Tag: healing (Page 2 of 3)

The Missing Piece of “Authentic” Manhood

Authentic

Evangelical Christianity has seen a recent surge in calling men to live out authentic, sometimes referred to as biblical, manhood. This teaching is grounded in biblical principles, centered on becoming more like Jesus. Publications, sermons, and group study materials are readily available. Even so, we have missed one significant piece to the authentic, manhood formula.

MORE THAN A CHECKLIST

All too often, we end up pitching guys a list of the “dos and don’ts” to reach authentic manhood, and hope they leave anything disturbing behind. We don’t acknowledge what has wounded them. Deep emotional hurts, dark secrets, fears, and doubts are all but taboo discussion. Those topics require the investment of the church and our personal time – and typically lots of it. We either are, or pretend we are, too busy. However, never addressing their deep hurt and brokenness only sets them up to fail.

[READ MORE]

This post was originally posted on The Whole Man

Does God Want Us to “Get Over” Our Past?

past

used from www.careerealism.com

I recently had a conversation with my friend about how we heal from our past emotional wounds. While we talked he shared some of his that he is still healing from. Toward the end of the conversation my friend shared a quote he had heard at a conference. The speaker said something along the lines of, “I don’t care about your past. God doesn’t care about your past. So we need to stop worrying about our past and just get over it.”

You know those times when someone says something so profound that it drives down deep into your heart? This was not one of those times. Instead I immediately felt that everything about that statement was wrong. Specifically I have two issue with this statement.

Biblical Accuracy

First, I do not think it is biblical. I looked for this idea in the bible and could not find it. My friend did not explicitly say that the speaker referenced a specific verse, but my assumption is that this comment is based on taking scripture like Philippians 3:13-14 out of context. In this verse Paul talks about “forgetting what lies behind.” This passage speaks to God’s promise and our need to forget our past transgressions, or sins, for the purpose of moving toward God unrestricted by them. This passage also reminds us to not lean on His past mercies, but instead depend on His new grace for today. His mercies are new every morning.

Our Influence

Whether your audience is one guy sitting across from you at Starbucks or a stadium of 10,000 people, you have to be aware of what you are telling them. When you step into the role of counselor, or in this case leader, what you say matters. Chances are the person is coming to you because they trust what you might tell them. If what you tell them does not line up with scripture, then stop and consider the implications of your advice before you say it. In almost every situation, “Just get over it” is likely poor advice and will only serve to make the situation more difficult.

Sadly, I know all too well that trying to “stop worrying about and just get over” deep emotional wounds is nearly impossible, if at all. There are some wounds that are so deep that they require Jesus and an intentional approach toward seeking healing. As a trusted leader, teacher or coach you must be careful in what you say because people will take it to heart.

The Truth About your past

There are parts of our past that God forgets about, but those parts are our sins, not our hurts. And to be clear, Him forgetting is not the same as Him not caring. In fact, God cares so much about our sin that He sent His son to earth to die and atone for our sin because He could not bear to be without us. That is how much He cares. In our confession Jesus, God casts off our sin. That is the extent of God’s forgetfulness.

Just as with our sin, God cares about our hurts. God does not need or want you to “just get over” your past; He wants to heal you from it and provide purpose for it. God’s desire to heal us from our past is most evident in the fact that He sent Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Routinely Jesus makes allusions to Himself being the Great Physician, sent to heal us. When speaking of the Holy Spirit, Jesus refers to Him as a Helper and the Amplified translation includes the variations on the translation of that word: Comforter, Advocate, and Counselor. If God aimed for us to “just get over” our past then the characteristic of Healer and Comforter would not have been present in Jesus or the Holy Spirit.

God cares about our hurt and even more about healing them. Our inability to “get over” our past is not an indictment of God’s ability heal it. Nor is it one of His faithfulness to us, but rather it reveals our deeper need for Him. We heal as the Holy Spirit gently moves us through the difficulties of our past, revealing purpose, intent upon us coming out the other end whole and closer to God.

Healing takes a lot of time and prayer, but take heart for “surely He has borne our grief and carried our sorrows.

 

 

Top 5 Posts for 2015

Top 5

photo credit: theodysseyonline.com

It’s here, the end of 2015. And what a year it was. So much happened this year for the me and my family. Here’s a rundown:

  • I left my job at Walmart to work for the Department of the Army at Arlington National Cemetery. It was pretty awesome and a huge honor.
  • My oldest son graduated high school. I know I don’t look it, but I’m the parent of an adult person!
  • The church we we’re helping build in Alexandria organized a neighborhood outdoor movie night. That may not seem huge, but it was its legit outdoor movie equipment and that’s how I spent most of my summer Friday nights.
  • I launched The Whole Man. I’ve met so many awesome people through it.
  • We decided to up and move to Boise, ID. So, I quit my awesome job and packed a moving van and off we went. God did a lot of work to get us to the point where we accepted it.
  • My adult son moved to the Seattle area, near his mom, to pursue college. So no we’re down to two kids in the house.
  • MY BABY GIRL TURNED ONE! Please make it stop.
  • I became a podcast co-host. Me and a couple friends launched a new podcast called The (G)odd Show. It’s so cool. You should check it out.
  • I received my first rejection for a book proposal. It was a little brutal and stung. Not so much here or here, but right in this area.
  • Oh, and I quit my Master of Divinity program. I have no idea what I’m doing.

So that was our year. In addition to that I had some great responses to the articles I put out on The Whole Man. Here’s the top five.

5. 2 Reasons why you still haven’t found what you’re looking for.

As “blog launch day” has drawn near, I really struggled with what to write for the inaugural TWM post. There’s so many ways I could have gone, but a lot of what I thought to say about this site is already in the MANifestio (should be done in the next week or so), so it didn’t seem helpful to just rewrite it here. But then I thought about the one thing that connects all of us. It’s something that Hollywood has known for so long and has exploited to make fists full of dollars selling kiddie pool deep rom-coms. [Read More]

4. Two Truths About Not Being “In Love”

I would venture to guess that one of the most commonly used reasons for ending marriages in our culture is “I love you, but I’m not IN love with you anymore.” It’s the ready-made answer for ending the marriage that no longer meets our needs and desires. I confess that I am 100% guilty of saying this in the past. [Read More]

3. How We Got, “Wives, submit to your own husbands…” Wrong.

This past week my wife asked me, “Why is it that everyone talks about what Biblical manhood should look like, but hardly comparatively, anyone talks about Biblical womanhood?

Good question. Maybe because we mess it up more. [Read More]

2. He said, “Tell Her How You Know.”

I had always wanted a newspaper route. I thought it would be cool. Having my own money to spend only made it more desirable. I was 11 when my parents agreed to let me deliver papers. It was hard work. I got up every day at 4:00 am and hauled my bound stack of daily news into the dining room. There I would roll and stuff each one into a plastic sleeve and place it into the double-sided pocket carrier. Once all the newspapers were packed, I would sling the heavy carrier over my head and rest its weight on my shoulders. Each morning I headed out into the dark, snow-covered, streets of my neighborhood. It was hard work, but I loved doing it. [Read More]

1. Do I Need to Confess My Adultery?

A few years ago, I was counseling a guy who had been hiding his affair from his wife. He had long since ended contact with the other woman, and even confessed his affair to a chaplain friend. However, he continued to hide the truth from his wife. On the day he confessed the affair to me, he was in the midst of struggling with the need to confess to his wife. I wasn’t surprised that he hadn’t confessed to his wife, or that he was struggling with whether or not to do so. [Read More]

So there you have it, the Top 5 posts from The Whole Man for 2015. I’m super excited about 2016 and what Boise holds for us. See you in the new year!

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