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Post by Susan Peabody on Nov 18, 2017 16:41:16 GMT -8
I used to be a Seventh Day Adventist and today is the Sabbath. My partner Frank wanted to watch football and then go out. I explained to him for the hundredth time that today is for worship and rest. Since I now worship on Sunday with him, today is my day for REST. So after the football game I turned to the new series on the Bible. I got to the part where Jesus was in the desert for 40 days and nights and I realized he was homeless like I was last year. I have always been ashamed of that. The next thing I know I had this overwhelming urge to put the "Christian Corner" back up on the message board because I am proud of my faith. I take it down and put it up every month because I want so desperately to make everyone happy and not upset the newcomers. But I don't understand why the people who left because of this cannot just let us have this one little corner--at least for the holidays. I do not know how I will feel tomorrow. Sometimes my faith is a roller coaster ride. I started out an agnostic in 1982 and then became spiritual in 1983. Last year about this time I was dressing for a funeral and watched the movie "War Room." I was so moved I decided to become a Christian. The movie explains that faith is not enough but that we have to shout down the negative energy in the world. The heroine of the story shouts out "Get out of my house." Two months later I was homeless and discouraged but God saw me through. This year I am celebrating victory over all that and as usual I just can't keep it to myself. I am an educator. I love to teach and write. This is what brings me joy and I am going to do it no matter what people say about me posting too much. I am sure I got that off my chest. Namaste
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2017 0:52:38 GMT -8
... I don't understand why the people who left because of this ... When I was working with the homeless shelter, the program was unabashedly Jesus centric. A person could not get into the program (which was free and year long) unless you embraced the robust inclusion of Jesus along with enough 12 Step work to make anyone cry their guts out. I was working intakes one day. This involves an hour long interview which can possible take longer if the person is then accepted in. I interviewed one man who seemed quite desperate. I took his information carefully and use some motivational interviewing techniques. He lets me proceed all the way to the check in, at which time he says "I'm muslim, is that going to be a problem?". Knowing full well the religious nature of the program, needing help, and even engaging helpers at the shelter, this man torpedoed his entry interview at the last minute. I had to dismiss him to the daily intake line for the crowded overnight shelter. I gave him a Bible and told him to read it. Religion is not the problem...
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Post by Havefaith on Nov 19, 2017 18:10:05 GMT -8
John 5:6
HaveFaith
When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"
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Post by Susan Peabody on Nov 19, 2017 21:21:51 GMT -8
John 5:6
HaveFaith
When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"
Would You Like to Get Well?
Susan Peabody
One of the men lying there had been sick for 38 years. When Jesus saw him and knew how long he had been ill, He asked him, “Would you like to get well?” “I can’t,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to help me into the pool at the movement of the water. While I am trying to get there, someone else always gets in ahead of me.” Jesus told him, “Stand up, roll up your sleeping mat and go on home.” I believe that to be happy and reach our full potential, we must heal the wounds of our past. By wounds, I mean the legacy of neglect and abuse—such things as fear, anger, and shame. Healing our wounds also guarantees that we will not pass our pain on to others and destroy their lives. This is important to me because I carry around many wounds. Most of them are the legacy of a childhood filled with loneliness and depression. Of course, it took me a long time to realize that I was being held back by my emotional problems, and, when I finally did, I still lacked the motivation to do anything about the situation. Then, one day, while discussing all of this with a friend, she asked me, “What holds you back from getting better? What do you think the block is?” Without thinking, I found myself blurting out, “I am afraid to get better. Mental health is unfamiliar. It is a mystery that lies beyond a closed door and I have no peep hole. That mystery feels like a beast ready to devour me if I open the door. What if getting better is worse than being sick? It can happen. Besides, I think I have bonded to my vision of myself as a victim. I prefer self-pity to self-esteem” “My friend looked at me in surprise, but before she could say anything I left. I really didn’t want to talk about this because it made me feel ashamed. Not long after this conversation, I sat down to read The Living Bible. Without thinking, I turned to the gospel of John. Soon, I got to the story of the sick man by the pool (John 5:6-8). I had read this story before, and liked it, but this time when I got to the words, “Would you like to get better?” a loud voice boomed in my head, “No.” At first I was shocked by this passionate and spontaneous response to the question Jesus had posed, and I didn’t know what to make of it. Then I remembered my earlier conversation with my friend. As I began to reflect on this story in John, in terms of what I had revealed to my friend about my fear of getting better and my victim mentality, I found it particularly fascinating that once Christ confronts the sick man about whether or not he wants to get well, the man in question begins to make excuses. (Don’t we all.) And the man never really answers Christ. (If he is anything like me he probably just lay there looking sheepish, trying to find more excuses for staying in bed.) Fortunately for the man (and for me) Jesus let him off the hook and simply gave him the answer to his dilemma. “Stand up, roll up your sleeping mat and go home.” In other words, do something—take action—don’t sit around the pool in a state of suspended animation. So this is what I did. I got down on my knees and prayed for the willingness, courage, and guidance to change. I said out loud, “Yes! Lord! I want to get well!” Then I picked up my mat, or in my case got out of bed both literally or figuratively, and went home. Home, as it turned out, is both a metaphorical and physical place. Metaphorically, it is that place in my heart where my soul resided before the trauma and where today I am a free and unblemished spirit unencumbered by my fears and illusions. Literally, it is the church where I can incorporate the Christian disciplines of prayer, meditation, confession, study, submission, and worship into my life—all the things that are helping me get better. Most of all, it is behind that door I was so afraid of where the Holy Sprit teaches me everything I need to know about reaching my full potential as a human being. So remember the lesson of the sick man by the pool. Christ is not going to heal us without our permission. We must say yes to mental health. We must get past your reservations about being happy (as strange as that sounds). And we must do something—sometimes even before the willingness comes. The following e-mail came to me on October 20, 2003. It was addressed to my publisher. Writers can wait a lifetime to hear something like this.
"I thought you might like to hear a quick story about your online article, "Would You Like to Get Well?" by Susan Peabody. I have a 57-year-old friend who has spent her whole adult life fighting schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder and numerous physical problems. This summer she was going downhill so fast both physically and emotionally we feared we would have to put her in managed care. She has a high IQ and has her degree in psychology but neither her education or her therapists or psychiatrists could help her.
I gave her a copy of the article. She read it and realized she was afraid to get well. She spent some time thinking about it and decided she had nothing to lose. She made the decision to get well and has made such amazing progress none of her therapists or doctors can believe it.
The story is too long to tell here but I wanted you and Susan to know what an impact her article made and how instrumental it was in Janet's decision to change her life and get well. She has begun attending Vallejo Drive Church and wants to become a member. She wants to go back to school and become a hospital chaplain. Thanks to you and Susan for helping to save her life."
Linda
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Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2017 6:59:44 GMT -8
John 5:6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"
This is a very timely message for me. I went on to read all of John 5. This is just the passage that I needed to see and read at this perfect moment.
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Post by Havefaith on Nov 21, 2017 5:26:50 GMT -8
I finally had to ask myself -- "Do I want to get well?"
I was stuck in my past. I was stuck in my own addiction. Oh, woe is me! I shall never get well, all the forces of nature and humanity are against me! Look at me! Look at me suffer!
Well -- my psychiatrist did look at me and said, "V, nothing changes if nothing changes." I think of the man who languished for 30+ years in the chapter of John that I quoted above. One does not have to be of a Christian mindset to see that this man found every excuse under the proverbial sun to stay stuck. Nothing changed for him because he did nothing to change his circumstances.
Healing (getting well) means having to change -- having to take responsibility for one's actions, having to face up to what does not work in one's life. It also requires having to let go of the "people, places and things" that keeps one stuck in an unhealthy mindset.
It is not easy. It requires work. It is far easier to languish in an unhealthy state and blame circumstances and/or everyone else for one's particular set of woes. It really is. It's less work. I know. I whined for years and did nothing to effect real change.
It finally dawned on me -- I am responsible for my wellness. I can either take advantage of the tools I have been given to heal or I can languish for years, like the man in John 5:6.
Do I want to get well? Yes. Whose responsibility is it? Mine.
Amen.
HaveFaith
p.s., I highly recommend anyone struggling with change to read John Chapter 5 -- one does not have to read it from a Christian mindset. Read it from an addict's mindset. It relays universals truths. It opened my eyes...
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Post by Deleted on Nov 21, 2017 12:15:07 GMT -8
I finally had to ask myself -- "Do I want to get well?" ... highly recommend anyone struggling with change to read John Chapter 5 ... It relays universals truths. It opened my eyes... I reviewed this with my spiritual leader last night. I've been led to other scripture that is leading me to understand that if I do not change... I will suffer more. Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 "Much dreaming and many words are meaningless." ... God's discipline is harsh upon me at times.
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Post by Susan Peabody on Nov 21, 2017 13:03:15 GMT -8
1 Corinthians 15:51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, Romans 12 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good . . . .
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