“ I don’t care if Heaven is a Cardboard box as long as Jesus is there” : Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel. What does that mean?

 I will tell you something from my personal experience.

These things happened after my father passed away. My heart was very heavy, and my relations with all the others suffered deeply. I had some sort of childhood trauma and thing that is surfacing.

I relied on art. Most importantly, I tried to separate myself from my ego. This is one of the concepts Carl Jung wrote about in his book. And on a very bright sunny day it happened. It was like going through a tunnel. That tunnel is very narrow. That portal is open to the person who cannot reconcile with the ego but is attached to the self. I felt abandoned. Deeply abandoned. There is no feeling in this world that I have experienced that can compare to that.

I felt like a total stranger. To everyone. I am deeply scared of everyone. Even to the guy who pumps gas in the petrol pump. He is unknown to me. Like I am an alien in his world. There is no connection with anybody. Nobody has behaved badly toward me. But I felt that abandonment. That is one thing God has given me to experience. I am not a feeling type of sensing type. I am strictly a thinking type. I don't recall feelings like the feelings people do. But I remember that very clearly. Like it is imprinted on my memory, like that is very important. The world has literally vanished. like someone has taken the land out from under my feet. I am standing in void. I felt like a hollow shell. Moving and coherent, but there was nothing inside me. When you know, you know.

Now compare it to my present condition.

Even if I am in a totally strange place and know nobody, I feel like I own that place. That is what is happening to real Christians. They are staying in a prison. They are very happy there. They have a terrible disease. They are very happy. Because the Lord is with them. All the time. I don't have any accolades; nobody knows my name. But I feel like a king. That is because Christ is King of Kings. He is the Lord. He is risen, and he is more real than the stars and the galaxies combined. He is beyond the time-space continuum. Wherever there is information, he is there, until you reject him. So heaven is not some infrastructure or a pleasure trip for the body. It is a state of being prepared to persevere in the perfect equilibrium forever. Because the fight you fight now, God has already fought it. Before the birth of time. When you suffer, he knows. Have you ever seen this when a human has some knowledge that he has gained by overcoming the adversity and wants to share it with those who are in that adversity? It is humane. No. It came from God. God is preparing you. You will not have this material body after some time. But you will still have to face those adversities. But the trick you do with the body will not be applicable then. You think you can fool someone less smart than you. Then you have to meet Satan. He is much smarter than you. What will you do then?

God is teaching you that. It's like you teaching an ant how to defeat an elephant.