Tag: dysfunctional

Family

On By hawkinsm6In Christian Living, Christianity, Discipleship, Encouragement, Spiritual, UncategorizedLeave a comment

The holiday season brings families together all across the world.  That’s where the trouble starts.

What a broken, messed up, ruined system.  Absolutely doomed to failure.  Dysfunctional parents raising dysfunctional children all throughout history.  You look at most of the heroes of Judaism and Christianity and then look at their kids.  Wow!  I mean wow and YIKES!

So why does an all-knowing, all-powerful God believe that the family, a husband, a wife and children is the best way to assure an environment where love, joy, nuturing, goodness, and life could be experienced?

And, it would appear that very few experience those things in a family.

Parents shake their heads at the “stupid” things their kids do.  Kids blame their parents for all the “wrongs” done to them.  Everyone feeling like the problems would be solved if the people in their lives were just different.

What makes a beautiful song?  Is it one that never strays into the relative minor?  Is it one that never displays dissonance, syncopation, complicated melodies or harmonies?

I don’t think so.

The best place for me to learn love, real, Christ-like, agape, self-sacrificing love is in the crucible of my very flawed family. And if I can see them as a gift, instead of the ruined, broken, sinful people that everyone of us truthfully is, I take one step closer to the heart of God.

And that’s why He believes in us, as fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters. I think He knows that if we will choose love in the environment where the deepest hurts can occur, that we will choose love as we make our way in this crazy, messed up, dysfunctional world.

But hey, what do I know…

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“All Things Work Together…”

On By hawkinsm6In Christian Living, Discipleship, Encouragement, Spiritual, Uncategorized, Worship8 Comments

What a crock!

I know it’s scripture but, seriously, what a crock.

Raised in an abusive, dysfunctional home.  Molested as a child, repeatedly.  Bullied, ridiculed, demeaned.  Rejected by many that I needed, really, truly needed to be loved by.  Marginalized by the church as a rebel.  Looked down on for how I question things, the questions that I ask, the inherent flaws that must be present in a person who questions God.  Every time I asked for something, it either came across as being arrogant, thinking I deserved it, or as weak, lacking confidence.  So many opportunities stripped away, even when I had the necessary skills, the drive to do what needed done, all because of some ambiguous, not-the-right-fit kind of reason.

“More than conquerors…”

Really?

Broke all the time.  Can’t sell a book.  Can’t buy a full-time ministry position.  My job doesn’t like me.  I can’t get promoted.  I’m not even sure my wife and kids like me most of the time.

Now maybe, no one who reads this can relate to what I’m saying.  But, I bet, if you look down deep, everyone one of you has had questions, doubts about the validity of the two scriptures that I quoted.

Is God working all things together for my good?

My heart breaks over the abuse of children, sex-trafficking of people, slavery, bullying, loneliness.  I can’t see a person sitting alone in a room without wondering what’s going on inside them.  When I hug the son of a single mom, I want them to know that they are loved, they matter, they are not rejected.  When I pray, I hear the voice of my Father, my Daddy as His great, loving heart weeps over the brokenness of this world.

Through addiction and defeat I have seen the power, the relentless juggernaut of God’s passion for the healing, restoration, discipline and release of His warriors.  I have tasted His desire for all people to be free.  FREE!  Not bound by rules and decrees.  Not robots with mindless movements and subjugated wills.  FREE and ALIVE human beings.

And I have found freedom.  I have come to see the walls torn down, the strongholds broken, the infections lanced, drained and healed.  I have seen my heart of stone restored to a heart of flesh.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28

It is true.

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Romans 8:37

IT IS TRUE!

All because HE LOVES US!!