The last
time Charlie was sick, I pointed out he could have avoided a lot of misery by
heeding the years of warning signs. He
earnestly requested if I saw him ignoring warnings in the future, that I tell
him.
The most
terrible things about Charlie’s illness were continuous spasms of his facial
muscles and involuntary snapping of his jaws, chewing up the inside of his
mouth. Both caused agonizing pain. During that time, one of his friends and I began
to experience involuntarily jaw snapping.
We figured it was because we were so close.
Last
winter, Charlie started to appear more withdrawn and less capable. When my jaw started snapping, I decided I’d
better mention it. Charlie said he knew
his disability was worsening, but he didn’t know why. In meditation, I heard he needed to be more
visible in the world, but he was terrified of misuse of power. I told Charlie this, and said, “If there is
one person who really understands about the consequences of being visible doing
God’s will, it’s Jesus. You need to talk
to Jesus.”
A few
days later I asked, “Did you talk to Jesus?”
“I did.”
“Well
what did he say?”
“He said
if I screw up, he’ll take me out!” Charlie
was very enthused: “It’s amazing how relieved I feel!” Indeed, he was glowing with relief at the
prospect of being offed by Jesus if he lost his spiritual connection and
started hurting people instead of helping them.
This is
not the kind of assistance normally associated with Him, but upon reflection, the
Son of Man perfectly understood everyone he met and always had the answer that
was needed -- however unusual and provocative.
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