When your child falls sick or has developmental issues, you'd immediately run to a doctor to treat them "get better" right? How about also caring for yourself? How about caring for your parents? How about caring for your spouse? How about... (you know it) Why do we stop treating ourselves to "get better" as soon as we grow up? I'm talking about mental health. Though we maybe physically 'grown up', but our mental, emotional, psychological and spiritual aspects are not. You're you because of who you are inside and out and as long as we live, we keep evolving and becoming a personality about which our descendants are going to talk about. And you must have come across critics like:
"Oh! If only my grandfather was like that... he would have...",
"Alas! My Uncle... he could have made it only if...",
"Ugh! My Dad...",
"Oh my poor mom never had the courage to...",
"Oh I hate my Aunt... she's like...",
"Eww! That politician..."
The Recognition
In most cases, people are either stuck and don't grow past one stage in their life, or they've alternatively declined - their patterns and reflexes show it all. Seldom we see those who evolve "despite"... and these are the ones who make it to the charts of inspirational personalities because they didn't give up. They've cared for themselves, they chose self-respect humbly, and even spent on "growing" and "healing". And we watch them and conclude they couldn't be any better - they're applauded for their true-selves.
Healing and Growing mentally, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually - is The Most Important aspect of Abundant Living. Just staying fit isn't going to give you satisfaction in life, period.
Step one, know that you NEED healing. If you've landed on this page, this is what you're currently seeking or atleast trying to understand where to. Agree or not, Bible has been proven to be statistically and historically the best help resource anyone can find and the before-after results are just crazy. But... I know there are bunch of 'Christians' who are totally messed-up or you could be one of them too. Literally, it's not the fault of the resource itself, it's the fault of the "utilization" factor. You could be prescribed with cough syrup but if you apply it on your throat and chest twice a day after meals, you're not going to be healed! you chuckled reading that, now does it make sense? I know about the contradictions, controversies, offenses, religions associated with The Bible scriptures. For instance, you have a favorite movie and your friend casually makes a comment on it just by hearing someone else's opinion or by watching just a clip with controversial heading on social media, wouldn't you convince them to watch it fully once to understand the depth of the story and clear off the misconceptions?
..., if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. - 1 Peter 2: 3
The Utilization
There's an interesting character in The Bible, Saul alias Paul, who was a murderer of Christians. This is soon after Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection to heaven, the church and disciples of Jesus were being persecuted and the first person to be stoned to death was witnessed by Saul. And this man was on an mission to massacre Christians, but something happened on the way, read below snippet from The Bible:
Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him,
“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied, “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
Acts 9:1-6
Later, the same man is completely transformed to become an Apostle, working alongside the other Jesus' disciples, sharing God's love to even the rejected classes in the society across nations even to Asia and Europe. He ordained inclusivity, promoting love, equality, harmony and dignity among the communities. He chose not to retaliate even while he was beaten and arrested and didn't escape even when he had chances to flee during a ship wreck as a prisoner. Paul's (alias Saul) several writings are included in The Bible we read today and lot of them talk about life's choices, character building, growth and perseverance. He's seen encouraging others to change for the good and not just stop there but even trained them to become leaders. This once upon a time murderer - Paul wrote to Philemon about Onesimus (a ran-away slave) to accept him back not as slave but as a brother, who has been fully transformed after staying with Paul for sometime. Can you imagine the gravity of healing - this cruel, violent, ruthless and inhumane man must have gone through to transform into such a dove-like inspirational personality, who not just kept this mystery medicine to himself but shared freely and sacrificially to others risking his own life? It was the Gospel that transformed him, it was Jesus who changed the course of his life, gave him meaning to his existence and made him famous for good, not for hate. You gotta try God and look at the change in the course of your life.
You might not relate to the cruelty of this man's past life to feel the need for healing, but if we dig deep, the rootcause of our actions are the feelings in our heart: bitterness, jealousy, hate, desperation, feeling lost, lack of purpose in life, dissatisfaction, sinful nature, pride, trauma, unforgiveness, inner wounds, losing sensitivity, wanting to give up, lust, greediness, unhealthy craving for fame, and so on... You might not be going out and massacring people but rather hurting 'yourself' and your 'family'. We are all suffering by something or dying internally of something. The truth is we need both filling and emptying of somethings in life. And so the gracious love of Christ is such powerful that it fills and flows in us and flushes out the negatives.
You just need to know the utilization factor of this mystery medicine, it's not a mystery after all, it's a free gift of God which He graciously and mercifully gave to us so that we can receive through faith and hold on to it until it completely transforms us into our true-selves - the way God created us to be in the first place.
The Criticism
During this healing process, you don't have to impress the people around you with the "process" or even expect encouragement. You're obviously going to see raised eyebrows and sneering and side-eyes because many "don't care". Yes, it's hard to read that but it's the truth. For the matter of fact, those who didn't acknowledge the pain you had and those who didn't respond to your plea for help during your suffering, are definitely not going to encourage you when you pick up yourself and go to a therapy or even have a friend who helps you with counselling. Your self-healing steps are going to irritate them and further more, they're going to say you're starting to be self-obsessed and that you're "changing". If you see that happening in your house or neighbourhood or your workplace or friends circle, be happy that it's triggering the actual negative people in your life, and there you go - you now have clear picture of their true colors and further decide who you want to be in fellowship with most of the time. The healing process and the followed criticism might even help you to realize the rootcause of you losing yourself.
Don't dim your light because someone is offended, shine brighter above their curses and let your light speak for itself.
The Progress
Life doesn't stop as you pick your Bible and start focusing on your healing, you still have to go to your workplace, deal with same family members, still hang around that narcissist, fight to overcome that desire of sin/addiction. Or you might have to move out of city, get into a new phase of life, have more family members added and subtracted at the same time, get fired from work or lose a contract, have a new heartbreak etc. And these might add up to your existing crisis, but keep progressing, don't give up on healing. Bible is a Mirror, it shows people themselves - the personalities and traits which are hidden will be exposed as you go through the chapters and books in The Bible and God will keep helping you to focus on certain areas you need to repair and rebuild, this time, not on your own understanding but on the Word of God, not on the lies and curses of people around you but on The Truth of The Gospel.
Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." - John 10:10
The Victory
There is real Joy in knowing that you're loved unconditionally, there is pleasure in life when your heart is filled with Peace and you see the world differently when you have Love in your heart. All of this is only found in the Living God. The world might give you many options but they're only external and limited, nothing can heal your heart the way Jesus does. Oh! life is full when you can enjoy heavenly peace now here on earth, and that can only be of heaven - God.
King David, sang:
You make known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand. - Psalm 16:11
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