Don't Cry for Me

Matthew 19:14, “But Jesus said, ‘Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

John 20:15, “Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?...”

The post “Bullied” has brought to me several private messages. Some of support, some of concern, but none of the messages celebrated the beautiful mystery of the experience behind the post.

I like everyone have suffered some things in my childhood and teenage years that were not very nice. And those “tragedies,” or dark moments did have an impact on my character and changed my childlikeness into something more guarded. They did make me more isolated, and in need of certain controls. Those experiences were part of what caused me to react to all negativity as a personal attack; and any sane person should know all negativity is not personal. All tragedy, every dark moment is not some personal attack, but often just life and living in a decaying world. Those moments, and those acts against me represent loss of innocence. 

Some might argue this loss of innocence, which happens to everyone, is orchestrated by the devil. I won’t argue against it. One thing for sure is all of it occurred in spite of wonderful caring parents. All of it occurred in silence because somehow when you are young and something bad happens you feel responsible and calculate there will be further punishment if you confess or tattle. Sick twisted thinking the perpetrators almost mystically implant into their victims. But it is a loss of innocence none the less. And here in lies the beauty of bullied.

I am forty-six years old and have allowed things that happened as long as 40 years ago to impact my character and to subconsciously control my reactions. But God in His infinite wisdom said, ‘Today we are going to deal with it.’ God, by allowing all of this to surface now in effect is saying, ‘now Jeff can understand, and now I can bring healing, and now he will have more character like My Son.’

Can you see the cause for celebration? I wrote, “It is here, in the wonder that God comes alive inside of me. It is here that my spirit is filled with my Father saying, “You are no longer going to be motivated by them.” No more will the subconscious govern the conscious. The subconscious is now the conscious and I choose to no longer listen to it. I choose to forgive them, and I choose to allow that forgiveness to bring down the barriers between me and my obedience to God. I choose to not weigh my success or failure on some ghost of the past that is not even there, nor cares to be a part of it.” And already the healing that took place is manifesting in my attitude. Already problems are no a personal attack, but part of life and my life’s purpose.

I don’t write for sympathy, but I thank you for it. I write so that you can see God using life to teach me, so that you can see God using your life to teach you.

Some people go to church to hear about God applied and living in their life. Some read books. Some have coaches. Listen to what my friend Dave wrote about his being a “heart-coach.”

Dave says in regards to his coaching/counseling, “The short answer is: a conversation where we hold the intention that Life is teaching us and inviting us to see something amazing & transformational ALL the time… and we get to discover what it is for US personally… and that discovery makes all the difference in the world, in our life and for our life…”

I would add that Life is God teaching us about Jesus. He is inviting us to see how different we are from Christ and to then surrender to those differences so that we are amazingly transformed into His image. Dave simply helps to facilitate the vision, to see the spiritual truth in the circumstances. And "Bullied" was my expression of this same experience.

Which by the way… if you are in the Houston area Dave is giving away 100 free coaching session in the next 30 days. Call him at 832-233-2665 to get yours.

The point is this. If you read my post and cry for me, then you have read them from my perspective. If you read them and rejoice with me, then you have read them with God’s perspective. Rejoice that God is restoring my innocence. Rejoice that seeing what caused the loss of our innocence is not a painful reminder but an open invitation to overcome and restore not only innocence, but God’s purpose as well.

I will close by asking, Do you think the apostle Paul talked about all he suffered so that people would feel sorry for him? Or do you think the ship wreaks, beatings, jail, and other assorted sufferings were there to say, I’m just like you now look what God is doing with it?