[3 minute read]
A friend has a book that speaks to the reader in the first-person voice of Yeshua, Christ, God.
Why is it so striking?
When we read the canonical narratives of Judeo Christianity, they are in the third person, and we are objective observers hearing conversations involving God. “And the Lord spake unto Moses…” “Jesus said…” The third person voice is gentle. It is left up to us to insert ourselves into the story to receive the Word.
I can barely read or hear a sentence from my friend’s book without being seized and overwhelmed. “I have made you this way…” “Let me do this for you…” “Let’s do that together…” Many of the third-person narratives in the scriptures are of course love stories. But I often sense them as the love stories of someone else. Like great movies, yes, they move me deeply to the extent I internalize them. But the direct voice of my friend’s book skips that internalization process. It’s not optional when you are spoken at directly.
The words are a punch directly in the chest. Right at the heart. Like a physical blow to my chest, it takes my breath away, literally. And like recovering from that lost breath, the very next breath is extraordinarily deep, and literally life-giving. It’s weird to me that words can do that.
I suppose it’s not words. To be metaphorical, it is the Word. Piercing my hardened sentinel—my ego. It hurts. Literally. It’s incomparably terrifying. I suppose it’s how the Word brings action to this world.
Some people are terrified by blood. Some pass out at its sight. Even those of us who stomach it are unsettled by it. It’s something that belongs “inside.” Not poured out.
Blood only moves through our insides when the heart pumps it. The heart, not mind.
When the direct words of my friend’s book pierce my heart figuratively, taking my breath away literally, and blood figuratively flows out of that piercing, I sense something *inside* that I too often think of as “out there.” I sense an intrusion. Violation. It is terrifying. Something comes into my heart that I am used to keeping out of it.
Yet mysteriously, it feels perfectly right. So natural. It is my nature to bleed from the heart. It is my nature to be free—free to choose what pierces my heart. Free to accept the raw terror of the blood that comes only from insides. And that is your nature too. To bleed in terror. To love FROM the terrifying fierceness inside.
“You only fear Me because you cannot feel and trust the fullness of pure love — yet. My Son’s passion is a show of love’s purity, not a message that you need to fear Us, nor that you needed His sacrifice… I do not command you by any other power or authority except love… Fearsomeness is false power, and I am not false. Love holds no space for fear. And I AM love…” (source)
The rawness of love’s fullness is terrifying.
Friend, fear no one or anything today. Cause no fear. Instead…
Terrorize someone today.
.
Neil D. 2020-06-05
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