So I just posted last night, but I was spending some time
praying earlier today and God laid something powerful on my heart that I
started journaling about and thought was just too good not to share. J This last week I have had a step away from
the typical routine of life out here as I have been attending a conference put
on by His Mansion called Healing in the Context of Community (HHC). There were roughly about 30 of us in classes,
small groups, worship & other activities, amidst testimonial life
sharing. The premise of the week was to
learn all about the program and history of His Mansion and the process of
healing that residents go through out here in this intense community. I was taking the class along with 5 other
mentors who had recently started out here. The rest of the attendees were made
up of pastors, other ministry/non-profit leaders, college grads, or just other
people who wanted to learn about or experience healing in the context of
community. HCC had just ended and people
were headed home after a full and very long week. I had felt anxious and burdened for awhile
and decided to spend awhile that afternoon just in prayer and scripture when
God suddenly revealed Himself in a different way to me and I began to journal
intently:
Well, I’ve been sitting here on my bed praying and seeking
the Lord when a random thought jumped in my head and I knew I had to start
journaling about. I was laughing to myself about the legit certificate
they had made for me for completing HCC.
I was thinking on the simplicity, though, of how it did feel good to be
recognized and to participate in a ceremony, even if menial, and then started
thinking on how I took my own college graduation and Engineering ceremony for
granted in the midst of everything else I was jumping into: Summer Serve coming up, internship in
Swaziland, committing to a year at His Mansion, and pursuing a relationship
with one of my best friends. I realized that a huge part of me took it for granted because I
never once doubted that I would walk across that stage and receive my college dipolma. And then the thought
suddenly struck, literally struck me, that not a one of the residents here
takes it for granted, even in the slightest, that they might make it through a
year and walk across the stage to receive a similar (on the surface)
certificate that I am holding right now.
I imagine the joy and incredible
feelings of perseverance, accomplishment, and authenticity that such a year of
struggling, doubting, and fighting through a web of vulnerability, shame, and
accountability in the midst of traumatic and life-entangling addictions must
bring. What does it mean to know grace? What does it mean to know victory? To encounter a 2nd chance at
life? Or come face to face with
redemption? To understand the passion and power of the Gospel and hope in the
Heavenly Kingdom? Getting to share my
own Genogram (testimony/life story) during HHC revealed me to me that I know in
part, but nothing, nothing, like the residents here. As I engage more and more with the men around
me, as I hear details of chaos and horrendous trauma in their lives, as I begin
to glimpse some of the transformation in their hearts and in their souls I can
say, assuredly, that they are coming to intimately and powerfully know these
things.
I saw and I heard it in the passion
and eagerness of the 10 graduates who walked across the stage last month right
after I arrived. What an amazing, vivid,
image of what I can only describe as witnessing “those with unveiled faces
beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Father, and professing the
transformation into His likeness from one glory into another (paraphrase 2
Corinthians 3:18). Its an eagerness and
indignation they possess that I can only further describe with later verses in
2 Corinthians: “Yet now I am happy not
because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to
repentance. For you became sorrowful as
God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to
salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in
you, what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation,
what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done.”
(7:9-12 NIV)
What an incredible memory for this
community and I to hold onto as we welcome burdened new residents officially
into the program after completing their month of induction. There was so much joy in our prayer and share
ceremony today and I feel like the Lord has suddenly lifted a veil from my
eyes. This whole week I felt like I was
missing something; like I was blind and unable to see what all my fellow HCCers
seemed to be witnessing in their amazement at this community and throughout
classes. Had I grown so complacent and
burnt-out already to view life so mundanely?
It took a group of misfit pastors, visionaries, former addicts, and
ordinary dysfunctional family members stepping into this community through HHC,
along with a moment of God’s sudden grace for my calloused and stony heart to
be suddenly broken and allow me to see the radicalness and beauty of this
place. The Lord is claiming and
redeeming lost lives! He is rescuing His
lost sheep. Let us respond like that
shepherd, or young woman who had lost her coin, and in eagerness and excitement
gather our friends and family and profess boldly: “Rejoice with me! For what was once lost has now been found!”
If you would like to read the testimonies from one of those
recent graduates of the program you can hear: http://hismansion.com/newsletter-october-2013/
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