Eight Days to Freedom

Why is our site called GOOD NEWS ROC?  We could have named it BAD NEWS, SAD NEWS, NO NEWS, FRIGHTENING NEWS  etc.  Most of our stories start out with circumstances that give what would seem to be legitimacy to any of these titles.  Why “Good News”?  I can tell you a little later how we got there if you choose to engage with some thoughts.

Today it felt like ‘’SAD NEWS ROC”.  Almost everyone I talked with felt sad, left behind, on guard or disappointed.  It was their week for tougher circumstances.  Some live in an almost constant state of hypervigilance trying to ward off the next attack and the “inevitable” emotions that follow.  And then you have your own “whatever” to deal with.  For most, this is life as they’ve come to know it.  But is it the abundant life that Jesus died to give us even when the inevitable challenges come?  No – but we’re on the road and to arrive at that destination of PEACE can take from 3 seconds (the time it takes to reject a wrong thought) to decades.  We have great power and authority to choose.

Again, I’m no theologian or therapist, and we appreciate and greatly respect those who know the truth which can help us get set free.  So if you struggle, as most do, on an emotionally bumpy journey sometimes, or all the time, with feelings of rejection, hurt or hopelessness – we get that!  Feelings are real.  To bury them or overindulge them is dangerous.  God gave us emotions.  Jesus had all of them, too.  He did, however, want them to be healthy.  And the fastest and best route is through Him.

My Personal Story …

Just one little personal story, if you allow me.  From the time I was newly married, up to about the first twenty years or so, I was tormented weekly by a rejecting new in-law.  I very much wanted to be friends, liked and accepted by her.  She very much disliked and tried to hurt me on purpose and she was that way with many others, as well.  But why?  She was always angry. 

Short version, she was given away as a child to be raised by relatives for no really good reason except that her mother was “tired”.  (By the way, that “tired” mother lived into her 90’s, but let me not judge!)  So she was rejected, therefore, she was rejecting others.  You know – the abused becomes the abuser.  You only do what was modeled for you growing up etc.  Reasons are as many as the traumas we all suffer.  But yes, ultimately hurt people will hurt people.

Anyway, one day after twenty years of this poor woman (and I did love her) taking up more space in my brain on a daily basis than was healthy, and realizing I never had irritable bowel syndrome until this stress had burned right through my serotonin levels (yet another physical response), I decided “this is enough”.  Though I tried to forgive, my wounds remained unhealed.  I was missing a step.  So instead of laboring to get set free I decided to do what seemed minimal – just forgive as a decision and leave the rest to God.

She Constantly Tormented Me!

For purposes of protecting her identity, I’ll just call her “Constance” because of her “constantly” tormenting me!  So I knelt down and said, “I choose to forgive Constance, that no good “blankety blank”.  I was shocked.  I thought I had started out humbly and with “oh such great Christian love” – and THAT came out of my mouth!  So I said to the Lord, “I’ll be back tomorrow”.  Tomorrow came, I piously but sincerely knelt and said, “I choose to forgive Constance, that no good “blankety blank”.  Shocked again I said, “I’ll be back tomorrow”.  And that went on for 3 more days, but I didn’t give up.  This rut I was in did prove that “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Matt:12:34) Clearly my heart was wounded and angry.

Then on the fifth day I knelt and said, “I choose to forgive Constance” and nothing nasty came out of my mouth but I felt absolutely dead, void  of any emotion toward her – like she was a piece of salami or something.  (My point – I have no feelings toward lunch meat!)  So that went on for 3 more days – a decision to forgive, the words spoken and then an emotional vacuum to follow.  Not satisfying!

Then, on the 8th day …

On the eighth day (in Hebrew, the number of new beginnings), I knelt and said it again.  As I stood up, an overwhelming burst of compassion, love and sorrow for her own lifelong trauma filled my heart and my body.  I couldn’t stop crying for her pain.  I saw her as a little child asking every night to come home and gently but definitely being refused for 5 years.  I saw through Father God’s broken heart for her lifelong battle – for only He knows what so much rejection will do to a little (or big) human being. 

 So the Holy Spirit healed my own heart in eight days and the enemy never had that hook in my soul again, no matter what she did.  And I know someday we will enjoy each other in Heaven.

We can do nothing apart from the righteousness of Jesus Christ that will bear real fruit.  When I did my little part to choose, He did His part to deliver me.  It’s just miraculous and so much easier than trying to be your own Savior.  Sometimes in choosing rightly, we forget to complete the process of letting Him in, whether through ignorance or pride.  But that’s OK.  He’s got us – “The good work He started in you (placing the desire in our hearts to forgive, etc.), He will bring to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6).

 Why did we name this site GOODNEWS ROC? Because the Word of God, the Gospel, means “good news.” Jesus is the Word.  He is the good news.  When we go to the Word, He will set us free.  As the Word says, “Come to Me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is comfortable and My burden is light.” (Matt. 11:28-30). 

 Isn’t He wonderful to us? Now, that is Good News! 

Love …