Unshackled Moments ~ April 3, 2018 ~ Help To Heal

I remember the wave of emotions that hit not long after I got clean and sober. Things that I had pushed down, distracted myself from and numbed away for years suddenly came flooding back all at once, as though a levy had broken. I thought I would drown. For a while this served as the main causes for my frequent relapses. As I got a little clean time under my belt, I suddenly had to deal with things that I had never dealt with and didn't know how to face.

Part of growing in relationship with Daddy and learning to trust Him with my life so that I could give the Spirit control and in that process stay free had as much to do with learning to trust Him with and give Him my wounds and fears as it did with simply staying clean. Those emotional waves could be ridden to Him or could push me under or further away. The choice was mine. Would I fight the storm or cry out to the One who has more power than the storm?

But sometimes we can learn to turn to God enough to survive and get enough healing to flourish for a while without really dealing with the root of our pain and fear. And when we do this, we run the risk of getting on down Recovery Road only to stall or turn away to Relapse Ave when life throws us a curve ball. When things come up that bring back the pain of the past or when we find that while we thought we were trusting and turning to God, we were really trusting and counting on people. When they fail or are not available, we find ourselves adrift. and the current sweeps us away.

We should have support from others, just as we should give support to others. We are called to edify and encourage one another, and there are many proverbs that make it clear that seeking counsel is a habit of the wise. But at the same time, we must not look to people to meet our needs or be our sufficiency and answer. The Spirit is our sufficiency, comfort and strength. That said, we can't always hole up with the Spirit and find direction and healing on our own. We need help.We need wise counsel and an objective Godly person to help us see past our pain and instinctive survival techniques to the process of healing.

Did you know that there is a stronger link between trauma and abuse and addiction than there is between obesity and diabetes? Most addicts are broken, messed up people who are still broken and in need of healing, even after finding freedom. If we refuse to deal with the things that we ran from before, we will often find ourselves back in chains. It may not mean relapse, but it could mean a misery and bitterness that eats away at our joy, robs us of our life worth living and prevents us from being of service to others. Most damaging, it creates more distance between us and Daddy. We may feel as though we are avoiding pain by not dealing with the issues of our lives, but in truth we are growing misery like fungus in the dark.

Let us let the light in to kill the things that grow in the dark. Let us seek counsel and help to get from our fear to our Savior so that we can find healing. Our scars can become the signs of what God can do in the lives of others when they see our healing, joy and victory instead of evidence of defeat and victimhood. We can be more than conquerors through Christ Jesus, but we are not called to walk alone. Let us get the help and counsel we need to no longer live in the Valley of the Shadow and so that we can learn to direct others to the place where healing happens and the chains stay broken regardless of what may happen in our lives.

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