Our healing gift

“In a futile attempt to erase our past, we deprive the community of our healing gift.  If we conceal our wounds out of fear and shame, our inner darkness can neither be illuminated nor become a light for others.”- Brennan Manning, Abba’s Child

Matt Bays concludes Chapter 13 of Finding God in the Ruins by telling the story of Christian singer and songwriter Matt Redman.  One of Matt Redman’s songs, “Blessed Be Your Name”, reflects the ebb and flow of joy and pain in his life.  Matt Redman’s wife has suffered four miscarriages.  His father took his own life when Matt was a young child.  At the age of seven, Matt was abused by a sexual predator.

Pastor Bays states that when Matt Redman told his story at a concert he attended, at that moment heaven flooded the concert hall with light.  There almost was no place to hide.  Pastor Bays summarizes:

“Matt Redman told . . . us that we were not alone.  His story did a swan dive right into our hearts and promised us hope.  He had shown us what it looked like to tell the whole truth.”

When you cover a wound with a bandage for too long, the wound doesn’t get better.  Matt Bays compares that to our soul wounds:

“The wounds on our souls also need air.  Vulnerability, saying what happened, means ripping the bandage off so our stories can breathe.”

You might feel that revisiting your past will break you.  As Matt encourages, perhaps revisiting your past will make you instead.

Today’s question: What do you believe to be your healing gift?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: the new Short Meditation, “Rainbow Days”

Our healing gift

Where"s the fire?

“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.”- Isaiah 26:3

“We are not at peace with others because we are not at peace with ourselves, and we are not at peace with ourselves because we are not at peace with God.”- Thomas Merton

“Hurry is not of the devil.  Hurry is the devil.”- Carl Jung

This August Vicki and I vacationed in Door County (Wisconsin) to celebrate her 60th birthday.  While participating in a Door County tradition- the fish boil- at the White Gull Inn (Fish Creek), a couple sitting with us mentioned a wonderful cruise they had taken on a 1937 Chicago fireboat.  Connecting with my Chicago roots replenishes my soul, so I was all in.

The leisurely ninety-minute cruise began in Sturgeon Bay.  Leaving the harbor, the fireboat traveled down a man-made canal to a lighthouse at the entrance to Lake Michigan, where it then turned around.  I saw gulls, terns, cormorants, great blue herons, and a kingfisher.  On this peaceful Monday morning, no one was asking, “Where’s the fire?”

Longtime Tonight Show host Johnny Carson once quipped that a New York Minute is the interval between a Manhattan traffic light turning green and the guy behind you honking his horn.  Impatience and a hair-trigger temper are symptoms of soul-fatigue.  Pastor Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church describes what happens when our souls are in a state of unrest:

“When we are depleted, we get scattered.  We lose our ability to focus, and we jump from one distraction to the next with little to show for it.”

Restlessness and unhappiness often have a negative reciprocal relationship.  Asking ourselves “Where’s the fire?” potentially deepens our despair.  External freedom is our misguided goal.  Only soul-freedom gives us release, rest, and God’s peace.   Over four centuries ago, French mathematician and Christian philosopher Blaise Pascal remarked that all human unhappiness stems from a single fact- people are unable to stay quietly in their own room.   Solitude liberates us from the fires of this world and positions us to be receptive to God’s whispers.  As Martin Luther writes, soul-freedom comes through joyful faith in God’s lordship and provision:

“Faith is a free surrender and joyous wager on the unseen, unknown, untested goodness of God.”

Through it all, it is well with my soul.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0dIWJ4t4Jg

 

 

 

 

Where"s the fire?

Relational breakdowns

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”- Romans 5:8

“You can tell a lot about someone’s heart by how that person prays when he or she has been wronged.”- Bill Hybels

In Chapter 5 (“From Wounded to Whole: Making Room for Forgiveness”) of Simplify, Bill Hybels points out that, at times, we grossly underestimate the emotional and physical toll of living with relational rift:

“Relational breakdowns extract energy from us.  They take up head space and heart space.  They hang over us like a dark, grey cloud.”

Pastor Hybels notes it is impossible to live simplified lives unless we attend to broken relationships. The prayer Jesus prayed while hanging on the cross- “Father, forgive them, for the do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34)- is a major foundation of the Christian faith.  In the midst of our sinfulness and wrongdoing, Jesus has forgiven us.

As Pastor Hybels observes, it is human nature to put ourselves before others.  However, we cause harm when we do so.  The true condition of our soul is revealed by our prayers.  The author has developed three categories to help us respond to those who have wronged us: minor offenses, legitimate wounds, and life-shattering injustices.  The first category will be discussed in tomorrow’s blog.

Today’s question: In what relational breakdowns do you need to experience healing?  Please share.

Coming Monday: the new Short Meditation, “Where’s the fire?”

Tomorrow’s blog: “Minor offenses”

 

Relational breakdowns

White noise

“But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”- Matthew 5:44-45

In Chapter 1 of How Can I Possibly Forgive?, Sara Horn notes that Jesus talks about forgiveness in the context of prayer, a reminder that forgiving is only part of the process.  We also need to pray for those who hurt.

To truly appreciate God’s unconditional love for us, we need a better understanding of forgiveness.  Sara believes this better understanding will happen when we begin listening- to ourselves, to others, and to God.  To be good listeners, we must identify the white noise of bitterness, frustration, and self-doubt that drowns out what the Lord wants us to hear.  As Sara states: “What distracts our hearts distracts our souls.”

Sara asks if we can identify white N-O-I-S-Es in our life.  “N” is discussed today.

1.  Negative Self-Talk.  Sara emphasizes that the negative statements we allow to penetrate our hearts are more than statements- they are lies.  This negative stance, Sara points out, has far-reaching consequences:

“When you believe that nothing can ever change in yourself or others, you will never see the importance of forgiving yourself or somebody else.”

Today’s question: What negative thoughts have penetrated your heart following your ministry downsizing or vocation loss?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “The foundation of walls”

 

White noise

Soul Keeping

Soul Keeping (Zondervan, 2014)

Soul Keeping: Caring for the Most Important Part of You by John Ortberg was published in April, 2014.  Based on John’s conversations with Dallas Willard, Soul Keeping expands our understanding of the human soul by discussing what the soul is, what the soul needs, and the soul restored.

The search for the would always begins with our great hurt.  We want to know that our soul is not alone, that our Father’s face is turned toward our soul.  Our soul’s health is important because the soul integrates our mind, body, and will into a single whole.  The presence of sin, however, causes the soul to malfunction, to dis-integrate.  Since sin breaks the connection with God, the basic human problem is at the soul level.  Yet we live in a world that does not teach us to pay attention to what matters.  Despite everything in our world being all wrong, the soul can be all right.

John’s definition of the spiritual life is “to place the soul each moment in the presence of God.”  Our soul needs to be with God in order to be well. As we walk with God, our soul thrives when we deliberately look for Him in the ordinary moments of everyday life.  Sustaining spiritual practices connect us to God’s grace, energy, and joy- filling us with grace for our life.  Ultimately, though, the soul craves rest.  John states: “The soul was made to rest in God the way a tree rests in soil.”

It is paradoxical to note that while the soul is incapable of satisfying itself, it also is incapable of living without satisfaction.  The only way for the soul to find satisfaction is in God.  Thus the fundamental mind-set of the soul is gratitude.  This gratitude will not come from acquiring more things or from our experiences.  Gratitude comes from an awareness of God’s presence and goodness.  Dallas Willard stresses that even the dark night of the soul is a “test of your joyful confidence in God.”  Since God is worthy, we can give our situation and feelings joyfully into His hands.  God is the anchor our soul needs.

 

 

 

Soul Keeping