I decided tonight that I was going to journal through what has been going on for the past...many months. I'm not sure how long I will leave it up. I don't know if it is something that I want forever on the internet right now. But knowing that there are only 4-5 of you who will read this I think I will choose to go ahead and trust you with this part of my process. We are all really just walking through our own processes. Some of us are going to painful things right now, others are just pushing through and praying for strength cause honestly, we are just ready to quit this thing. It's taking more than we bargained for when we signed up. I know for me I have had to reevaluate what I meant when I told Jesus I was giving him my life. Didn't I know when I made that commitment I was pretty much saying "hey devil, here's the target, right on my heart... go ahead and shoot those arrows at me." Life sucks sometimes, but it is sooo Good... because HE is Good. It is worth it. Every single moment. He is worth it.
Here is the (rather long) journal entry from tonight:
For so long I have believed that God was the one who caused
the abuse to happen to me, or rather because he didn’t stop it, He wanted it to
happen to me. I have felt less loved by
God than others because He didn’t protect me from the abuse in the way that I
thought He should. I have strived and worked for years to be loved by God. I
have worked so hard to make Him love me.
A couple Friday nights ago we had a saturation night at the
end of our youth leaders' conference. This night I began to understand so much
about God and about the abuse.
Rewind to December 2011-
I was challenged by a friend to ask God where He was when I
was being abused. I did. God showed me a picture of Him holding me. That’s all
I saw, me in his arms on my bed in my childhood bedroom.
That realization was
great. It meant God was with me. He didn’t leave me all alone.
Wonderful.
A couple months later, I have this question-
“God, if you
were there, then why didn’t you stop it?”
At that time I saw another picture of God holding me while I
was being abused, same situation…me crying, him holding me. Only this time, he
was holding someone else too.
He was holding my abusers.
At this I became
extremely angry. If God was close enough to hold both me and my abusers, then
why did he not stop them? If he loved me then surely he would have protected me
from the abuse. This must mean that God doesn’t love me. He was punishing me
for something. He didn’t really care about me like I thought.
Maybe he was
actually holding me there so that I couldn’t get away from the abuse.
What a thought... God?
Shortly after my initial anger began to settle down I heard
this-
I am faithful to my Word. I will never leave you or forsake
you. I am always with you.
Ok, great. He didn’t leave me. I know that.
But why did He
let them take advantage of me, and why was He holding them?
A loving Father
would not allow that abuse to happen to His daughter.
Then I realized…
Not only was God my father and faithful to
His promises to me… He was also my abusers’ father. He would not take away their free will, even
though it infringed upon my rights.
He held them.
I realized in this moment
that God was showing me His love for them.
My abusers were hurt just as badly
by the abuse as I was.
They are accountable to God for what they did to me.
I
am accountable to God for what I do with the opportunity that I have been
given.
I say that I have forgiven them. And I believe fully that I have.
However, I am beginning to see that just as a father on earth loves his child
even when they make messes, do bad things, or make mistakes
God loves us even
when we mess up.
He loves my abusers and wants them to know Him. He wants to
heal their hearts just as much as He wants to heal mine.
Ok, so at this point, I am beginning to work through the
image of a loving God holding me and holding my abusers at the same time. I am
working through my anger at God for not protecting me from the abuse like I
thought He should.
Back to that wonderful Friday night-
Someone came over to me and laid hands on me and began to
pray for me. I can honestly say I have no clue what she prayed… I couldn’t hear
her between the music and her very soft voice. Apparently it didn’t matter what
she was saying because I began to hear the voice of God so loudly and clearly.
Stop blaming me.
I realized that I have been angry with God for so long. I
have been blaming him for the abuse that happened to me. I realized that God
didn’t point me out and say, “That girl Joy deserves to be abused.” It was the
enemy. It wasn’t God’s fault.
I heard God say
I want to use it for my good like I promised, but I can’t
because you won’t stop blaming me for it.
He told me that he has wanted to use this for so long but I
haven’t let him because I have been busy being angry at him and holding on to
it. I haven’t let it go and because I haven’t let it go, he is not able to use
it for good.
Stop blaming me, I didn’t do it to you.
He is good and can do
only good.
I have believed for so long that because God didn’t protect
me from the abuse in the way that I thought He should that it means that I
wasn’t worth protecting.
I see how that belief has transferred to so many other
areas of my life. Especially in my trying to work for love because I felt like
He doesn’t love me, and that in myself I am not worthy of love from anyone.
LIE.
I told God how bad the abuse sucked. I never had told God
how horrible the abuse was.
I’ve told Jesus, but never God.
I know that sounds
silly because Jesus and God are one in the same, but to me Jesus was the one
who loved me and died for me… What did God do? God was some far off concept
that I didn’t understand and was angry with. How could “Father God” love me?
I heard the Lord say in a new way that He loves me, He
didn’t cause it to happen and that I
didn’t deserve it. I heard Him affirm me and express his love towards me.
I
have never experienced such an overwhelming brokenness before the Lord before
tonight.
It was a total “God, here I am” moment.
I realized that God had so much mercy and grace on me
through it all. It could have been so much worse. He did protect me. It could
have had much worse affects on me than it has. He did protect me. It just wasn’t in the way I thought it should
look.
I spent a couple weeks processing through all of that.
I
have never cried like I did on that night before.
I was wrecked. I allowed my
brokenness to be exposed.
I think that allowing myself to experience the pain
of my abuse was a huge step to freedom. I have been numb to it for so long…
using other things as painkillers that are equally destructive to numb the ache
inside of me.
Tonight, I revisited the question of where God what when I
was being abused.
Everyone knows the verse about our bodies being the temple
of the Holy Spirit and how the Holy Spirit lives in us.
That verse is usually
used in reference to things that we do to ourselves…overeating, getting tattoos
or piercings, smoking, drinking, doing drugs, sleeping around… that kind of
stuff right?
It’s usually used to bring conviction… more like condemnation…
when we are thinking about doing something to our temple.
Well, tonight I saw it in a new way. (Thanks to Jesus and
the Good Women Project!)
When I was being abused, the Holy Spirit was abused.
Every
inappropriate touch that I felt, He felt.
Every painful or humiliating thing
that was done to my body, was done to Him too.
He was right there in the middle
of the darkest moments of my life with me.
He never left me.
He didn’t look the
other way.
He felt everything just as I did.
He knows my pain better than anyone
else ever will because
He was right there feeling it with me.
The God of all
creation felt the same pain that I did with me in my darkest moments.
This verse lost all of its condemning threats tonight.
Every
ounce of “Don’t mess up God’s property” vanished when I realized that this
verse speaks so much more than what we should and should not do.
It brings such
deep healing.
It is a waterfall of healing over my dry and broken heart.
Am I fixed?
No.
Do I need to be fixed?
I don’t think so.
God loves me right where I am. He is not
afraid of my brokenness. He is not angry at my mess.
He is with me. He is
perfectly okay with me where I am. I don’t have to be perfect or “fixed” or have
it all together because I am perfectly
loved by the King of the universe.
If you have read this far, you are an amazingly patient friend. I cherish you.
Feel free to leave a comment if anything I said made something "click" for you. We are all in this life together anyway, we need each other. Desperately. I'm learning it's okay to let people see my flaws. They already see most of them anyway, why not share them with others who can walk with me on this journey?
Romans 12:9-16 talks about the kind of community that I want to be part of-
"Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them. Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with each other. Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don’t think you know it all!"
Lastly, here is a link to the article that helped me to my revelation tonight... If you or someone you know has been taken advantage of it might be good for you to read. It outlines the thoughts and lies that go through the heads of those who have been abused. I must say it is right on point.
