10.3.23 - I Samuel 27:1a
What do you need to give voice to today so that those quiet parts of you feel safe again?
David said in his heart, ‘I shall certainly perish one day by the hand of Saul.’
On July 28th we had a 100-foot 40-ton tree fall on our house. No one was hurt. The damage, while significant, wasn’t devastating.
We were evacuated for a number of weeks. As we left, a neighbor said to me, "It’s hard to know if you are blessed or cursed, huh?"
It could have simply been left at an awkward moment had this not been the theology of my childhood that I had sought freedom from with diligent work.
In one sentence, I was contending with it again. I felt intense shame that a tree had singled out my family’s residence and this intermingled with the stress of our circumstances over the coming weeks led me to say disheartening things in my heart. Alone.
The liberation came one word at a time as I said out loud to a safe person. "I'm afraid of what this means about me." Another’s presence in the fearful moment of my heart helped to begin relieving the burden I had been carrying alone.
Sometimes it's just enough to share what we're experiencing or feeling. No fixes. No words of wisdom. Just saying out loud the quiet parts to someone we trust.
What do you need to give voice to today so that those quiet parts of you feel safe again?
-- Dax Franklin-Hicks