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| Created by Melody Ross of Brave Girls Club (you should follow them on FB :) |
In many ways, I feel like this entire blog has been about me coming to life. It's my story of learning to dance. It's my journey of Jesus breathing life into my dry bones. So today, I want to breathe life into you. On my hardest days, I needed others to speak life into and over me. To remind me that I would breathe and dance again.
But first....I need to validate your sleepiness. If you feel like you've been sleeping for a long time, like you haven't been truly ALIVE, there is probably a very good reason for this. You probably needed at some point to go to "sleep" emotionally to protect your heart. Maybe you were sexually or otherwise abused as a child? Maybe you've been living in an abusive or oppressive marriage? Maybe your church upbringing has oppressed you and told you lies about yourself? Maybe you've lost someone near to your or been abandoned in some way? Life is hard and there are a million reasons why we might let our souls go to sleep. It's safe when you're sleeping.
It reminds me of someone who is in a horrible car accident and their body goes into a coma. This coma protects them. It allows them to diminish the feeling of pain. It allows them to rest. It doesn't however, allow them to LIVE and run and dance and do all of these things that their hearts desire to do. I think some of you might be in this coma. This coma has occurred because trauma has happened in your life and pain has come. To protect yourself, you have gone inside of yourself. This was smart. I am in no way saying that this is always a bad move! Often times, this is what allowed you to survive!
Sweet friend, it might be time to wake up now. It might be time to do more than survive, but to thrive.
Waking up from a coma can be hard, I bet! Can you even imagine? One minute, protected and sleepy....the next, awake and realizing what has truly happened to you and that now you have to learn to walk or talk or eat again? The crushing realization might make you want to be back in that coma. Yes, you know that running and laughing and dancing and swimming and eating with friends will be glorious...one day....but the path to get there might be very, very difficult and painful.
The same might be true for you. Waking up may be very hard to do. One does not usually awake from the kind of slumber that you have been in and dance that first day. Often times, a hard road stretches out between waking and dancing. The path of healing and realizing what has truly happened to you. The path of surveying the wounds. The path of slow healing of all of those wounds and learning how to dance. This is a path I have taken and I know the pain of it all too well. I know the devastation of realizing what has been done to you. I know the agony of walking through those memories again so that they might be healed. I know the difficulty of learning how to dance with my Jesus after so long being oppressed. It is a painful, beautiful journey.
I am here to tell you that the path is worth it. Waking up is worth it. YOU are worth it. The world needs you to be ALIVE. Jesus wants to breathe life into you. He longs to hold you and heal you. He longs to teach you how to dance.
So....precious, amazing one...are you ready to wake up? Are you ready to LIVE?
So thankful to get to know you and your big heart ... xo
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