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How I Learned that God is Good
God is good all the time. All the time, God is good. I hear that at church a lot, but that isn’t where I learned that God is, indeed, good. Humans must acquire some kinds of knowledge experientially because an intellectual assent isn’t belief. The dictionary allows for both, citing belief an acceptance of a statement as truth and as confidence or trust in something. In spiritual matters, merely intellectually consenting to God’s goodness can still leave one staring in terror at the inevitable void. We acquire the ability to rest in the knowledge of God’s goodness through the slow process of building a relationship. Ironically, I learned that God…
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How to Forgive Your Narcissistic Abuser
This post on how to forgive a narcissistic abuser is twenty years in the making. If you are looking for an easy answer to an incredibly difficult and complex issue, this is not a post for you. Emotional abuse leaves physical wounds. Because it doesn’t leave physical scars, people assume that we are well, when in fact, we are not. It can take decades to really discover the depth of the loss and injury, as well. If you have suffered intimate terrorism, rest assured that this post is not a lecture on how you must forgive because otherwise, God will not forgive you. That always strikes me as a threat.…
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Grief: Five Pitfalls that Stall the Healing Process
Grief recovery is an uncomfortable topic for many. We skirt around those who have suffered grievous loss, afraid that we will say the wrong thing. But just as a little research will help anyone learn to validate and support a grieving friend, help is also available for those who must journey through serious grief. The Grief Recovery Handbook is just such a resource and in it, I learned a lot about how to complete a cycle of grief. The first topic within the book is about how various types of pitfalls keep us from fully grieving and completing the relationship that has been severed, whether through death or divorce. Other…