I Need a Waterfall

I read a meme online this week.

“Some poor phoneless fool is probably sitting next to a waterfall somewhere totally unaware of how angry and scared he’s supposed to be”

And I thought, “I am exhausted.”

And then I thought, “Oh Jesus, forgive me. I have been outraged. And rightly so. But along the way, I’ve become angry and scared.”

Systematic racism has been the primary focal point of my righteous outrage. But even as I’ve focused there, I couldn’t help but notice in my peripheral other great injustices.

There’s the systematic racial abuse of millions in China, there’s the new outbreak of Corona Virus in our overcrowded and broken prison systems. There are thousands of children enslaved in the brickyards of Pakistan. Inequality is ravaging our world. And I am outraged!

Then there are the approximately 11,00 babies aborted in the US this week. This means there’s 11,000 mothers and fathers who lost their sweet little ones this week under the devastating pretense of a better future. And I am outraged!

Then I read about a new injustice at our southern border, about the abuses perpetrated on impoverished nations by big pharma, the newest disgusting Trump tweet, the newest gross Biden controversy, another story on how my city is a hotbed for human trafficking. And I am outraged!

And I’m exhausted.

I need a waterfall.

I need Jesus.

And not the outraged, flipping tables, calling out Pharisees and exposing religious and corrupt government systems, Jesus. And also not the, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, calming the storms, raising the dead, Jesus.

I need Jesus, the personal, cry together, laugh together, relational connection with my best friend, Jesus.

I need the triune Jesus. The “it is well with my soul” intimacy of the indwelling Holy Spirit, Jesus.

The confident knowing of the pleasure my Father takes in my presence, Jesus.

I turned off my news feed today. I found a waterfall and gave Jesus all my anger and fear. It wasn’t helping anyone, and it was killing me. And Jesus replaced it with grace and love. And it flooded me like mighty rivers…

His grace filled me and reminded me that my only focus today is to be one with my best friend, to receive and grow confident in the perfection of His love. And then to love others in the compassionate expression of His goodness, to live as a response instead of a reaction.

In grace, I can weep with those who weep, but I can also speak to Lazarus, “come forth!” In grace I can flip tables in outrage, but only because I am also willing to lay my life down for those behind the tables.

The outrage that changes and saves this world is the outrage of love. And so I lean into His love, a relational grace; the empowering evidence of my friendship with Jesus.

And now, no longer exhausted, I am ready.

Full of life, I am ready to love in all the transformative ways love does.

Turn off your news feed for a minute.

Go find your waterfall today.

Grace.