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Pilgrimage Through My Miracle
Many of you know that four weeks ago I was in a double impact car collision with my four-year-old, Liberty. We were hit head-on, while at a stoplight, then again on my driver's side.
The impact totaled our car, but we saw God's miracle in our lives, despite the trauma. Liberty is physically well and getting better with riding in a car again without angst. I'm still in recovery from my seriously injured cervical vertebrae, left hip and left shoulder.
Please keep our family in your prayers. There are many readjustments in all of our lives.
Yet, I have a resolve for my healing that looks like the ongoing embrace of unstoppable grace and daily new mercies, in light of the present pain.
As I pilgrimage through my miracle and the disruption, I cling to a grace that releases me from trying to press through commitments that my body and mind cannot support. I cling to a grace that releases me from apologizing for not being involved the way I was pre-collision.
Besides, I've not quite been one to apologize out of habit or pseudo-guilt, anyway. There are some temptations, but it's not a garment that fits.
I'm adapting to being useful and productive in a different way, a new way. It looks like rest and realignment at my steady pace.
I'm talking about the opportunities and the responsibility to recover in a noble way, a hospitable way.
Hospitality in Healing
What's most hospitable for me in this season of my life is self-compassion. Unfortunately, this kind of compassion isn't encouraged or emphasized nearly at the same elevated level as we're encouraged to offer compassion to others.
I'm talking soul care, self-love, and self-care.
Through God's nurture and nature, I receive His affection and absorb all of its multivitamin nutrients for myself, and only from that place of being a generous receiver, will I become a generous giver. Bypassing self-compassion is like disregarding the pilot who instructs us to put the oxygen mask on ourselves first.
I am persuaded that self-compassion truly activates compassion for others because it fosters solidarity.
My outlook on this stage in my life is something that isn't glamorous, but it is glorious. My faith, hope, and love woo me to declare, "I AM HEALED!"
And I am breathing His promise and provision in deeply.
Inhale and speak shalom into every square inch of my being.
Exhale and denounce chaos of all forms out of my moment by moment pilgrimage of apprehending my healing.
Will you declare this with me? We all need healing in some manner. We all have the same access to The Healer. He knows the wisest and best course to lead us on to address every longing in the places that we get bruised and broken.
Together, let's declare our Trust in His goodness, His timing.
Declaration 1
VISION
Even here, I choose to see a vision of my healing pilgrimage. Without vision perishing is inevitable. Healing is the ongoing beautiful display of Love's restoration and realignment anywhere within the soul, the body, and all places Love accompanies me.
Harmony and connection are the priorities.
Declaration 2
AUTHENTICITY & VULNERABILITY
The ubiquitous talk about authenticity and vulnerability, aren't trend words in the economy of the kingdom of light, they are revelers of what is true and transformative. They're not drawn in by the cheapening experience of a knockoff.
When Love speaks of authenticity, the disclosure is about noticing and honoring the "real" no matter how desperate the counterfeit woos the false self.
And when Love speaks of vulnerability, the disclosure is about the extent Love will go to open up to weakness in order to connect and better serve from a place called intimate fellowship.
Declaration 3
UNHURRIED
Hurry will not get me to my destination quicker. It will utter lies about what real progress looks like. I choose the sacred of the slow, steady, the in-the-fullness-of-time advent of God's steady faithfulness. It's His prerogative if He chooses quick.
Declaration 4
IDENTITY
My identity is a gift. It is not my experience, my thoughts, my body, my emotions, my desires, my trials, or my triumphs. My identity is nurtured by the Beloved, its genesis is in the bosom of His everlasting light. THERE IS MORE TO ME THAN I CAN FULLY KNOW OR COMPREHEND.
Declaration 5
LOVE
Fear is not the equal and powerful opposite of Love. Love has already rendered fear powerless, toothless, useless, and less. When fear begins to grip the mind, let Love loose and watch Him evict fear. Letting Love loose looks like choosing to believe more about Love being everything in the face of anything.
The first mention of fear in the Bible is when God came looking for humanity in paradise. They hid because they were afraid. Fear aims to make one hide. Hiding doesn't heal. It hinders and deepens the hurt.
Yet, fear isn't the root, it's not the problem, rather, it's an expression of the problem. It's symptomatic. Fear is a signal that there's an attack on love. This attack can appear as apathy, sabotage (from within or without), or any interference between the communion you have with the Beloved. Let Love.
What would it look like to retaliate falsehood with Love? What would it look like to counter-attack fear with Love?
Declaration 6
WITNESS
The conscience isn't designed to stalk or troll. It's designed to be a witness. But one witness will only see in part, which is why a cloud of witnesses will give greater insight and perspective.
Like Jacob, he needed a witness to help him discover, pursue, and enjoy real intimacy and his real destiny.
Even when there's real guilt, as in Jacob's life, there's a new name and revelation of Love's accompaniment and provision—Israel was his true name all along. Jacob was his behavior and sadly, he was called and labeled by his behavior. Love was his greatest refuge and set the record straight.
Jacob may have been wrestling with the Heavenly One, but what if the Heavenly One wasn't wrestling Jacob, what if He was holding Him like you would to calm a panicked person?
He walked away healed with a limp as a sign of one of his many witnesses that he had been in the presence of the resplendent One.
Declaration 7
Renewal
Renew the mind. See familiar things afresh. See the resurrection afresh.
Declaration 8
SAVOR
Savor. Savor grace. Savor joy. Savor laughter. Savor a sunset. Savor whatever you have because the Savior has you.
Declaration 9
BROKEN
When I begin to name my temporary, broken places, I will choose to remember how Jesus took the bread, blessed it with gratitude, then, He broke it into pieces to share. Brokenness helps us share like the Divine One. Share.
Declaration 10
KNOWLEDGE
To know Him. In the power of the resurrection. To know Him. In the fellowship of suffering.
For now, until all things are made new, power and pain aren't frenemies, they're equally honorable gateways into meaningful intimacy.
Declaration 11
YES
Say yes to freedom every day, in every moment. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom - 2 Corinthians 3:17.
Declaration 12
PRESENT
Being present isn't a work, it's an invitation to claim a right now inheritance.
Declaration 13
BIRTHRIGHT & INHERITANCE
Think more in terms of birthright and inheritance and less about rewards and wages. In the kingdom, no one gets what they deserve, thankfully.
Declaration 14
CHASE & CREATE
Chase and create beauty, not trends. Choose the one that outlasts and sustains no matter the season of life and what's popular.
Create a smile.
Create a willing attitude.
Create an open heart.
Create a circle of healing companions who believe with you, not just for you. Empathy is, "I'm hurting with you." Sympathy is, "I'm hurting for what happened to you." Sympathy isn't bad, it's for those who must stand a little farther away for whatever reason. Know the difference and embrace both.
Declaration 15
SHALOM
Rest. Relinquish. Receive. Repeat. There's a shalom way of living that beckons a lifestyle surrendered to belovedness.
Shalom has the audacity to transcend and heal all things and culminate ALL into the wholeness and unity of the Ancient of Days. I am bound for harmony and all things beautiful and redemptive. This is my HALLELUJAH. He is my HALLELUJAH!
Although this is my personal healing manifesto, if it resonates with you, please download the two-page PDF. Feel free to print it for yourself keep it somewhere where you'll see it regularly. Mine will be hanging out in my journal.
(Click on the image above or below to download. Rethink + Reimagine your healing)
(click the grief series image to listen to the episodes)
Until next time,
Scribble. Speak. From your soul.
Links for further discovery Subscribe & Listen to my Soul Care Podcasts
Go deeper into your multi-layered healing with my Healing and Held devotional based on the blessing in Number 6 and the lament in Habakkuk.
Listen to this healing affirmation and blessing by Christian JaLon, Remember (Note to Self)
Artwork by Glenda Thomas
Download the Healing Manifesto PDF
Here's one of the healing artwork pieces gifted to me by Glenda. What a joy and surprise it was to receive it in the mail! She named it, "Burst of Healing"... it radiates her precious friendship and big heart. Thank you immensely, Glenda.
