I have decided to finally blog again – Yay me! I am still here and doing great, for those of you who have wondered what is going on here.
Debrief in Cuzco was good, an opportunity to rest and vistit with the other squad members and to be poured into and encouraged by Andrew Shearman.
He shared many great things with us, and I would like to share a few quotes and thoughts here with all of you as well.
BE UNOFFENDABLE
Back in Mexico training, Andrew emphasized that we should learn to be ‘unoffendable’. This is a concept that is somewhat hard to grasp, but a truth that is best learned as soon as possible. God is our Rock of offense (Romans 9:35, 1Peter 2:8) and his point is that, ultimately, only God can really offend us. It happens through people with whom we are in relationship, but we can learn to accept it as offense from God, with a purpose. What is it that God is trying to teach me when I feel offended by someone else? Usually, once I come to God with that question, the answer isn’t far behind and I then I can choose to allow God to deal with those issues in my heart. Suddenly the offense isn’t about the other person, or my hurt feelings, but rather the work the Holy Spirit is doing in my life, healing my broken and wounded places in my heart.
Though surely not perfect in this area, I feel I have been consistently learning to do this throughout the last four months. Andrew re-addressed this issue this last week at debrief. He also clarified this truth more by defining offense as the ‘defense reaction’ that results when our hearts are not alligned with God’s. Our emotions will always be in us, but it is the reaction that is the offense we take.
In order to become who God has truly created me to be, I will be tested. I must accept the fact that offence will come and that it is from my loving Father.
Forgivness is the answer, unconditional love for others that comes from the heart of God. When our hearts feel the beat of our Father’s, we see the ‘offender’ in a new and fresh light. They are wounded and broken, in need of God’s healing, as we are. When viewed this way, we are on level ground, broken people in need of God’s healing hand. As the one ‘offended’ I can make the choice to love the other, and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the areas of my heart with which he needs to deal. We learn to love and forgive when presented with situations where it would be easier to NOT love and forgive, but we choose those things of God anyway.
BROKENESS vs. HURTNESS
Hurt-ness is stationed in the soul, and is destructive to ourselves. Hurtness is based on experiences, when all we see if the flesh aspect of our lives.
Brokeness is in the spirit, and is redemptive in our lives. When we are ‘hurt’ we ask “What is God saying to me?” and that response turns hurt into redemptive brokeness instead of stewing on the hurtness and allowing it to destry us.
BE RESPONSIBLE
Think on these things, ask God is they are true statements. I am doing this as I write and ponder.
1.) Take responsibility for the impressions you give to others.
You are always giving off something to others; may it always be truth and the heart of God.
2.) Take responsibility for the impressions that others take.
This is a more difficult idea to grasp, but the more I think about it, the more I believe it is true. Think about it some…
RIGHTS
I have none on this earth. Period. I have only the right to enter into the throneroom of God, as a child of God and lover of Jesus. When I realize I have no rights on earth, I will longer be offended or hurt, because I can realize my true rights are only that of a child of God, rigthts in his kingdom, and not on earth as we humans understand them.
