Remember a time when you had a clear view of what being on the right track felt like, looked like, and what you needed to do? Yeah, that is a hard one for me to recall as well. Although, there are moments of clarity in life, we usually are learning how to handle obscure and difficult to understand moments in life and how to make spiritual sense out of it. I would argue that helping others make spiritual sense out of their longings and losses in life is what I get to do as a teacher and pastor.
The privilege of being invited into the muck of life with another is a great honor that I feel I have just begun to understand after 20 years of ministry to what that looks like. Yet, what I have usually found is that the best thing I can start to help with is uncovering the BIG LIE in others lives. The BIG LIE is something we all have in life. It might be that you are not lovable, you’re selfish, you’re not worth the effort to cherish or honor. We all have had these messages lodged our minds somehow by someone or by the enemy himself.
Trauma can disrupt the healthy development of self from abuse, neglect, or exploitation. We engage in the reality of a relationship with God with these lies holding us back or clouding the truth from our view. One of my “BIG LIES” was that after my mistakes in life, God couldn’t use me. Why did I think this? Many in the Church told me so (helpful right?). I have chalked up these statements to a lack of love and belief in God that the level of shallowness and judgement came from a place of not seeing clearly the view of what the Gospel actually is calling us to become.
It took me years to overcome these lies as the Holy Spirit continued to minister to me through the Word and through other authors and pastors who helped make spiritual sense of a God who takes me in with all my failures and shortcomings and still calls me to the task to serve him. There are still moments when these old narratives pop in my mind (usually when someone is frustrated with my leadership) yet I have so many people, moments, and experiences that rebuke such lies and they have no legs to run around in my mined or heart.
What is your “BIG LIE”? It is really helpful to name it, recognize that it is in your mind causing a setback or paralyzing you from what God is setting before you as steps to new ventures of obedience in faith. What Truth in God’s word can you replace it with? How about Ephesians 2:10?
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10
We need to realize in this time of rediscovering life as we seek to understand a new normal in our places of worship and faith community, that some old and new lies have been placed to stop us from achieving and realizing new levels of faith, community and ultimately transformation from the old to the new in Christ.
How we realize this and handle their pathological effects is crucial for the Church going forward. How you identify and remove them through Scripture and caregivers like mentors pastors, and those who have some lessons to teach us from their own journeys are essential to bring in a thriving life of faith. I have no doubt that you have been called to amazing works of faith and that you have so much opportunity to realize great healing, discovery, and victory if you can reject and neutralize the big lies in your life.
Keep Looking Up!
Micah!
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