Love is Taking a Stand for the Beloved

Have compassion on those that seem stuck or infirm. Jesus hung out with the social outcasts — those that knew they were broken. Those that knew their wound-compensations were not working and they could no longer pretend. For THESE, you see, are first on God’s list as candidates for Grace.

Often a subconscious part of them chose that negative thing out of some good intention. Often they were in a tough spot, a kind of desperate decision or the only move they knew, to survive — sometimes emotionally survive, sometimes literally survive. They did they VERY BEST THEY COULD at that time, with all the info, distinctions and resource when that problem struck them.

Often the very trauma that called for a desperate survival move, is also the thing that gets caught in forgetfulness. The armor designed to protect from the outside, doubles as a sealant against newness and upgrades coming in as well. The armor “worked”.. but protected all TOO WELL. It protected so well that no even conscious memory could get in.

Only a powerful, capable and resourceful person can make such a powerful decision, a ‘sentence over their own life’ — some contract/oath/agreement that locks them in. Those struggling with mental illness often just need profound love. Those with negative traits were often forged in the fires of a self-protective strategy from overwhelming trauma that served them in the moment, and the tried hard to FORGET that precise negative moment so they could cope or function or not go into total breakdown.

Be gracious to such people. They have often fought harder battles than you have — dealt with more overwhelming pain than you. They are wounded warriors. They need not to be scorned, sidelined or pitied, but to be RESPECTED and UNDERSTOOD. Their hearts needs to be heard.

Each heart, and the enemy’s warfare against it to shut it down is unique, but follows patterns/themes nevertheless. The details vary but the dark enemy’s strategy is ultimately to steal their destiny, kill their dreams and destroy the ministry that a whole them would wield in God’s Kingdom to undo the forces of darkness.

You see, often their present social limitation is linked to core rejection, abandonment wounds. Where there should have been security, there was horrific abuse. Where there should have been love, there was hate or scornful abandonment. Where there should have been joy, there was rejection. Where there was supposed to be rich belonging and faithful fathering, there was a painful void.

And while they have (we all have) compensated for brokenness and woundedness in fleshly ways that FAIL THEM AND THOSE AROUND THEM in the big picture… They need a “safe space” (a place of honor, belonging and acceptance — counterbalancing the unsafe place of abuse, rejection and abandonment/fatherlessness) in which to REMEMBER just why, what and how they chose some self-protective thing that is now limiting them at a different stage in life — one in which they have new resources and possibilities than when crisis struck.

The first duty of love is to listen. Set your concerns aside and really listen. Help them integrate. Help them find and cover all of themselves and make NEW/FRESH choices from today’s more developed self than a well-intentioned and brave, but traumatized child.

Love them. Stand for their greatness. The REAL THEM wants to heal and reclaim their greatness, even if a scared them shrinks back in weaker moments. Serve them in whatever way helps them RECLAIM that greatness — reclaim themSELVES. God created them whole and wants them whole. Ask God to make you into a servant that helps others around you to OVERCOME and blossom into their fullest and highest potential.

This sounds great, but it will not be easy. It takes TRUE love. It takes unselfishness and patience. It takes a continual stand for their truest core to emerge and take DOMINION.

I say their “truest core” because only your real self can love. Love comes from your God-intended self, not a fake / inauthentic self, not a self make to be a social construct for others to see. As you engage with God, struggle with everything incomplete, unwhole, a broken within you… AS you engage it is the Presence of God, the PERSONALITY of Jesus that transforms you from the inside out — your personality is infused with the Personality of Jesus, your mind, your emotions, your priorities are MADE whole as more of Jesus lives in you.

It is not therapy. It is not tips and tricks for coping better. It is about receiving life DIRECTLY from its source.

The focus of all religion is your behavior. But in Christianity, following Christ, the life of Christ is living HIS life through you. The behavior is natural, automatic and AUTHENTIC because your core is changed. It is not striving to be the morally appropriate thing an conforming to any specific religious standards. It is coming into alignment to the PERSON who wrote the Torah. It is not living by a bunch of rules; instead it is living in close union with the rule-maker Himself.