Wanna Be Healed?

I was recently talking with someone about a new phase in their life. It is always a joy to be invited into the soul mess of people you love. Not a joy because they are struggling, but a joy because in my opinion, those moments are when life happens.

Life happens when we are real with each other, when I sit and share that I too have experienced those feelings, those anxieties. I, too, have fought until the tears are streaming and the knuckles are clenched tight. Yes, I have walked out of the house, gotten in the car and driven through tear filled eyes, screaming at God for answers, angry. It's the sin of life. I'm not proud of it. I'm not boasting in my stupidity or weak moments. They were sinful moments that I'm not proud of. But, they are the real me. The real life. The realest of real ugliness.

And in those ugly moments, in my weakness, His strength is revealed. When I drove away in the car, angry, frustrated and at wits end...He met me and spoke forgiveness, healing, and peace. When I fight with my soulmate, He speaks gentleness and grace. When I get anxious, He speaks He has already gone before.

And so, I sit across the table and share. I share the details of my heart, my feelings, my pain, my life experience. Because at some point, I pray my pain helps someone. I pray my experience can be a learning tool of what to do (or in more cases...what NOT to do). I hope by sharing...by bringing my dark moments to the light, that someone may benefit.

"Confess your sin one to another and pray for one another, that you may be healed." James 5:16

Our confession of sin is not meant as a moment of shame, though that feeling may accompany the sinful choices we make, it's not the end goal. It's not a command to drag yourself through the mud just for the sake of dragging yourself through the mud. It's there so that we may be healed. So. That. You. May. Be. Healed. The healing comes in bringing those sins into the light to other believers. It comes in allowing them to pray with us over those things. It comes in knowing that you aren't alone in the struggle of sin and that others have been there. We weren't meant to walk this road alone. My prayer is that in my sharing of the struggle to walk through life honoring Christ and submitting life to Him as best I can, I can encourage others to do the same.