Go There

This weekend, I am teaching at ECL about knowing and telling your story. This has not always been easy for me, but it is better and lighter and more freeing with each passing day. Do you have areas of your life that should someone bring them up, call out or speak into, your first response is: Don’t go there? 

That thing. That hidden place. That fear. You know what it is. Sometimes it is buried so deep and is so much a part of who you are that you cannot imagine looking at it, much less changing it. 

We have the same shame around issues today. Depression, addiction, suicide, infidelity, family secrets, divorce...I could go on and on. Somehow we think that surely our issue is so big, so imbedded, that God cannot heal it, much less use it. What is it for you? What happened so long ago, that you think - I am over that - I just have to press on? What are you afraid to look at and be open about? 

There are the moments in our lives when we we have to communicate our utter dependence on your Creator. That’s what faith is. It’s not just praying a prayer and believing you will have what you have prayed for with every ounce in your ‘believer.’ It’s depending on God and trusting him with the answers for you life.” 

All of your life. The whole of it. Not to dredge up pain. Not to cause heartache, but because that if I look at those times and situations, God can bring about redemption.

Here is the tricky part. God does not work according to my plan. If I had it my way, I would show him my wound, he would take me to the spiritual ER, give me a pain killer so it I would not feel anything, clean out the wound very well, stitch me up, and send me home with wound care instructions that would leave me with a hardly noticeable scar in just a few weeks.

If you have figured out how to make that happen, please teach me.

How do we embrace our story?

Stop running from yourself and God.

Be willing to honestly look at the painful wounds and seek healing

How do you know if you are running?

Have you been silent for less than 5 minutes in the last 24 hours?

Do you ever say “l just have to push though this”?

Do you ever say DON’T GO THERE about any area of your life?

It would be so nice for me to say, please take off your running shoes and place them on the altar. For me, it has never been simple. That is simply the first step. 

I remember the day that I finally admitted that I was a alcoholic. I can remember thinking, how did I get here? What happens if I really say this out loud? Everything I know will change. Will my husband stay? Can I be a mother? Will the church disown me? How will I ever NOT drink? I’ll never be able to go to another wedding.....you get the idea.

That is what keeps us from owning our story - FEAR of truth.

If they really knew...

I can’t keep going, and I can’t stop....

What if my kids find out...

There is no way I will be accepted by the church...

The last one holds many of us captive to our pain. Especially if we have painted the picture of perfection and togetherness on Sundays. What I can tell you is, You are accepted by CHRIST and that is way more important than what anyone in this world might think.