I just returned home from my second session with my therapist and was greeted by the scene above. My neighborhood is swarming with dump trucks (some from the company I will soon be working for) and claw trucks. The claw trucks are picking up the ruined contents of my neighbors homes after Matthew flooded our neighborhood on Oct. 8th & 9th. They then meet a dump truck in my court and transfer it to be carted off to the dump. My heart grieves a little more every time I witness this. Many of these folks do not have flood insurance and lost almost everything. I, in comparison, was relatively unscathed. What I lost was minimal or can be easily replaced. My only concern at the moment is my heating and air conditioning system that might get replaced by the insurance.
My car, although flooded, runs fine and everything works, the smell however is another matter. I vacuumed seven gallons from the trunk (boot – that’s for you Summer), another gallon or two from the interior and I have had a whole house dehumidifier running in the passenger seat for four days. It is still pulling out water. A good shampoo later should help with the odor.
While sitting here at the window and watching the activities in the court I couldn’t help but reflect on my conversation with my therapist. He described for me in great detail the entire Theophostic prayer healing process. What sticks in my mind is the process, all of which is bathed in prayer, of embracing your feelings and allowing the Holy Spirit to expose the lie that is behind the feelings. i.e. “I can’t do anything right, I’m worthless, I will never amount to anything, etc.” At that point through prayer we can ask Jesus to bring His Truth to the situation, banish the lie or lies and bring healing. Logically I know some of the lies I have bought are complete rubbish but in the deepest recesses of my heart I’m still that screw up of a little kid. It is in the deep recesses of my heart that I am working and not my logical mind. God knows how much I want to experience His love, joy and peace. As I watched the trucks in the court I couldn’t help but think, Jesus does love me. So much so that He wants to go into the deepest recesses of my heart with one of those claws and remove all of the putrid, rotten, stinking lies that I have been stewing in for all these years and replace them with His Truth. I am looking forward to this next step in my journey.
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Rom 15:13
Hope & Faith, Barney