MOVING FORWARD â—½ ENCOURAGEMENT
A Different Perspective
by Pam Charro
I have known for quite some time now that Father God wants to do a deeper work in healing my heart. Naturally, immediately after receiving that message, life got especially hectic and I "didn't have time" to grieve and heal. I knew that it would be painful work, and I guess I was avoiding it, if only subconsciously.
Recently, however, I spent about a month being sick, and I knew I was out of excuses. So I obediently began making more time to just sit with God and talk, asking him to heal my heart. Tears came easily. I could feel the deep grief, which previously I had felt settled into my bones, begin to rise to the surface. It was getting ready to make its way out.
God put all of the right people and circumstances in my life to continue moving the process forward, but one particular night seemed especially important. It was about 3:15 a.m., which seems to be the standard time I will experience insomnia if I'm going to. I asked God to show me his perspective of some of my painful situations, and, one character at a time, he began to reveal to me some of the pain that each individual had been experiencing or had experienced beforehand, that had led them to become who they were when I was going through my own pain. It was incredibly liberating for me to learn that perspective, as it enabled me to have such compassion for each of them, and to not feel as defined by the way I had been treated.
photo courtesy of Doug Gephardt
Does this mean that all is well now,
that I was not wronged,
and we can all live happily ever after?
Of course not.
But it was a huge step in allowing me to release the curse - what I thought it all meant about who I was.
As humans, we all have one common enemy, and that enemy loves it when we see one another as evil instead of mutually affected by evil. It deeply hurts each of us. I still need to process some pain, but now I can also cry over the pain experienced by those who hurt me, and pray that they will be or were healed.
I'm confident that the person God is making me into will be well worth all of this. I'm excited about having more of his perspective as I continue to learn, grow, and bring his love to others. Even when some of those others have deeply hurt me.