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Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Heal the Past. Live the Present. Dream the Future.
With these short but powerful sentences Rebecca began speaking about freedom at our ladies breakfast on June 4, 2011. At the end of the morning Rebecca had us write on balloons the things we want to be freed from and then we walked outside and let them go. As we watched the clusters of bright yellow balloons make their way heavenward I felt the power of that symbolic release. What an incredible morning! So many things Rebecca said have stuck with me and I want to take a moment to share some pieces of that morning with you and some of my personal revelations.
Did you know that historically when a people group has been granted new freedoms, even freedoms they've fought for, they often go back to living under their old rules? There is a part of us that longs for freedoms, clamors for freedom, fights against the boxes that contain us and then when we're granted that freedom, when the box is enlarged or kicked wide open, we'd rather stay contained in the box we know than walk into the abandon of the unknown. As Rebecca said, "it is not the law or our circumstances that stop us from living in freedom. It's us."
God wants to heal your past. Do you know that? Do you know that God doesn't want you to walk in shame and guilt and condemnation? Do you really know that? Or do you believe it for someone else? Do you think it's a nice idea... for someone else. Listen, terrible things happen to us sometimes. And sometimes we make terrible choices. But it can all be redeemed. Beauty can rise from the ashes. That is the power of the cross. That is the point of the cross. That is what Jesus died for. To redeem us. To reconcile us to the Father. To make us whole. God does not want us to live in the shame of things we had no control over. He does not want us to live in the guilt and condemnation of our bad choices. It's time to rise up women! It's time to say enough is enough, I will not settle for anything less than the freedom and redemption promised me by the cross. It's time to acknowledge the bad choices we made. It's time to turn and walk down a new road. It's time to let God into the hurt buried inside of us. It's time to let it out into the open so it can't fester and poison us anymore.
Once we do that we can truly live the present. As Rebecca said, "We can't fully live the present while we're consumed by the past. The fear we feel today comes from our experiences in the past and it dictates the way we live in the present." Today, this moment, now, is all we have, it's the currency of our life. The past when it happened, happened in a series of now moments and when we spend all of our present moments stuck in remembrances of the past we waste the currency of our life. How are you spending yours? Are you spending it reliving the same events, the same conversations over and over? Are you spending it in the woulda/coulda/shoulda's? What a waste of your money!
To quote Rebecca, "Guilt is not helpful. Honesty, awareness, and knowledge is freeing." Be honest about what is going on inside you, what you might be hiding from. Be aware of how you spend each moment, where your thoughts run to. Know who God created you to be. And you will set yourself up to freely dream a big, bold future!
Isaiah 52:1-2 in The Message says,
"Brush off the dust and get to your feet, captive Jerusalem! Throw off your chains captive daughter of Zion!"
There is an implied action on our part. A decision we have to make. The chains have already been loosed, they were broken on the cross. We just need to throw them off. Let's not wait. Let's act now. Let's not put off our freedom for one more day. Imagine how it would feel to live without fear, without worry, without anxiety or guilt or shame... Throw those chains off ladies, you were meant to walk in unrestrained abandon!
As always if you need help processing your journey, need someone to talk to, someone to pray with, the Inspire team - Rebecca, Miranda, Tabitha, Tamara and I - are here. And we care about what's on the inside of you. We care about the hurts you carry, the dreams waiting to be released. We care about you.
Have a blessed AND FREE summer. And mark your calendars for our next ladies breakfast on September 17th, 2011.
