Lies vsTruth
As with every other article I have written for CJ4H, the Lord has impressed on my to write about something He is presently working on in my heart. Sometimes He speaks to me through small things like a verse I read in my special time with Him in the morning over coffee. Other times He uses spiritual two by fours to put my rear end in place. This time, He decided to use an illness. I don’t believe He caused the illness, but as the Lord so wisely seems to do (when I allow Him to do so that is), He takes life’s crud and gardens into my life beautiful spiritual flowers. So, as I write this article, I am sitting in my room recovering from an illness that took me out of play for over a week.
Before I tell you what God did this week, I need to give you some background information. As we have been looking at how the body, soul, and spirit relate to one another, the Lord has been so faithfully leading me to information from sources that enhance and support this connection. One of the topics I have been reading a great deal about is memories and how they interact with life presently. What has been found is that all memories stored are stored with emotions. Sometimes these emotions are attached to the memory and are “uncharged”. This means that you can recall to mind the memory and the feeling you felt with that memory but you do not re-experience the emotions you felt. Other times the emotions are connected to memories and they remain charged and stored somewhere in our bodies. This means that when you recall the memory not only do you recall the emotions but you feel the emotions all over again as though you were re-experiencing the memory. We know the opposite can happen as well. We know that when certain emotions are felt due to present situations, all the “charged” memories begin to surface and a person will experience the present emotions multiplied by all the “charged” emotions.
Going back to my story, the entire week I had to lie in my bed and watch the life of my family play out in front of me. I was helpless to be able to help in any way. My husband tirelessly got up, got my girls up, got them ready for school, made their lunches, took them to school, worked his jobs as pastor/chaplain/professor, came home, helped with homework and violin, got supper together, got the girls bathed and in the bed, and somewhere in there had time to take care of me with such compassion that I wondered at this man I was married to. He did all of this everyday for over a week and did not complain at all. The entire time I sat in bed or in my chair feeling guilty. Yes, I was sick and I knew there was no way I could help him even though I wanted to. But I still felt guilt and several other emotions I didn’t understand.
As a counselor, I ask my clients to scale their emotions between 1 and 10, with 10 being high and 1 being low. If I had scaled my guilt and other emotions this week, they would have been scored between 7 and 9. I had no idea why I was feeling shame for being sick. Nor did I understand why I was profusely apologizing to my husband and even my counseling staff for being unable to be at work. All the while I had this memory of being sick as a little girl playing through my head over and over. At first I didn’t think anything of it, but after 3 days of it continually pushing itself into the front of my mind I decided to do what I should have done to begin with. I asked the Lord to show me what He wanted to from this memory.
You see, our emotions send our soul messages about the situations we experience in the same way our skin sends our body messages about the objects/things that we touch or that touch us. If we have a memory that is “charged” with emotions, we have believed something about that situation that continues to keep that emotion charged. When the emotions are hurtful emotions, we have believed a lie that the enemy offered us at that time to make the situation make sense to us. But the lie the enemy offered also keeps the emotions charged within that memory and the memory continues to hurt us as long as we believe the lie.
Hopefully my memory will help this concept make more sense. When I was in 4th or 5th grade my parents and I all woke up one night at the same time with a severe stomach virus. All three of us were up all night with this bug. It was right before Thanksgiving break and my parents were in a time and place in their lives where they were desperately trying to make ends meet while my dad attended seminary. If they missed work they did not get paid. If they did not get paid, we did not eat. This meant that even though my parents had been very sick, they believed the best decision was for them to both go to work the next day, which meant that I had to go to school. I remember both my parents feeling guilty about sending me to school, but it couldn’t be helped. This was the memory that played over and over in my mind each time I felt the waves of guilt as I watched my husband work so hard this past week. After several days of having this memory play over and over I decided to ask God what was going on with this memory. It was then the Lord recalled all this information I had been studying. I then asked Him to reveal the lie I believed about myself concerning this memory. He graciously did. Ladies, I believed that when I become sick I am not allowed to inconvenience anyone with that sickness. I must do whatever possible, even if it means denying that I am sick, to keep from inconveniencing people.
At the moment the Lord revealed the lie I had believed, a whole host of emotions begin to wash over me. It was as if a dam broke. The Lord began to heal this memory and “uncharge” it, if you will. The Lord brought to mind the verse in Phil 4:8 that says that we should be thinking on things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report. This lie had been none of those things.
Ladies, I want to encourage you to allow the Lord to bring up the memories that need to be “uncharged” in your life. When a hurt in your life is brought to mind, don’t stuff it back down. Ask the Lord to help you process it and show you the lie that you believe. If it is too hard to do it by yourself, find a trusted Christian counselor to walk through it with you. God wants to heal you. He wants to deliver you. These lies are footholds for the enemy to play with your mind and emotions. Allow the Lord to free you from these lies and heal your hurts in the process.
Have a safe in our forums and let’s discharge some emotions – or you can just post a comment below.
Dr. A is a licensed marriage and family therapist and a licensed professional counseling in the state of Louisiana. She has been counseling for over 12 years and currently serves as the Clinical Director of Restoration Counseling, a Christian counseling practice in New Orleans, LA. Dr. A is also adjunct professor for New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. She and Dr. Page Brooks, have been married almost eleven years. They have 2 daughters, Karis (5 years old) and Alethia (3 years old). The Lord has used adoption as the means by which He has expanded the Brooks family. The Lord has given the Brooks a passion for specifically multi-racial adoption. Through this journey of multi-racial adoption, the Lord impressed upon both Page and Ashley the need for multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-economic churches. Out of this passion, a church was planted in New Orleans, which is now Canal Street Church-A Mosaic Community, which Page has been the pastor for 2 years. More
