearts and plans; improvements that happen over time can start now.

Perfect love casts out all fear.