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Somebody smart once said, “everybody wants to change the world, nobody ever wants to change themselves.” There is wisdom there.

I really dislike that term,”the personal is political.” Let’s completely flip that around and declare, “it’s not political, it’s just personal.”

Don’t try to fix a personal issue with a political solution.

Something I always find a bit humorous, on the internet someone always comes along to accuse me of being repressed, or a doormat, or silent in church. Didn’t the Apostle Paul say you had to be silent in church? It’s amusing because my first response is, Say Wut?

Me?

Is there something about the thousands of words I pour out that reminds you of “silence?” Do I seem like a doormat? Wut?

I am totally silent in church…when someone else is speaking, except when I’m not, but that is really the fault of the woman who sits behind me and whispers jokes in my ear. Totally. I went to this church once and a guy actually threw candy at me, twice. What could I do? I was giggling so I simply yelled “amen” so the pastor wouldn’t think I was actually laughing at him. It can be awkward speaking in front of people and the last thing you want is to look out and see everyone laughing at you when you haven’t even told a joke.

There is also something to be said for the quiet, for reverence and peace, for the beauty that comes in moments of silence.

It’s sad to me when someone comes along and yells at me about silence in church, and second class citizenship, and how awful faith is, because I can hear the pain there, I sense the damage that has been done, I can see the deceptions. I know those beautiful words of scripture where once used to wound and not to heal, and such things just break my heart. I am so sorry. If I could find the people who misled you I would fling them all off the planet for you. Seriously.

Here’s the deal, however. Scripture is not the problem. Faith is not the problem. People like me are not the problem. It’s personal, not political. Because it’s personal, the solution is also personal. You have to accept that you were deceived, likely spiritually abused, and that those things have now cost you your relationship with Jesus Christ, fellowship with other Christians, restoration, healing, mercy, grace…..the joy of the Lord.

You cannot fix what’s broken, what was stolen, by kicking enough Christians, by demanding scripture be changed, by ridding the world of all evidence of what once hurt you, because it isn’t what’s on the outside that is broken. It’s your inside that craves restoration and healing.

He heals, He restores, and He does it so beautifully, but you have to reach out for Him.

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