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Tuesday's Trust
How Do You Walk Down the Path of Healing?
After five years, we have a real good idea of where NOT to go for healing. We have learned, sometimes admittedly the hard way, NOT to go around toxicity, whether it lies in toxic family members, toxic friends, toxic church members, or in toxic pagan rituals that have been (wittingly or unwittingly) adopted by the institutional church. (See footnote*)
Child-loss parents now seem to have a clarity of mind, heart, and soul that senses toxicity, any pollutants to the genuinely sacred. We seem to spot power-mongers within the institutional church, fakeness posing as comfort, or platitudes that may sound reasonable but are not truthful and therefore bring no real comfort.
Just like the prophets, we are "out of sync" with the conventional "wisdom." And just like the prophets, our authenticity of faith in the One who turned over the tables of the temple of old when God's sacred temple was being contaminated from its true purposes, we too become a threat of sorts to the "powers that be."
We no longer have any tolerance for "teasing,"(See footnote**) whether spiritual, emotional or transformational (e.g., "Come hear a sermon, and you will be transformed," when our experience reveals, "No I won't! I won't be transformed until I hear from Jesus!"). We no longer have a tolerance for pretend-land, for denial, for semblances of the truly sacred that are not authentic. Such tolerance is no longer allowed, for we can no longer afford to be blind, to be gullible, to be sucked in to anything less than the One who Himself is true.
"We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true. And we are in Him who is true -- even in His Son Jesus Christ."
~1 John 5:20
Like the tsunami that hit Japan, when we experienced the death of our beloved child, many of our foundations have been scattered at the very least, if not decimated and demolished at the worst. We need to reconstruct mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally, building on only what is True, and we can afford no contaminants to enter into that sacred process.
In this rebuilding process, we may very well find that like "The Compassionate Friends" often warn, "Friends (and family) often become strangers, and strangers often become friends."
Our vulnerability warns us to be careful, asking, "Where can I go?" ~ "Who can I turn to?" and "How do we walk down the path of healing for our deep grief and trauma?"
In answer to this heart-felt dilemma, we invite you to turn to this very inspired song that asks many of our same heart-felt questions:
I Go to the Rock
~The Crabb Family
Where can I turn...
when there's no one else I can turn to?
Who am I gonna talk to...
when nobody wants to listen?
Who am I gonna lean on...
when there's no foundation stable?
I go to the Rock
I know that's able;
I go to the Rock!
I go to the Rock of my salvation;
I go to the Stone that the builders rejected.
I run to the Mountain,
and the Mountain stands by me!
The earth all around me is sinking sand,
On Christ the Solid Rock I stand;
When I need a Shelter, when I need a Friend,
I go to the Rock.
O where can I hide...
till the storms have all passed over?
Where am I gonna run to...
when those winds of sorrow threaten?
Is there a Refuge
in those times of great tribulation?
When my soul needs a consolation,
I go to the Rock!
I go to the Rock of my salvation;
I go to the Stone that the builders rejected.
I run to the Mountain,
and the Mountain stands by me!
The earth all around me is sinking sand,
On Christ the Solid Rock I stand;
When I need a Shelter, when I need a Friend,
I go to the Rock!
(Bridge: harmonica, etc.)
Gonna go to the Rock of my salvation;
I go to the Stone that the builders rejected.
I run to the Mountain,
and the Mountain stands by me!
The earth all around me is sinking sand,
On Christ the Solid Rock I stand;
When I need a Shelter, when I need a Friend,
I go to the Rock!
I go (I go) to the Rock (to the Rock)
I go to the Rock (when I need a friend)
I go (Yeah, there's no friend like Jesus) to the Rock.
I go (Yes I go to the Rock) to the Rock
I go to the Rock (when I need some Joy)
I go (In His presence, there's fullness of joy, yeah)
to the rock; I go (I go) to the Rock (to the Rock)
I go to the Rock (when my body needs healing)
I go (Go get you some healing...)
*Frank Viola and George Barna discuss in great detail many of the toxicities that have crept into the institutional church in the past centuries and even up to the current years in their book Pagan Christianity. They make a great point that we should NOT confuse today's institutional church with God's spiritual organism of His creation that He calls the church, which is the body of Christ in which the Head is in Heaven, while the body is on earth. (1 Corinthians 12:12, Acts 9:4-5, Ephesians 5:23, and Colossians 1:18, 2:19)
**George Barna states it well:
"The heart of the Revolutionaries are not in question. There is ample research to show that they are seeking more of God. They have a passion to be faithful to His Word and to be more in tune with His leading. They ardently want their relationship with the Lord to be their top priority in life. They are tired of the institutions, denominations, and routines getting in the way of a resonant connection with Him. They are worn out on the endless programs that fail to facilitate transformation. They are weary of being sent off to complete assignments, memorize facts and passages, and engage in simplistic practices that do not draw them into God's presence.
These are people who have experienced the initial realities (and I would add, or even the life-long realities) of a genuine connection with God. They can no longer endure the spiritual teasing offered by churches and other well-meaning ministries. God is waiting for them. They want Him. No more excuses."
(italics, mine)
Picture, thanks to heartlight.org
Book cited, Pagan Christianity, by Frank Viola and George Barna (2008)
Video, http://youtu.be/KFnTtvmzACU
