"God is in the business of blowing your mind"

I recently read an article that has spoken so much truth over my life recently. I'll post the link at the bottom of this blog, but the very last sentence of the article is the title of this post, "God is in the business of blowing your mind."

I'm not sure about you but that phrase pumps me up. It pumped me up the moment I read it. I was all like, "Heck yeah! Blow my mind God! Let's do it!"

Ha! How does the phrase go, "Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it."

Oh, God's been blowing my mind lately. He's been blowing it up so much that I didn't sleep through a whole night for almost 3 weeks. 

I mentioned in my last post that I had been awaken recently, awakened to many things in my life I had been avoiding. When God woke me up, he REALLY woke me up. I had NO IDEA that I had gone into auto pilot mode and was just going with the flow of things. I had gotten so caught up in the flow, I realized that I had lost pieces of myself. 

"But wait..." my arrogant self began to protest, "you're a counselor.... you're suppose to stay in tune with yourself, stay in check....." Well self, you really can't do it all can you. (Excuse me while I step off my high horse).

Truthfully, I've never had the intention to think I'm better than anyone. But when you find yourself in a place where you neglect the imperfection in yourself, your about equal to an arrogant fool. 

Funny how wonderful denial is. To deny your issues, to deny your faults, to deny the fact that you are a  dysfunctional human being. I already find myself wanting to crawl back into the ignorant hole I came out of. For the saying that ignorance is bliss, could never be more true. 

I'll openly admit, as a christian, it's not very welcomed to say you're unhappy. I mean, scripture talks about how you are to give thanks to God in all things. So when you find yourself or a friend in a place of unhappiness, it's a natural reactions to want to prove to them that in reality, they have no reason to be unhappy. Therefore, pouring guilt and shame onto the honesty that is coming from this persons mouth. Which is worse, to confess we're not happy or to cover up our unhappiness with the guilt and shame that we have no reason to feel that way? I have seen time and time again in my own life and others what shame and guilt does to change your behavior. I'll go ahead and give you a spoiler alert.... IT DOESN'T DO A DAMN THING. If anything, it will just make you fall harder and deeper back into that behavior and make your shame and guilt an even heavier burden to carry and creating a DEEPER space between you and God. Which brings me to the definition of sin..... Sin is what comes between us and God right? So if we are attacking our sin with guilt and shame, aren't we really just creating a bigger space between us and God? Fighting sin with sin doesn't do us any good. We are just tightening our chains, binding ourselves deeper into a downward cycle.

Now don't get me wrong, wallowing in our unhappiness doesn't do us any good either. The point I want to make is that I think it is good and it's healthy to confess when we're unhappy. It's good to confess it. And if we are the person people choose to confess this too, it's good to meet that person right there, in that honesty of where they admit they are, and to love them. Sometimes the best kind of love you can give anyone is an open ear and a closed mouth. TRUTH! 

"But I will not condone sin" you might say. Yeah, I hear ya. I love how Jude 1:23, The Message translation words it, "Be tender with sinners, but not soft on sin. The sin itself stinks to high heaven." I think that says it all.

After we confess, allow God to be who He is, and lead you to the root of your unhappiness. He will happily do it..... when he knows we're ready. 

God knew I was ready. He knew I was ready to get out of my auto pilot mode and to embrace the roots of dissatisfaction in my life. He also wanted me to embrace the roots of hurt and to find healing and forgiveness. When you're in the line of work I'm in, you tend to down play your own issues for there's always someone walking in and telling you a much worse scenario. But the reality is that we live in a world where sin is very much alive. And if sin is alive, you will find hurt and pain. We all have hurt and we all have pain. It may look different, have different shapes and sizes, but we all have it. 

I think of my many nurse friends when I think of hurt. I hear stories about different types of patients they encounter and different types of problems people come to doctors for. The thing about their job is this, no matter how insignificant one persons problem is in comparison to another, they treat each with the exact same caution and care. I can't help but believe this is what God does for us. No matter what we've experience, no matter the size of our wounds, God wants to heal us just as much as he wants to heal the person with the "bigger" wound. Hurt is hurt, everyone deserves healing. 

I love what this lady says about in this blog about healing.
 "Don’t imagine that the trauma of your childhood has been left in the past. It simmers under the surface. And it will surprise you at how suddenly it can boil up or suck you under. The work of healing those hard places might involve reading books or finding counseling. (Don’t be too afraid or too ashamed to ask for help.)"

Ignorance might seem blissful, but it's a lie. Hurt that we do not deal with will always be under the surface, making it's way to the top. It spits it's way out here and there. And if we're not careful, the hurt that spits out will expel onto someone else, creating hurt in them.

I do believe God is in the business of blowing minds. It might not be the kind of mind blowing we initially thought it would be but I'm standing firm on my belief that it is GOOD. Nothing, nothing but goodness comes from Him. 

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/whole-life/20-things-i-wish-id-known-my-late-twenties

P.S. Be fore warned, many more blog post might be coming my way. I got out of habit of writing them but with all that I have going on in my mind, this is the best outlet for the time being. I hope you'll sit back and enjoy this roller coaster with me.