This morning, I responded to a heartfelt email from a woman with a beautiful spirit but a broken heart. She’s a member of the Mental Health for Christian Women Membership Community, where she has access to regular personal email coaching from me. Her message was filled with questions about the nature of God in a world that often seems full of pain and suffering.
It became clear that the insights I shared with her might also resonate with you. While I won’t delve into the specifics of her situation, many of us grapple with understanding God’s role when faced with the harsh realities of life.
Here’s a summary of what I shared with her:
Understanding God Through the Lens of His Goodness
James 1:17 tells us, “Every good and perfect gift comes from God the Father.” When we question God’s nature and His protection amid suffering, it helps to remember that the best reflection of who He is can often be found within ourselves.
Consider the qualities in you that seek to protect, care, and love. The parts of you that hope for purity and strive to overcome pain—these are echoes of God’s nature. He is not the source of pain, destruction, or perversion. Instead, He is the one who comforts us and overcomes evil, both in this life and in Heaven.
God is constant—“the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). The evil we see in the world is not of Him, which is why it feels so foreign and distressing to us. God has made a way for us, defeating the enemy and ensuring that death has lost its sting (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).
In struggles, remember that “crying may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5). God walks with us through our battles, providing comfort, direction, strength, and hope that will never be cut off. He is not passive; He is the peace that surpasses understanding and the power over evil (Phillipians 4:7).
You can see God’s heart in your own desire to protect innocence and fight for good. The doubts, guilt, shame, fear, and pain are not from Him. Rather, He is actively pushing back the darkness that seeks to overtake His children.
I hope this message brings you comfort and perspective, just as I hoped it would for my virtual coaching friend.
If you would like to join the membership community, and get personal coaching like this in your email box to help you with your questions and goals, you can learn more, and sign-up : Clck Here
Takeaways:
- Reflect God’s Nature: When you struggle to understand God, look at the good and caring qualities within yourself as reflections of His nature.
- Embrace God’s Goodness: Remember that every good thing comes from God. He is the source of all that is pure and loving.
- Separate Evil from God: Understand that pain, destruction, and perversion are not from God. He is here to free us from these effects.
- Find Comfort in His Constancy: God remains the same throughout time. His promises and His nature are steadfast.
- Hold onto Hope: Even in difficult times, trust that joy will come and that God is with you during your trials.
- Recognize His Work in You: Your desire to protect and fight for good is a sign of God working through you.
- Push Back Darkness: Know that God is actively involved in combating the darkness in your life and in the world.
If you missed this week's podcast on a related topic, “Overcoming Religious Abuse and Cult Trauma - An Interview with Guest Liza Lovett, Part 1 of 2,” you can listen to it here.
In His Love,
Michelle
Michelle
The LADY, the JEEP, and the DUCKIEThere is a woman who started putting plastic ducks on Jeeps in 2020 as an act of connection during a time of such disconnect. If ever there were a time to find a way to reach out and bless someone else, 2020 was the year. Well, her act of kindness rippled, and it is now not uncommon to find random Jeeps with rubber ducks on their sideview mirrors. While I haven't had a Jeep in several years, I kinda want to get one just for the sake of the connection to other Jeep duck givers. Why? Well, of course, the ducks are super cute, but also for the joy that it must be for both the giver and the receiver to share a surprise with each other through a colorful duck shaped piece of plastic.
I can't imagine that people would ever get upset by finding one of those cute little critters when they get back to their vehicle after going grocery shopping or eating lunch at a restaurant, but there probably have been some who are bothered by it. Why? Because we are each unique and see things through our own lenses. Maybe someone had a rough toddler bath time and a rubber duck caused some angst, who knows? But, what really matters is that we respect each other's needs and wants.
Yet, I can't help but think that there may be people who think they don't want to be ducked but could be sad to find out they actually have been left out of the experience.
After all, it's tricky to manage all of the ins and outs of the human experience. FOMO, fear of being included, fear of ducks, lol, a lot of what works can seem like a big gamble sometimes when we are dealing with people. As one client said to me recently, "People, working together, what could go wrong?!?"
Therapists spend a lot of time providing a safe space for people, but even we sometimes commit the terrible faux pas that we call "an empathic failure." Even though we work very hard to reach a connection point with each person with whom we work, there are times where one or both of our humanity gets in the way of things being neat and clean. People are sometimes "messy."
Their Needs/Our Needs
Sometimes, we need to speak up. Sometimes we need to listen quietly. Sometimes we need to set boundaries, and sometimes, we need to connect over a good cry or a good laugh. Often, an apology and taking responsibility for our part in the disconnect can go a long way.
Understanding that God has made things to work best when we follow His direction for loving each other, even in the messiness, can make things go better. The following list includes some of my favorite ways to navigate the intricacies of human connections.
5 Tips for Respecting Each Other
- Rejoice with those who rejoice, and mourn with those who mourn. (Romans 12:15).
- A gentle answer turns away wrath. (Proverbs 15:1).
- Forgive as the Lord forgave you. (Colossians 3:13)
- Keep no record of wrongs, but don't cast your "pearls" before those who will trample them. (1 Cor. 13: 5b, Matthew 7:6)
- Pray for each other. (James 5:16a)
When we own our thoughts, feelings, choices, needs, and words and engage with them and others in the ways that God made to work best, we can have an easier time navigating interactions with others.
To listen to the podcast episode related to this blog, click this link.
