Healing and Wholeness

Moving towards healing and wholeness for yourself is worthwhile, if scary.  Because really, who knows where it will lead?  Most of us feel a bit shaken and stressed after a year of world pandemic, government turmoil, food insecurity, joblessness, relocations, and family-at-a-distance.  Life turned upside down in 2020.

Journal:  What changed in your life?  How are you feeling now?  What do you need?  What support and resources would you like, if anything were possible?  

Instant relief is not the goal.  Transformation and spiritual maturity often  result from trials or times of crisis. Typically adults are more open to change in crisis.  We tend to tolerate stressful conditions stoically and far too long.  And then something happens and we are forced to act...  

• Call a doctor
• Call a therapist
• Call an attorney
• Call human resources
• Call the pastor
• Call the police

I have made many of these calls, when life became unendurable, when I had no answers, when I lacked experience, when I needed help.  I have faced the giants of aging parents miles away, cancer and mental illness in the family, academic hurdles...  Your list is different, but our neediness is the same. 

Awareness of need and willingness to seek help are initial steps in healing.  It takes courage to admit all is not well and that things could be better.  Stop pretending; start speaking truth to yourself.  Move forward with God's guidance.  Acknowledge God the Father's call to trust, to yield, to submit, and to surrender to his will.  We were never in control.

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not rely on your own insight.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths."  Proverbs 3:5-6

The healing process can be long, painful, and difficult.  It may involve uncomfortable discussions with therapists, honest confessions to family/friends, or breaking away from destructive habits and people.  To become whole is a gradual process. It may require setting new goals or finding peace with new realities.  Begin by praying with Reinhold Niebuhr:

"Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace:
Taking as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it: 
Trusting that you will make all things right
If I surrender to our will:
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life
And supremely happy with you in the next."

Spiritual Spring Training: Resources

What will you toss in your gym bag to work your spiritual muscles this spring?  Give your brain a workout that will transform you from the inside out.  Christian authors and speakers bring their deep and broad life experience as well as years of research and study to us through books, speeches, podcasts, interviews, broadcasts, videos, etc.  Sharing life and learning with fellow disciples of Jesus Christ will strengthen your spirit and equip you for ministry.  Enjoy this buffet of new books at your library or bookstore.

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." Deut. 6:5 

Always a Guest: Speaking of Faith Far From Home. Barbara Brown Taylor. Westminster John Knox Press.  Oct. 20, 2020.

Broken Sign Posts: How Christianity Makes Sense of the World. N.T. Wright. HaperOne. Oct. 6, 2020.

Dusk, Night, Dawn: On Revival and Courage. Anne Lamott. Riverhead Books.  March 2, 2021.

God and the Pandemic: A Christian Reflection on the Coronavirus and Its Aftermath. N.T. Wright. Zondervan, June 19, 2020.

Hope in Times of Fear: The Resurrection and the Meaning of Easter.  Timothy Keller. Viking. March 9, 2021

How to Fight Racism: Courageous Christianity and the Journey Toward Racial Justice. Jemar Tisby. Zondervan. January 5, 2021.

My Tech-Wise Life: Growing Up and Making Choices in a World of Devices. Amy Crouch and Andy Crouch. Baker Books. Nov. 17, 2020.

Mysteries of the Messiah: Unveiling Divine Connections from Genesis to Today.  Rabi Jason Sobel and Kathie Lee Gifford. Thomas Nelson.  March 23, 2021.

A Rhythm of Prayer: A Collection of Meditations for Renewal. Sarah Bessey.  Convergent Books, Feb. 9, 2021.

Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World. Katharine Hayhoe. Atria. Sept. 21, 2021.

Seeing Beautiful Again:  50 Devotions to Find Redemption in Every Part of Your Story.  Lysa TerKeurst. Thomas Nelson. March 31, 2021.

U-Turns: Reversing the Consequences in Your Life. Tony Evans. B&H Books, January 12, 2021.

Until Unity. Francis Chan. David C. Cook. April 2021.

Right Living

"God’s Law is more real and lasting than the stars in the sky and the ground at your feet. Long after stars burn out and earth wears out, God’s Law will be alive and working." Matt 5:18, The Message

Why is that?
Because the omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient Creator God gets it right the first time, in the beginning. There is no need for revision, nor amendments. God's will is good, acceptable, and perfect out of the gate. See Romans 12:12.

God's is holy and righteous. His character always has been. "Holy, holy, holy says is the Lord of hosts;" says the prophet Isaiah in Is. 6:3. God is immutable, unchanging in character. People like us? Not so much. Still we bear God's image; human beings are made in God's likeness.

"So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." Gen. 1:27

Incredibly, God loves people just like you and me, despite our many faults, despite our wandering away. God was willing to go on a seek and rescue mission because he loves all of us, not just one corner of the planet. He chose to love rather than crush his creation. "For God so loved the world..." John 3.16

Now what?
God expects his followers to live rightly. The fruit of the Spirit ought be on display in the lives of Christians.

The prophet Micah writes:
"He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" Micah 6:8 NSRV

Jesus challenges:
“Unless you do far better than the Pharisees in the matters of right living, you won’t know the first thing about entering the kingdom." Matt. 5:20, The Message

Christians are called to follow Jesus. Thomas Merton prayed in Lent and Easter Wisdom from Thomas Merton, Day 24: "By your grace let me be an instrument of your call to freedom and creativity in the lives of all whom you redeem. Let them hear your call to the only liberty that matters: to choose to follow you."

That may cost you and me some votes, views, likes, or your life, as it has in times past. Look to Jesus. Look at church leaders from Martin Luther to Martin Luther King Jr. Look at the ripples running through the Southern Baptist denomination today, when Beth Moore realigns her life with God's character and values.

"Let your light shine..." Matt 5:16

Waiting to Spring

Well, it's been a year since we have stopped social interactions and gone into hibernation.  This pandemic-enforced isolation has taken its toll on us.  Lost lives, lost jobs, lost family gatherings...  But Easter hope and resurrection power are a month off, April 4, 2021!  

Vaccinations are being offered to more of us.  Life is about to shift and we will emerge transformed, after a year of WAITING.  

How have you changed in the past year?  Take 10 minutes or 3 pages to just journal your journey from NOWHERE to Now Here.  It wasn't the trip you planned, but you traveled nonetheless.  How have you grown?