Getting an Eternal Perspective in the Midst of Loss
Anger provides the energy necessary to fight for life sometimes. It can be the fuel that inspires courage and initiative to right wrongs, stand up for the weak, and defend the helpless.
“The healing path plunges us into the depths of our doubt, where a new faith can be born. This faith, birthed in the desert and the valley, frees us to remember a past not only with loss, but with redemption. It leads us to a perspective that is full of God, therefore deepening our trust that redemption will dawn tomorrow as it did once before. First, however, this process often confronts us with who or what we really have been trusting rather than God.”
Dan Allender
I think the reason I can’t seem to publish anything lately is because the truth of my life is brutal right now. And I want to be able to understand it myself first. Organize it in meaningful categories – each one with a cool, totally-makes-sense solution.
The fact is, my life right now makes no sense.
Today I read Self Harmers in the Church by Sharon Dickens, and I remembered my close brush with becoming a cutter just 18 months ago. I’m not super excited to share this with you. It’s something I’d like to pretend I never thought about. But my experience gave me some personal insights into this subject, […]
What’s the purpose of that 22-year-old’s life cut from all his potential just as he was being launched from his parent’s nest? What’s the purpose of a young mother who doesn’t live to see her offspring grow up? What’s the purpose of the millions of tiny babies nobody knew? What’s the purpose of all the old people who will die in obscurity, never having made history?
I’ve found that when I am in a bad place, emotionally, and I just want to curl up into a ball and, well, bawl…I am not so interested in opening up God’s Word. I struggle with doubt. What good will it do anyway? What if I am disappointed, and God doesn’t meet me? I couldn’t bear that rejection right now. Better to ignore Him and avoid the crushing pain of being ignored by Him.
Wounded by Your Own
Can I just whisper? I know you must feel like people, the Church, have wanted you to go away. Sweep your scars under the proverbial rug. Erase you, avoid you, silence you.
Because it’s too uncomfortable for us, the neighbors, the church, the Body, to face our own culpability in scars. Face our own fallen disfigurement. Pollyanna wasn’t the only one who wore rose-colored glasses. Few like to admit that we come from a long line of Roman soldiers who have crucified our own.
I know and I’m sorry — When it comes to the bloodied and wounded, we suddenly all lose our thin, bare necks and become turtles, shirk back into our see-nothing shells.
Sometimes the church doesn’t want to know details or listen to wounds weep or wade into the bloody mess. Christ is the Truth — but too many of His people run from the Truth.
If Christ is The Truth — then where there isn’t Truth, there isn’t Christ. Why ever be afraid of the Truth? You only need fear the Truth of anything — if you think Christ isn’t capable of redeeming everything.
Read the rest HERE.
Someday I’ll be thankful for all God did in 2014, because I know He was crazy busy in our lives. Today is not that day. Today I’m grieving. Today I force myself to look straight at the gaping hole in my heart and say, “I see it. It’s real. I will not pretend anymore.” It […]
What do you think about anger? Some anger is destructive. It rages and revenges. But sometimes anger is just part of normal life experience. If you’ve ever grieved a loss, you know what I’m talking about. Here is one woman’s confession. There’s a lot packed in this short excerpt, and I’m hopeful that rather than […]
Read the rest of Betrayal – Our Lord Knows All About It