Do You Want to Change?

In my experience, prayers for situations to change often do not happen; prayers for a clear path to take often do not happen; prayers for the removal of a sin issue often do not happen (although they all can happen). What seems to always yield good fruit, however, are prayers for changes in a heart issue. When I pray for GOD to give me gratitude, or strength, or respect for myself, I often, if not always, see those prayers answered - and sooner rather than later. It’s almost as if GOD cares less about the cessation of our sins than he does about the state of our souls. It’s almost as if He cares less about what we don’t do than he does about who we are. 

As I thought through this, it struck me that - as we know - our sins are paid for (see: Bible). So, essentially, that’s all going to hash out eventually. GOD knows we don’t like our sinning, and He has already dealt with that. But the beauty of the cross didn’t necessarily add the things to our character that we lack. He has removed the things that need to be removed (if we let Him), but that doesn’t mean we have taken the steps to become all that we can be. When we leave this world and enter heaven, I believe our sins will be gone, those broken parts of ourselves will be gone, but that doesn’t mean we will instantaneously become all that we could have become. Someone who was in no way philanthropic will not suddenly become a great philanthropist upon passing through the pearly gates. 

It also struck me that we often try to deal with sin allopathically rather than homeopathically. We look at our sinful arm and try to cut it off. “Whew! Now I can’t do that sin anymore - now that I’m armless!” or we try to fix our selfishness by saying “STOP BEING SELFISH!!!!!!!” But even if these tactics worked, the root cause of the sin still would not be changed. Whatever caused us to sin will still be there, the same as always, and will likely result in other damaging behavior, if the first damaging behavior happens to be adequately dealt with. 

What would be vastly more helpful would be to look deep within ourselves - see what is causing these behaviors and patterns of brokenness and sin. There is some lack or need or wrongly held perception that causes each one of our unfruitful behaviors/attitudes. If we can find those parts of ourselves, get to know them, showing ourselves empathy and understanding, caring even… we can then adjust those deep wounds, those basic misconceptions, maladaptations and wrongly held beliefs (often the very act of realizing them will bring us great steps toward this essential healing) and our actions can then be truly healed - from the inside out. And GOD, I believe, is always more than happy to help, bless, and guide us in this process - if we want Him to. 

If you want any pointers in this area - you’re in luck! These have proved very helpful in my life:

1. Take a month, two months, three months, and journal (you may have to make yourself journal) - going one by one through things that you have either done in the past, or that you still do today that you aren't proud of. But allow yourself to do it without judgment. This isn’t about self-flagellation! Beginning with each of these not-great behaviors or attitudes, search yourself to locate the need you felt that drove said behavior. Write about it. This will both a) help you to have empathy for yourself, and b) bring to light the deeper issues that drive your own personal brand of brokenness (we all have one!).
2. When you have gone through Part 1, take the next couple of months to journal about the aspects of yourself you are the most proud of, the things that you enjoy about yourself - the good parts of you. By first shining a light on the shadow side, you will reduce its power - acknowledging and coming to understand it will minimize it and its need to express itself. Then shining a light on the side of your strength and beauty will allow it to flourish. This can also help you see and discern what your gifts are, what things bring you joy, and the ways you could best help others and make the most of your time on earth.
3. Ask GOD a question. This is best done somewhere quiet, without distractions. The first question I suggest is: “What misconception am I carrying?” It is a simple question. After asking it, just wait. You may need to do this more than once, or you may get an answer quickly. GOD speaks to people in many varying ways, so be open to however He chooses to speak to you. This is something you can do more than once throughout your life. There will likely always be more misconceptions to uncover. 
4. Ask Him other questions. My two favorites are: a) “What do I not understand about You?” and b) “What do I not understand about me?” Again, this one will likely be beneficial to do more than just once, and it can bring great alignment to areas of our lives in which we walk around getting blisters because our shoes aren't on the right way.
5. As you go through life and through this process, if certain issues about yourself come to light (e.g. I expect too much of myself, or I think too much about myself and not enough about others, or I don't trust that GOD wants the best for me), take those specific issues before GOD. Ask Him to change those parts of you (not “GOD, please help me to stop yelling at my kids,” but “GOD, please help me to stop feeling worthless every time I make a mistake.”) GOD is strong enough to do anything, but if what we want is to continually scrape off the surface grossness of featured sins, we will never really be changed, never really be healed, and we likely won’t ever come to terms with who we truly are - allowing our wounds to heal and gifts to flourish. We also won't be able to become all that GOD can make us… if we learn how to ask the right questions. 

None of these tasks may, necessarily, sound appealing, but they can all bring us huge steps forward in our paths of personal healing, and in correcting our wrongly held beliefs - about ourselves, about life, and about GOD. 

Happy Processing!

S.B.T.


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A Problem with Conservatism

A realization hit me recently - a common thread. Conservatism, at least that which is commonly seen in our country (if not in others) is completely saturated with victim blaming. Whether it’s someone being shot by the police, someone being sexually assaulted, or someone being abused by a significant other… in all of these cases, and likely others, they look to the person who was harmed as having brought the harm upon themselves. 

Of the unarmed people being killed by officers - why weren’t they more obedient, more submissive? If they had done everything the officers had told them to do, that wouldn’t have happened. 

Of the people being raped, groped, drugged, manhandled - why weren’t they hiding more of their bodies? What were they saying? What were they doing? If they had had a higher moral code, and if they hadn’t been tempting the men around them, that wouldn’t have happened.

Of the people in abusive relationships - in what ways were they inspiring the abuse? What buttons were they pushing? Were they being selfish? Difficult? Contrary? Not submissive enough? How did they fail to prevent it? If they had had a gentle, selfless spirit, they wouldn’t have been treated in those ways. 

This mindset says “Clearly these people have made stupid decisions that we would never have made,” (we assume - never having lived a life other than our own), and then we decide that those things about us that are not like them impart greater value upon us. They mean that we truly do deserve better things than those who are “other.”

It was pointed out to me recently that in news stories of black people being shot or mistreated by officers, the phrase “he was no saint” is often used. What is implied by this? When discussing women who have been raped - her style of dress, whether she had been drinking, or her sexual history are often seen as relevant - relevant in helping us determine whether or how sorry we ought to feel for her. Just as when an unarmed black man standing ten feet from an officer is shot, that man’s legal record is somehow applicable. And these are situations that are almost exclusively happening to blacks and women. 

Whether it is conscious or not, such people are seen (often, though not always, by conservatives) as “other.” They are seen to be intrinsically and therefore behaviorally disparate - doing things differently from what "we would have done" and therefore inviting those horrors upon themselves. - Those horrors that were willingly committed by people in full control of their actions. 

“He was no saint.” “She was no saint.” You hear these phrases often enough, and you forget about the fact that not long ago, and through large portions of our history, black people, women, and other groups were specifically and academically viewed as less than - less than human, less intelligent, less evolved, of less value. Blacks and women were truly “not saints.” They were the “sinners” to the white male “saint.”

Ignorance inspires a fear of things that are different from oneself. Pride turns that fear into self-preservation. Selfishness turns that self-preservation in a drive to have more or better things than those who are different. And indifference takes that fear, self-preservation and selfish drive into a mentality that justifies things to which no person should be subject.

Essentially, victim-blaming means one of two things (or both) of the person espousing such views. Option 1 means that they don’t value people. If horrible things happening to humans is justifiable, it must mean that each person matters very little. Option 2 would be that they value others less than they value themselves. If it’s happening to someone else, well then, she/he must have done something to bring it upon herself/himself. 

But if those victim-blaming people were the ones having guns pointed at them by law enforcement, being sexually assaulted, or being regularly throttled mentally, emotionally or physically by someone in their lives? Well, if Option 1 describes them, they may take it, feel like shit, and feel they must have done something to deserve it. If Option 2 - they would find themselves vehemently arguing that they should never have been subjected to said incident. And in that argument, they would either explain all of the ways in which their behavior did not merit such personal misuse, and in doing so, prove that what they truly believe is Option 1 (if being treated like shit can be justified by any behavior, then ultimately our intrinsic value is insignificant) or they will fall squarely on Option 2, proving that they are hypocritical and selfish.

Why do we look at anyone being mistreated and look for ways that it’s okay? Why shouldn’t every misuse of a person be outrageous? Must we use our moralizing as one more way to make others feel less than? Why justify the unjustifiable? Why don’t we all look at those who are hurting, who have been wronged (as we all have at one time or another) and look for ways to lift them up, to help them heal, and direct our lectures at those who are doing the harming? 

Does the fact that you have never been raped mean that you’re less slutty than those who have (if you’re a woman)? Less weak (if you’re a man)? Does the fact that your spouse doesn’t mistreat you mean that you’re a nicer person than others? Does the fact that you can stand on a sidewalk without being yelled at by an officer mean that you’re a better citizen?

And the most ironic thing of it all is that many conservatives base their views on the Bible - on what they term “Christianity.” But if you look at all of Jesus’ teachings, nowhere does he justify ill treatment of a human - no matter what their preceding actions. He never taught that anyone is accountable for how other people treat them. He always taught that everyone is accountable for their own actions. If a person mistreated someone, he never tried to discern how the other person had inspired the mistreatment. He only looked at the person doing the harm. Even if all you do is internal - hating someone or being angry with someone - you are the one responsible for the fact that you responded that way. The liability of your attitude is completely yours. And if you kill someone, if you rape someone, if you molest someone, if you assault someone, if you berate someone, if you manipulate someone, if you harm someone in any way - the only person responsible is you. The only person who matters in any and all of your behavior is you. 

If we ever want to live in a culture in which we take care of each other instead of taking from each other, in which we live gently instead of violently, we need to stop telling people they are responsible for how others treat them. We need to speak up against the subtle signs of latent or active sexism, racism, judgmentalism, etc. We need to reinforce the concepts that each of us is human - each of us deserves the same (we can't take it for granted that that is understood and believed just because it is 2015). And we need to begin telling everyone that they, and they alone, bear complete responsibility for how they treat every other person. 

- S.B.T.


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Divorce Stigma

I want the stigma among Christians regarding divorce to be done away with. I say that as someone who is not a fan of divorce in many situations. 

If it is not needed, then it should definitely be avoided, but if it is needed, it can be the best possible thing for everyone involved - yes, even a positive. It’s like surgery: if it isn’t actually needed, then it’s definitely not a good thing to do, but if it is needed, it can be the best possible thing - yes, even a positive. Divorce and surgery simply are, at times, necessary in this fallen world.

Divorce is not evil - any more than cutting into someone’s body is evil - when it is required. 

We shouldn’t be giving people scarlet D’s to wear for the rest of their lives (or scarlet anything, for that matter). We need to have compassion. We need to remember that we don’t know everything, especially about other people’s lives and experiences.  And we need to remember that most people are trying to make the best choices they possibly can for themselves and for their children. 

Peace,

S.B.T.


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On Leaving a Marriage (aka the 'D' Word)

Abusers aren’t the ones who leave a marriage. They don’t leave. They are invested in keeping the subservient person with them, with maintaining the status quo, with not losing the control they have over the other person. Not always, but quite often, the person who leaves a marriage is the person who has been being abused. And the church oftentimes focuses their reproach on that person – for leaving. And the person clinging to the power and to the destructive dynamic is treated as holy – as the wronged, longsuffering soul attempting to protect the sanctity of their marriage.

Untold damage can be done, and has been done, by people speaking out of turn, by giving rote marriage advice without knowing a great deal of the things that are actually going on. I can think of few areas but divorce in which people are so often frowned upon, chided and whispered about. And the people bearing the brunt of this are often the people who have been struggling for years within a raging sea of toxicity against their self esteem. These are often people who have spent years being told or treated as though they are less than, valueless, worthless. These are often people who have prayed and prayed and struggled and prayed and finally decided that it would be worth the risk of everyone looking down on them in the hope of maintaining a modicum of what’s left of their self-respect, their health, their life…

I don’t believe that God wants marriage to be a jail, a dungeon, a place of chains and no choices and no way out. In God’s love for us, He puts us into no obligations, no binding contracts. He has done EVERYTHING to maintain our free will, our ability to choose Him and love Him at will. Nothing about Him is forced, nothing is coerced, there is never no way out. So why would we think that He wants our marriages (with incredibly flawed, broken people) to be more constricting than His love for us? Why would we think that the God who sets the captives free wants someone to be bound within the most intimate of relationships on earth with another person who, in whatever fashion, is mutilating their soul, making them feel the exact opposites of all of the things we are told to believe that God thinks of us?

I absolutely believe in the sanctity of marriage, and I believe that the ideal would be for two people to marry, to remain faithful, to love, support, help, and bless each other for the rest of their lives. But the reality is that there are many sick people in the world, and they do many sick things to each other. You can never know for certain what someone is like behind closed doors. I believe that couples should value the bond of marriage to the utmost, and never take it lightly in any way. I believe that they should do everything in their power to make those relationships work, but if one person (or both) in a marriage continually harms the other person, despising who God made them to be and hindering the things God wants to do in them, they should not be forced (we should not be forcing them) to remain in chains. Love always wins. Love is always first. Oppression is the opposite of love. What happens in many marriages is the opposite of love. And what we as a church do to these people is much more judgmental, much more condemning, much less accepting, much less helpful and much less loving than what Jesus demonstrated.

Everyone ought to make each one of their life decisions with much care and a great amount of prayer. And in our interactions with other believers, as long as they are truly seeking God and His will, the obligation for the rest of us is to zip it and love them. And with nonbelievers our obligation is the same. You never know the damage of ill-placed words on a person’s life – or on a whole family of people. You have not walked in their shoes. NEVER forget that He loves them. He is gracious, and He sees all. There are many things we don’t understand. People’s life experiences is one, and what God is doing within individual people is another. We need to stop spending so much time opining on what other people do. Talking can do all the damage, and love can do all the healing. Stop talking and love.

- S.B.T.


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