Lately, these three words have been stirring in my soul.
Truth
Learning and recognizing the truth isn’t always welcome news. It messes up our lives and our plans. Discovering that we’ve built our life on untruths (I have to perform for God to love and accept me, I will never be good enough unless I’m a missionary, etc.) can be simultaneously devastating and freeing. Which is why we need…
Courage
Courage to let truth do its work in us – whatever that means. Courage to let our old ways of thinking die and courage to open ourselves to a new, and sometimes scary world. It’s terrifying but if we can summon the courage to be bold and step outside our previous bondage, we will find…
Freedom
Freedom to live and love and laugh and play and rest and work – without guilt! Freedom from the never-ending stream of internalized criticisms proclaiming that we are “worthless” or a “loser.” Freedom to think for ourselves and to make our own decisions. Freedom to just BE.
How have truth, courage and freedom been a part of your healing journey? Leave a comment and I’ll select 3 random commenters* to receive a truth, courage, freedom magnet using the graphic above.
*Can post under any name except anonymous. Select the Name/URL option and make up any name you want.
9 comments:
I think these are all great concepts.
For me, truth and freedom are the biggest ones that have been helpful to healing.
Truth- Accepting that what I was involved in was a cult and not healthy is something that was very transformative. As well, understanding that I don’t have to be perfect in order to be happy.
Freedom- Understanding that failure is a normal part of life. We all fail at things and failure is going to happen. But, the freeing part of that is that failing doesn’t make you a failure and doesn’t make you less of a person. What you choose to do with your failing determines your path. Also, the choice not to believe in a god (for me. and for others, the realization that God isn’t anything like the god that the HA pictures for you) has given me the freedom to not feel guilty about enjoying pleasures in life (sex, alcohol, sleeping in on a Sunday, etc). The freedom of not having to feel like I don’t measure up because I don’t meet some arbitrary standards created by men is the most freeing thing for me.
I guess that relates to courage as well. Having to courage to try something without fearing failure. This is still something I really struggle with in my life, partially because of how I was raised and most definitely increased due to my experience at the HA. I still struggle with that fear of failure and it hinders my growth as a person a lot, but finding freedom and not feeling as if I have to live up standards of others. I can be myself, set my own goals and be successful in my own right without having to feel condemned for making a mistake.
Thanks for this post Mica! It is a great reminder of how these things can be great and useful attributes in the healing process.
“Freedom from the never-ending stream of internalized criticisms proclaiming that we are “worthless” or a “loser.””
THIS is the best part of all of what you have said. It spoke VOLUMES to me.
“Courage to let truth do its work in us – whatever that means.”
This is SO true! It takes courage to stand up and speak out against what isn’t right. And courage to say perhaps you don’t believe in the things you thought you knew, and to say this is who I am today…and this DOES bring freedom.
This is brilliant Mica!
For me… lately is has been HOPE.
I have faced many significant life changing events that could be seen as negative. But in the process I keep trying to focus on giving God the Honor (and not keeping it for myself) and believe and hope that things will get better. I continue to praise God that he is meeting my needs (not wants) every day. It is hard to think of it as courage when I am very depressed and there are barriers almost everywhere I look. Yet, I continue to love God with all I am and hope.
Funny thing is, that when you have very little or are at what seems to be the lowest part of life, it is actually easier to love God with all I am because that is all I have and I am not distracted by worldly things.
~ God Bless and may you be a Blessing
~ Blue Lantern
Being able to really feel like being me is ok has made me able to really explore what I believe spiritually again. For such a long time I just kinda repressed it while still holding on to all the negative self concepts but now I feel like I have found a place by stepping out and saying this is me this is all of me where I can be free to be as I am no matter who is around.
LOVE this POST!
Shannon Kish, heartsfire and phoenix – send me your addresses!
If this is what Christianity is why would I ever want to be apart of it? I just happened upon your site, and you sound bitter and angry at this place for something that was done to you many years ago, and now your rallying people to your cause. I may not know much about it, but I sure dont want to be like you people.
Anon, no one is asking you to be like us, first.
Second, not all of us here are Christians.
Third, we are a support group– similar to AA, NA, or any Rape Survivors support group, so there is going to be bitterness, anger, frustration, etc. This isn’t meant to be a site to bring people to Jesus. This is a place for those of us who have been wounded by the HA, whether 10 years ago or 10 days ago, to seek healing and support.
Anon– Who said this is what Christianity is? The point of the site is that a certain abusive group called Teen Mania gets Christianity wrong (they’re a cult), so people who wrongly believed that that’s Christianity got hurt. Now they’re recovering– some to a more accurate understanding of Christianity, others on their own spiritual journey, no judgment allowed.
Similarly, Bernie Madoff is not what good financial investment is, and his victims are probably pretty jaded on the subject of mutual funds. Somebody who showed up at a website for Madoff’s victims and said “How come you people hate money so much?” would be seriously missing the point!
If you’re curious about what Christianity really is, the best place to start is with Jesus Himself. Read the New Testament gospels and go from there. As a side note, if abusive hypocritical religion a la Teen Mania is not your thing, you’ll find you have a lot in common with Jesus already– see Matthew 23, for instance.