Go Vertical

Matthew 25:35-36, “For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.”

For the past 2 days I have been suffering from a debilitating migraine headache. It began Sunday morning on the way to church with blurred vision, and what I would describe as holes in my vision. Arriving at church I was light headed, my fingers and lips had gone numb, and my hearing was super sensitive. From there the music began and it nearly made me vomit. Leaving after 2 songs all I wanted to do was sleep as the pain of the headache kicked in. It felt like I have slapped the right side of my head against the concrete at 50mph. Later it felt like someone had dropped an axe on my head from ear to ear. Monday the pain was dulled with Excedrin Migraine, Imetrex, and Advil. The last thing I wanted to do was get close to Jesus… or anyone else.

If life in the flesh, on earth as we know it, is functioning on a horizontal plane; and life in the spirit functioning in connection with God is on a vertical plane, then I certainly was 100% horizontal. As I come out of this travail, I can’t help but think about how I was not only; not aware of any connection to God, I was also unconcerned about any connections to God. This has got to be somehow in part the motivation when Christ spoke the scripture above. He knows that hunger, thirst, being lost in a strange place, needing clothes, being sick, or in prison can all be situations where the horizontal dominates the vertical. It’s up to us to intervene in the horizontal in these times and help those folks go vertical.

I could go on with some really silly analogies at this point, but let’s be clear. Going vertical is not walking around with your head in the spiritual clouds too good for most of mankind, and too good for the horizontal. That actually is a horizontal condition of being lost in a false ego of pseudo-spiritual greatness. Rather going vertical with God is being aware of how we can most impact the horizontal so that others can gain that awareness of Christ in their life. We must help to eliminate those things that can absolutely kill awareness of God for those close to us, or for those far away.

Feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty. Cloth the naked, visit the sick and those in prison… this will be accompanied with spiritual reward because in doing so for the least we have done it unto Him.