Posted by jeannie on July 02, 2002 at 19:27:50:
In Reply to: Re: some thoughts posted by john on July 01, 2002 at 11:46:16:
: Good God where have you been for so long! I absolutely love your voice in this post. And it is something that bears being repeated over and over again. In this victim culture that we live in people far too easily look for what's wrong with them and then sit on it forever. We become addicted to being screwed up and it is just too much to think we may be healed even though we say we want it. Too much we focus on the bad and the low instead of viewing things from another perspective. The perspective that it doesn't matter what our state is. God has accepted us by Grace and promised to make things right. Rather than waiting for this to happen in our own perception we should get up and ask what we can do for Him. In those actions we often find that we are healed without ever noticing it.
: I know as one who has been in this state that sometimes we need people to shake us up and then not abandon us. We need people to scream at us and call us what we are and then prove that it is in love by not rejecting us. Too much coddling tends to perpetuate the problem and breed sympathy seekers. Sure there is a time for it. But then we need to get up and go, regardless of how shamed we feel, regardless of how small, how dirty, how pained. This action of going on, the mere action is a firm declaration as Steve says, "that the Blood of Jesus is a good enough reason for me to be saved!" I also know that we must take our eyes off of ourselves and physical action is often the best way. Cut someone's grass, wash their car, volunteer at a homeless shelter. Take a long walk, run , swim. Anything like this will allow your body to secrete different chemicals and lighten the cloud you feel... that is unless the cloud is where you feel safest and then no manner of help will reach you.
: So Jeannie, know that you are in good company and I greatly appreciate your brutal post!
thanks so much for your wonderful comments and support - it really means a lot to me. it's encouraging to hear you say, too, that you have also been in this state and are now free from it. that's one of the biggest blessings in christ, i believe, is freedom.
by the way, i'm just reading a.w. tozer's "the pursuit of god" again. if you haven't already read it, i highly recommend it. (steve told me about it several years ago)