I Met Jesus in the Psych Ward

If Jesus asked you to give up religion, would you do it?

2021. I was home alone with two little kids, sleep deprived, isolated, and ready for the end of the world.

And I prayed. I begged God to reveal Himself to me. I wanted to hear His voice.

My mental health unraveled until it collapsed, and I finally collapsed in the psych ward.

I was scared.

And I met a guy named Mark.

I was sitting in a windowsill at the end of the hallway one day, when Mark, the homeless alcoholic guy, walked up to me, almost shaking. In a very powerful way.

"Who do I look like?" He said in a way that pierced my soul.

As I gazed into his deep blue eyes, the answer came from my quivering lips, "You look like Jesus, Mark."

He really did.

"There's a reason for that. I came here to tell you something."

"You're going to change the world. Through love."

Wow.

"But you've got to knock off this religious bullshit, or you'll do nothing."

The silence was deafening.

I stumbled back to my room.

Did I just meet Jesus?

How bizarre. How entirely absurd. A homeless alcoholic in the psych ward. Religious bullshit?

It couldn't be.

But something in me just knew.

Something actually made a lot of sense. Jesus, tax collectors and sinners. The least of these. Whoever is not willing to give up father, mother, sister, or brothers for Me is not worthy of Me.

It would still be a few more years until I walked away from religion. But in that very moment four years ago, it religion had already died in my heart. And now it seems that in that moment, something new was already beginning to come to life inside.

What if it's not that we don't hear Jesus... what if His voice is so shocking to us we don't think it could possibly be Him.

If Jesus showed up and asked you to give up religion for Him, would you do it?