{"id":230659,"date":"2024-10-08T11:54:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-08T15:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/liveoriginal.com\/?p=230659"},"modified":"2024-10-08T11:54:00","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T15:54:00","slug":"attending-the-healing-within","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/liveoriginal.com\/attending-the-healing-within\/","title":{"rendered":"Attending to the Healing Within"},"content":{"rendered":"
People who\u2019ve seen me for soul care over the years know that I sometimes begin a session with a simple question: \u201cWhere do you find yourself today?\u201d The question varies and shifts, but it\u2019s an echo of that very first question God asks in Genesis 3. It\u2019s an invitation to become curious about what\u2019s happening within. It\u2019s an invitation to return and retune, to awaken to the ancient whisper of love amidst the ache of alienation.<\/div>\n
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Some will tell me that it\u2019s been a good week, but after a bit of reflection, they recognize that they\u2019ve merely been distracted from what\u2019s been simmering within. Others might share that they just don\u2019t know, that life has been a blur, that they\u2019re not entirely sure where they are or what\u2019s stirring inside of them. Still others have not had time to consider where they are because they\u2019ve been attending to everyone and everything around them. Many of us don\u2019t know how lost we are. We\u2019ve become habituated to a life of disconnection. We\u2019ve developed a tragic case of amnesia, forgetting our original goodness and glory, far from home and without a map to guide us.<\/div>\n
Indeed, it\u2019s true that we\u2019re disconnected, in part, because we\u2019ve walled ourselves off to what\u2019s happening within. But it\u2019s also the case that we\u2019ve lost track of who we were created to be, our divine design, God\u2019s unique image within us with its possibility for fullness and flourishing in our lives.<\/div>\n
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And to understand how we\u2019ve lost track of ourselves, we need to be reminded of where we began.<\/div>\n
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The Bible begins in connection, two chapters offering a glimpse of the glorious joy and intimacy God enjoyed with Adam and Eve. This life of goodness, this overflow of divine love, this is what we were made for, the imprint of God\u2019s image deeper than any traumatic imprint we\u2019ll ever encounter. To bear the image of God (Genesis 1:27) is to experience, at your core, an irrevocable inheritance of worth, belonging, and purpose.4<\/div>\n
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To live freely and fully from here is to know that you were created for deep worth\u2014that you\u2019ve been uniquely designed for dignity, that God delights in you, that you are enough, at your core.5 It is to know that you were created for belonging\u2014God the Trinity creates you for union and communion, for interdependence and intimacy, with God, each other, and creation.\u00a0And it is to know that you are created for purpose\u2014stamped with God\u2019s image, which means that wherever you go, you go in the name of God, called by God, as an ambassador of God\u2019s shalom. This is your divine imprint, your deepest core, your impermeable identity, your irrevocable gift. This is the better and more hopeful story you\u2019ve been designed for.<\/div>\n
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The Bible begins here, and this is where your story begins too. God has always longed to walk with you, even to make his home within you, closer to you than you are to yourself, as St. Augustine once said.6 He\u2019s always wanted more for you than what you too often settle for. And our age-old dilemma is rooted in our inability to trust this goodness. It all goes back to that ancient tale.<\/div>\n
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\u201cEvery man has forgotten who he is,\u201d wrote the great English writer and philosopher G. K. Chesterton. \u201cWe are all under the same mental calamity; we have all forgotten our names. We have all forgotten what we really are.\u201d7 Sometimes the fog is so thick and the storms so intense that we lose our bearings.<\/div>\n
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But God goes looking, longing for us to come home.<\/div>\n
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