Survivor/Storyteller
All who try to climb out of the trenches of trauma need years of support. First in the trench; second to scale the wall with repeated falls; third to deal with inevitable blows from the front lines of life once they rise on wobbly legs. In the church we have a tendency to weaken the wounded; Christ strengthend them.
How unlike Christ, Christians can be.
We have this false notion that because we “know” someone to be upstanding in the light, that somehow they are upstanding in the dark. This does not bear out with the lived experience of millions of survivors or evidence.
doll: a small model of a human figure, often one of a baby or girl, used as a man’s toy.
Blessed are the naughty and narscisitic;
For this is their kingdom.
In the age of speaking, let us not forget that doing so must remain a choice – not a compulsory act.
When she took her first baby steps, my brokenness pierced her tiny feet. As she has grown, I have grown. I have spent the sum total of her life picking the invisible and inviscerating splinters out of her heart and mine.
“I am a hunter, the best – a predatory beast.
You are the hunted, the prey and the least.”
– Lori Anne Thompson
TRIGGER WARNING
I share this video clip because – well, it’s me. It is real, it feels like life, and tastes like hope. Hope beyond abuse. Hope beyond loss. Hope beyond shame. Hope beyond hopelessness.
It was taken recently by my oldest child (selfie extraordinaire) when we were walking the streets of her college town after eating a vegan meal (I am not vegan, she is, but everyone should eat more plants) and walking several city blocks to where my car was not. Of note, this city was recently recorded as the worlds coldest city, as luck would have it, I was in a skirt.
“It’s seems impossible to convince people that private behaviour cannot be predicted from public behaviour. Kind, non-violent individuals behave well in public, but so do many people who are brutal behind the scenes. The growing sexual abuse crisis in the church just underlines that fact the offenders can recognize ideal settings for child molestors even if the rest of us can’t.” – Anna Salter
How then, did the wicked man lower his estimation of his God?
By increasing his estimation of himself.
