Radically Happy

MIC Check

Today’s Most Important Challenge is…

• Hard listening
• To the deep longings of my heart
• So I can hear others

Immanuel Approach Memo

Continued from 3/22 IAM: Cornered

I am… stoned
Corner-stoned, to be precise

Turned into a black pearl
With three other gems at the corners
Of a ten-meter diamond
And a massive, sunken Jesus lying at the center

It has begun to rain
I am pulled out of my contemplation of Jesus

“Lord
The building hasn’t even been started
The summer is passing
And my people have not been saved”

I look back at Jesus.

All I can see are His feet
But He wiggles His toe

Reminding me
He hears me
Reminding me
To fix my eyes on Him
Despite my full-circle vision

I watch Jesus
As the waters rise
I shudder
As they cover my head

Then I realize
I have no head
No mouth to breathe
No lungs to fill

I need not fear the flood
For that self is already dead

I need not fear the flood
For that self is already dead

Still
Somehow
I weep

As the waters drown
The indoor/outdoor garden
Where Jesus had led me

I keep hoping for walls to rise up
The new Jerusalem
Whose gates are pearls
Pearls like me

But that isn’t what happens
Not exactly

Instead
Everything outside
The Diamond of Jesus
Begins to fall away

I hear a shuddering
As all the supports
Holding up the castle in the air
Start to erode

Will it fall
On us?

Will the building
Where we hid
From the vengeance of Jesus
Be destroyed
Or exalted?

I don’t know
I feel these concerns deeply
Then the rain
Washes them away
And I see only Jesus

Until…
I hear a loud

Crack!

To be continued

Reflection

I feel…

• Contemplative
• Confused
• Concerned
• Convicted
• Connected
• Contrary
• Concrete

Scripture

“Justice and fairness will be the measuring lines that help me build.” Hailstones and floods will destroy and wash away your shelter of lies. Your agreement with death and the world of the dead will be broken. Then angry, roaring waves will sweep over you. Morning, noon, and night an overwhelming flood will wash you away. The terrible things that happen will teach you this lesson: Your bed is too short, your blanket too skimpy.”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭28‬:‭17‬-‭20‬ ‭CEV‬‬