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Written by Gabrielle Guthrie for “See, there’s this thing called biology…~insanitybytes”  @ https://insanitybytes2.wordpress.com/

Original post found @ https://insanitybytes2.wordpress.com/2021/08/30/taking-out-mountains/

Taking Out Mountains

30MondayAug 2021

Posted by insanitybytes22 in Uncategorized

Tags  faith, forgiveness, grace, insanitybytes22, narratives, opinion, reblogs, rewriting the story

I thought this post of Pastor Randy’s called “It’s Right There In The Bible! NOT! Part 5” was really good. The whole series is good, but this particular post is about forgiving and forgetting and it contains some much needed wisdom.

I’ve spent a great deal of time studying Judas in the Bible, in part because I’ve needed to walk through a whole lot of forgiveness. That is a really amazing tale, a great story with so many huge revelations waiting for us! For me, I really needed to understand how Jesus managed His expectations of others. He knows who Judas is and what Judas would do. In many ways He even trusted Judas……to be Judas. So often our wounds come from expecting something from people that they just can’t give, or else trying to change them in our minds into someone they are not.

Sometimes I think forgiveness is kind of like peeling an onion. You’re doing pretty good, hardly even think about it anymore….and then you find yourself crossing the street to avoid someone. Or perhaps ducking behind the produce section. Or maybe you get hungry, angry, lonely, tired, triggered, and you realize there’s still a wound there or at least some scar tissue that hasn’t quite been abraded.

Regardless, forgiveness can be a real process and it can happen in stages.

The Lord is in the business of healing and restoration, your healing and restoration. Never mind the other guy. If you are wounded, it is your wounds the Lord wants to bind up. Ten fold. He doesn’t just get us back to “normal,” He gets us patched up and into extraordinary.

That truth is part of what enables us to, “love your enemies” or to “bless those who curse you.” This is not just an offense or a wound happening, this is an opportunity for the Lord to bless and heal me, to restore what I am losing ten times over.

I appreciated Pastor Randy’s post because he touched on something really important. He says, “but there is a way to forgive and forget. It’s in how we treat the memory of the wound. “ Absolutely! I call that seizing the narrative. We place ourselves in the Lord’s hands and we allow Him to rewrite the story.

When my son was young he went mountain biking, slid off the embankment and landed on a boulder cracking his helmet. He was okay, just a giant gravel rash with about half the road embedded in him. Lots of blood, lots of scrapes. His friends brought him home and I just wanted so badly to be a mom, to be a nurse, to scoop him up, to wail in despair and fuss, but I didn’t. The Holy Spirit was like, Nope, that’s not the narrative. The narrative is, Glad you had a good time. You should probably wash some of that dirt off.

I’ll never forget the look in his eyes, the relief. So not in trouble, not dying, and I had a good time? Yep, that’s the narrative. Not only that, now you own the bragging rights to the whole adventure.

Same situation, two entirely different responses and reactions, completely different narratives being written, and it changed everything. Not only was it the best thing I could do for my kid at the time, I can now look back at that memory and smile, because it was the day my son took out a mountain.

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P.S. (from bruce) When there is no other place to turn…turn to God !!  If you’re not a “born again” Christian, is the Holy Spirit urging you to open this link ??  Here is the truth about how God’s grace is received to become a Christian in God’s eyes; through understanding and obeying the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ…   https://godsmanforever.com

To my brothers and sisters in Christ, please feel free to share this message of the cross with those in need…

You say you are a “born again” believer…  BUT is your soul “ON FIRE” for the Lord ??  If not, open this link – https://godsmanforever.com/2020/08/01/are-you-a-christian-in-gods-eyes-and-on-fire-for-the-lord-or-not/

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