Peace of Mind - October - November 4, 2020 (Part 1)

Focus Scripture: Psalm 46, MSG
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Bible Tip: Today’s reading directs us to confront the shame we’ve experienced on account of others’ wrongs in the safety of our inviolable God. It is an invitation that has been extended to many generations of them that love God and is recorded in the book of Psalms. This is the largest collection of poetry in the Bible. It is not a loosely assembled collection. Instead, it has been organized to invite generations of God’s people into a comprehensive storyline of the entire Biblical narrative: the creation, fall, redemption and glorious reign of God through Jesus Christ. Watch the video to learn more about how the book of Psalms invites us into the larger narrative of the Bible. When you’re done, see if you can identify where today’s focus Scripture falls in the narrative. How does understanding its place in the larger narrative help you to understand it more? 

I’m not sure how it happened…
I awoke with your dusty prints all over my body.  
I tried to wipe them away, but the dust spread all over my hands...
A bigger mess I made.
In a moment of still observation it became hard to tell…
Where did the dust come from?

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This season, characterized by disease and suffering and losses of all kinds, has also been a season in which I have found God’s hidden treasure of time. Surely, the seconds, minutes, hours and days add up the same but, the ways in which I have been invited to stand in these increments of time have been different. I am inhabiting a kind of stillness that makes room for the unlocking of memories and the challenging of the truth of the stories I have told myself about my own life. 

The journey has been a contained whirlwind. I don’t get to choose what memories are unlocked, nor do I get to choose their timing. And the memories stir feelings. I don’t get to choose those either. They wash over me. Whirlwind. But, I’m not alone in the confrontation with these memories: some painful and still many confusing. God is with me. He’s holding them up to a light far more brilliant than any that can be lit by my own understanding. He’s helping me to answer the question, “Where did the dust come from?” Contained.

He’s showing me that shame makes its entrance through two doors: the wrong I’ve done and the wrongdoing of others. He’s showing me that shame is not interested in helping me mark the distinction between the doors. Shame is interested in shrinking my soul from its unity with God; muting my desire for intimacy; hiding me from the light of my calling; and indoctrinating me in hell’s story of perpetual brokenness and unworthiness.
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The dusty prints that mark my body (history) are evidence of wrongdoing committed against me. The wrongdoing I never asked or begged for. The wrongdoing carried out by the ill-directed will of broken souls. I did the best I could. You’ve done the best you could. We’ve done the best we could-trying to wipe away the dusty prints. It was how we coped. But, it fell short-all we could do. Coping without the light of God’s countenance, without His help, always multiplies the shame.

The stories that we tell ourselves without God, in this broken world, can only be about self-protection and immediate survival. It’s the best we can hope for. But God invites us to have Him tell the story in the safety of His presence. He invites us to make Him our fortress, so that we can embrace the reality of what was done to us and reassign the responsibility of wrongdoing to the ones who perpetrated acts of violence against our persons. He offers Himself to demolish the lie that some inherent unworthiness or wrongness of our persons necessitated the sins we suffered. He invites us to embrace the truth that we are made in His image, born with an inherent and irrevocable dignity, and in Him, destined for glory and not shame. (Genesis 1:26 - 28).

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Additional Resources

EarthBasic is leaning in to provide Scriptural encouragement and support for women who are victims and survivors of Domestic and Family Violence. As we enter into November, a month in which the United Nations begins its 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence initiative, we will use our various platforms to provide resources for our sisters in Christ who are fighting to safeguard their lives and daring to hope for more than surviving.
If you or a sister you know is in an abusive relationship please engage these resources:

One of the most basic ways to begin the process of rightly assigning responsibility for wrongdoing is learning about the signs of domestic and family violence. 

Learn to identify the signs of mental and emotional abuse with these resources: 

https://www.thehotline.org/identify-abuse/warning-signs-of-abuse/

Sometimes it is our narrow view of what is unacceptable in a healthy Christ-centered relationship that keeps us in a state of bondage and confusion and close to danger. Learn about the different types of abuse here: https://www.thehotline.org/resources/types-of-abuse/

TRY:

• Invite your daughter to express her preferences about everyday living matters,  e.g. food, physical environment, people (at home, in the family, at school, etc) and family decisions, etc. You are inviting her to think and communicate about her life and her experience of it. Listen for understanding. Try to communicate to her what you are learning about her from her words. You may try saying, “What I hear you saying is…” Refrain from evaluating her thoughts and or making recommendations. Just listen in a way that affirms that her voice is worthy of being heard in the world.
  
• Honor her noes. Where her preferences do not compromise Christ-centered values, the safety of herself and or others, nor encourage irresponsible resource (tangible or intangible) management, honor them. Model a healthy acceptance of her noes by refusing to be angry with her, using coercion, or any other tool of manipulation to get your way. Be willing to, at times, relinquish your preferences in the context of relationship with your daughter.
  
• Strengthen her noes. Your daughter’s preferences will change over time and these changes will be as a consequence of a series of influences, e.g. life experience, peer group, media exposure  and cultural expectations.  Sharpen her capacity to choose wisely by helping her to develop a Biblical worldview. Do this through a daily practice of partnered Bible reading and study and by modeling your use of Scriptural principles in evaluating everyday life decisions. The popular question, “What would Jesus do?” is a helpful starting point for developing this awareness in yourself and your daughter. Ask the question and then seek the answers in the Scripture together! Looking for a Mom and daughter Bible study options? Checkout the offerings for Tweens by our friends at Pure Freedom Ministries.