Familiar Spirits and No Longer a Victim... A Five Minute Friday post.

Tonight is the last night of our Ladies Bible study that I accidentally started on Thursday nights! The good news/bad news is that while we are finishing up in time for the holidays, my Honey and I are praying about starting up a new group in January... but we have not yet decided on an evening. (It's just that Thursdays now seem normal... but we shall see!)

For now... I'm just gonna quietly play along, last minute like, and sneak in under the radar on the One Word Prompt of FAMILIAR. (This is a Five Minute Friday post, which simply means I set a timer and free write for five minutes flat, add a few photos, and hit Publish!)

{GO}

Once again, I accidentally saw the word prompt and immediately didn't want to write.

In fact, I had decided again and again that I was just going to skip it this week.

And yet here I sit... and the sinking feeling of Familiar will not go away. 

So I breathe in deep and slow... exhale fully and feel that old familiar ache. 

That all too familiar issue... 

You know the one... it's splashed all over headlines and whispered about in workplaces and it is completely ignored at family reunions...

It's the #MeToo of our time and when I see the word Familiar... oh I know... it is.

It IS familiar...

A couple of weeks ago, Facebook suggested I 'friend' the neighbor kid who sexually abused me... 


It was only for a second that temptation suggested I click on his profile and creep around a bit. 

Thankfully, wisdom won out and I just kept scrolling... leaving it (once again) behind.

I have been healed. I have experienced Sozo and forgiveness and those old scars are barely even visible.  

I don't go about picking at old wounds anymore.  

I took Jesus with me when I revisited that dark closet and those moments when play turned not so fun and shame tried to cloak himself over me. 

Get in line, is my first thought.  But I shake it off.  

I remind myself of Truth and grace and how I have been redeemed.  

I remind myself that that never did define me... it never could... 

And my value and worth had always been far greater than I could grasp --until I met Jesus and He loved me whole.

Familiar... 
    Yeah. That.

I had a boss or two in the past who carried the same spirit that so many in todays' headlines walk around clothed in, too.  I can see it on them... I'm not fooled anymore... not easily romanced or charmed.  I have seen beyond the spirit of a man, who looked trapped and confused at his own behavior, locked up and chained... and yet, I call a spade a spade.

But I also pray... for them, for 'us'... for grace and love and for the brokenness in us all to be healed and for us all to be made new.

I'm not sure why we are all so shocked... when this happens in our own families, in the house down the street of a middle class neighborhood, in cubicles and companies and churches all around.  

Why are we shocked that men (and some women, let's be honest and fair) in power abuse it... take advantage and take what is not theirs to take grab?

I've been a victim... yes, #metoo... 
but I am not anymore.

And while I refuse to make excuses for the abusers, the truth is on some level at some point in their lives they've played that part, too.

Let's not be shocked... let's be heartbroken... 
and let's be healed, in Jesus Name!

Let's stop the silence and the keeping of secrets
and let's kick the darkness and shame out, 
once and for all!

{STOP}

I can only speak for me... but when I asked Jesus where He was in the midst of my abuse, He took me back to that closet under the stairs and I saw Him there, clear as day, crying tears bigger than my fear... begging for this not to happen.

Freewill, man.  

Sometimes it breaks His heart more than we know and oh my how He can get a bad rap for it!

I did not creep on an old familiar name on social media... Wisdom freed me from going down that road a long time ago. It would have done no. good. thing. for me... I had already chosen to forgive years and years and decades before. 

But with all the news and people stepping up out of the darkness, the one word prompt of Familiar stirred up an awareness of a familiar spirit among the abusers/perpetrators.  

Why are we so shocked when we live in an over-sexualized, violent culture that is so often lacking honor and respect and -- I don't know -- morality and self-discipline.

I truly believe that nothing hidden will stay in the depths of the dark, but the heart of God is to shed light in order to heal!

And so I cry out, 
Lord Jesus... 
 come heal our land...

Linking up with Kate Motaung and the #fmfparty Community today.  Five Minute Fridays gives us the chance to dive right in and share what He puts on our hearts! Click HERE to read what others have to say about: "FAMILIAR"

The FMF lowdown: The gathering happens on Twitter on Thursday nights & then we write our hearts out & hit publish all over the interwebs on Thursday & Friday (& sometimes on Tuesdays!) It's where we encourage & uplift... where we share prayer requests & praise reports... where we talk food & friends & we find support & kindred hearts. It's where we are reminded that life is good & God is good & we're not alone... & then we all write for five minutes flat, a flash mob of wordsmiths letting our hearts & our fingers do the talking tapping & we hit publish before we can second guess it all away. We'd love to have you join us!

A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO, THE LORD SPOKE TO ME AND THROUGH ME REGARDING SABBATH REST AND I TURNED MY 31 DAYS SERIES INTO AN EBOOK ON AMAZON.  IF YOU ARE FINDING YOURSELF IN NEED OF REST (WHICH --WHO ISN'T, REALLY?) CHECK OUT THIS SHORT, DAILY DEVOTIONAL  31 DAYS OF RESTING IN GOD ...IT'S EASIER/HARDER THAN YOU THINK!  

YOU CAN PURCHASE IT BY CLICKING HERE OR GRABBING IT FROM THE SIDE BAR TO THE RIGHT IF REST IS SOMETHING YOU KNOW YOU NEED, BUT JUST KEEP PUTTING OFF!