Clumsy Warrior

As I was praying for the people on the west bank, (an area in Minneapolis by the Mississippi river,) I saw a picture that would change the way I view prayer. I was standing at the edge of a parking lot. This parking lot is a central location in a densely packed commercial area. Between the businesses, restaurants, and the high rise there are few places left for people on foot. I stood on the sidewalk and watched all the activity in the lot. It was chaos. Earlier that week or the week before a stray bullet had penetrated the picture window on the street-side of The Hard Times Café. It was a serious time for prayer and I was deadly serious. I stood there silently on the sidewalk, staring into the parking lot, sending all my intentional prayers in that direction. Jesus needed to intercede here. I desperately wanted a miracle. So I began to pray. As I prayed, a picture entered my mind that I wanted to pray through.
I have to say here, I am a visual person. If my brain had a sense of humor, it would totally be hilarious. I have heard that in some scientific way, your brain can become addicted to the chemicals released when you “make a funny”. I am sooo totally hooked. I am the funniest person I know. My brain is not only funny, sometimes it can be clever, and sometimes it can show me things in a clearer way than I could have achieved if I had tried to construct a thought the old fashioned way. Maybe, God dips down from heaven and gives me a picture? Usually it’s me, and it’s usually when I am just a little bored. Mike sometimes goes on a bit about his own ideas. I guess that is the casualty of marriage; you have to “share” your thoughts and ideas with each other. Mike is brilliant! Too smart for me, so sometimes my mind may drift a little. Blah, Blah, ecclesiology, Blah; and then it happens, “What do YOU think?” I was not listening, and I can’t tell a lie. That is when I answer “Um, I was totally thinking about Neptune” or “I was thinking about dinosaurs”. My brain seems to be disconnected by either space or time. And you can usually find me in the strange place between the Jurassic time and the edge of our galaxy. I am interested in Mike’s ideas, but sometimes he needs to prime the pump, as it were, sum up the idea in three sentences or less; intrigue me, tease me; get me moving in the right direction. Or put me to sleep. It better be a good three sentences. Make my brain think you have what it wants, and I will be tracking with you. As I said though, sometimes, maybe, God takes this wild stallion brain and makes it see truths in pictures so that even I can understand. *Pretty pictures*, yes.
So as I was praying, I saw a great hurricane in the parking lot. It was black with debris and roared like a train. The hurricane was low, about waist high, and I could see over the surface to the other side of the lot. That is where I saw Jesus standing, seeming to wait for my intercession. Like Moses pleading for the Israelites. I thought about the prayer I might pray to implore Him to do a miracle. I looked at Jesus’ face in my minds eye and said “If only you would enter this storm, if only you step foot on this parking lot, the violence would stop.” If people only saw Jesus in this place, they would repent. Only Jesus can restore broken people, broken cities. If only… Without any words exchanged I knew I needed to take another look at that hurricane. It had not registered until now that this hurricane was unusually low to the ground; I guess I just accepted that this was a metaphor and had not found other significance. I leaned to the side a bit like I might check out my car for any engine damage. Yeah, I am no mechanic; I know the engine is not visible from the outside, I just know to look for dripping stuff underneath the car. Like I said, I am no mechanic, so I don’t actually get on the ground either. I just lean to the side a bit. That was when I noticed that this storm was flat. Flat on the top, flat on the bottom; as if it were contained in a pane of glass. Glass that covered the parking lot, elevated to waist high. Jesus motioned for me to look up and showed me that the true storm was overhead and what I was seeing was merely a reflection of the war taking place in the spiritual realm. I saw this violence all around and thought this was where the battle lies, but the true battle is NOT against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers of darkness.