Many of us have memories that torture us. We find ways to endure. We deny, we push aside, we use drugs or alcohol, we get stuck in the old pain, or we find a way through to grieve and forgive and release perpetrators to God’s justice.
Having worked through a ten year process to forgive my biological father for early childhood sexual abuse, I have a lot of compassion for the suffering.
I have been depressed, with suicidal thoughts, and experienced severe mental illness in my twenties, to the extent of losing touch with reality. In the emergency room, the mental status test question of “Who’s the president?” didn’t even register with me.
Nearly fifty years later, I don’t wrestle with abuse or mental illness of any kind. I’m rarely distressed. Partly, that’s because I live inside my limits. And there’s much more to be said about my recovery, but today I’m thinking about one aspect that has sustained me.
Philosophically, I especially work on taking the largest possible perspective. And the longest view.
We can take this view if we are seated in the heavenly places with Jesus. If we walk with him, He says that’s where we are. (Ephesians 2:6)
From that place, we can see something of what Jesus sees. And we can notice that Jesus himself sees it all. Sitting with him, close to him, we can feel the warmth of his heart. We see his tears. We absorb his smile.
From that perspective, we can trust that God is writing our story in a way that will ultimately be for our good and his glory.
I have become convinced that whatever evil God allows, he plans to redeem. Because He is a redeemer. He takes the worst pain Satan can create and brings his healing, hope, and peace. If we let him.
There are many trials and tragedies of life that require an eternal perspective to endure. And some consequences of evil against us that will not be fully redeemed until the kingdom comes. But Jesus is next to us.
May the Lord imbue us with fresh perspective today.
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THANK YOU.