Freedom in the Jail

I've been meeting with Dean (not his name) in the Whatcom County Jail for several months now. When we first met and talked about Jesus, his language sounded like a Sunday school idea of God being out there somewhere and prayer being that thing you said before you went to bed, if you said it at all.

As we have talked and I've shared stories with him about the beautiful, radical, supernatural things Jesus is up to, Dean has been drawn in to a deeper engagement with Jesus. Today as we talked, I felt Jesus wanted to lift some burdens off of him. We read Matthew 11:28-30 -

Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy burdened and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon yourself and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

We talked about the things he was carrying and I asked him if he wanted to exchange his burdens for Jesus' burden. Sure. So we did a meeting place - if you could meet with Jesus anywhere, where would that be - imagine it. If Jesus were there, what would He look like? How would He greet you? And so on. We've done this before and Dean usually meets Jesus in the same place - in the woods.

As he did, I asked Jesus, "Jesus, if there is a place You'd like to meet Dean that is different that what he is imagining, will You take him there?" There was several minutes of silence and I asked Dean what was going on. He said it was the most incredible thing. When I had asked Jesus that question, the meeting place changed.

As he had been walking on a path in the woods, suddenly he was walking on clouds. He was carrying a backpack full of his burdens. As he unpacked it, he found it was full of glass spheres, each with a name of a burden. He handed each one over to Jesus and they disappeared. Then Jesus gave him a very large glass sphere with the word "sobriety" on it.

Dean was blown away as we talked about how he had encountered Jesus there in a 3x4 concrete room as we prayed over the visitor phones. I just love how Jesus loves him and makes Himself known. We prayed into the vision for Jesus' strength and presence to be with him as he receives the burden of sobriety.