Encouragement

I have this friend who means the world to me and has done an insane amount of email with me as I walk this healing journey.  I'm cleaning out my inbox today and I wanted to piece together some of the most important things I've been sent so I can come back to it regularly.  I'm pretty sure at this point there isn't any argument or scenario I could throw out there that hasn't been addressed.  So this is an attempt to contain all the wisdom in one central location.

When you're a kid, you know something is very wrong and you know it is you. Now that you're an adult, you know something was wrong and it was them.

But it still takes a lot of time to unscramble the damage.

Freaking ridiculous.

Figure out the cascade of damage the bad parenting did and you'll see damaged lives all around. Pisses me off.

Chica, you are nowhere near done doing things that you know are wrong, and neither am I. Grace that only covers what we do when we don't know better would be grace not worth a literal damn.

Grace is about forgiveness for the things we do wrong when know we are rebelling against God's intent for creation.

Yes, grace covers it all. That is the gift of God, not your worthiness, not your actions, not your inactions; Grace is the holy gift of a holy God.

Enjoy it.

Yeah. Enjoy the mercy, forgiveness, and grace of God.

You weren't created to be punished, feel shame, and sadness. You were created to "Glorify God and enjoy him forever."

So even if it were true that God loves people in different amounts (a position I don't subscribe to), how could YOU tell who he loves and who he doesn't? Not by living a sinless life (David at one extreme, the Pharisees at the other) and not by suffering (Jesus), so what's left?

Chica, you have this black-and-white aspie thing for labeling people ;-) The first person to benefit from smacking that noise down will be yourself. You seem to say, “I can’t be a ‘good’ person because I have done these things in my past.” It doesn’t work that way. You’re not defined by what you did, you’re defined by where you’re going. Are you seeking God? Are you seeking to please him? Then that is the testimony of whether you are “good” or not.

Hosea 10:12

Sow for yourself righteousness

Reap the fruit of unfailing love

And break up your unplowed ground

For it is time to seek the Lord

Until he comes

And showers righteousness on you

Are you “sowing righteousness”? Girl, you battle with it constantly. AND YOU’RE SUCCEEDING.

Are you “reaping the fruit of unfailing love”? You’re working on it. The better you get at it, the more joy your life will have. Keep working on that.

“Break up your unplowed ground” There is not an illustration of what this means better than you digging up your past and working on it.

“For it is time to seek the Lord”, which you are.

“Until he comes” – Do you believe he will?

“And showers righteousness on you.” You don’t bring righteousness to yourself; God brings it to you. You sow it, he makes it grow.

You keep asking questions about how things can happen to you that have already happened to other people. The Bible has characters who endured EXACTLY what you did, and much worse. If you don't believe the Bible, that's fine; many people come to that position.

But if you do believe the Bible, shouldn't you pull more directly on what it teaches instead of trying to reason everything out for yourself? You aren't the first person to struggle with these questions, you won't be the last. What are the answers given by those who try to follow God?

Chica, you're doing better than you realize, even if it doesn't feel that way.

I'm impressed.