Do you want to get well?

There is a well-told story of a man, lying on a mat, who had been disabled for 38 years. In it, Jesus asks him a question: ‘Do you want to get well?’ (John 5)

At that point, the man started coming up with excuses, saying that nobody would help him, and every time he tried to get better, somebody got in his way. Ultimately, Jesus instructs the man to ‘Take up his mat and walk.’ He follows this instruction and is miraculously healed.

I believe that Jesus is asking you and me the same question: “Do you want to get well?”

Sometimes we think we want to get better, but when it comes down to it, we have a million excuses as to why we can’t. We complain that “Nobody will help us” and “Every time we try, something gets in our way.” We become comfortable with our condition and content to remain paralyzed on our mats.

I spent many years wishing my life would change, stuck in patterns and relationships.  But ultimately, it wasn’t enough to want to change—I had to decide to change.

Ultimately, the decision is in our hands. Nobody can want it for us. God can’t force it on us. Our friends can’t fix us.  Finding the “right man” won’t miraculously make our life better.  We must decide to get well.  Once we do, I believe that just as the paralytic man discovered, Jesus will give us the strength we need in order to walk.

By Harmony Dust

www.ScarsAndStilettos.com

(Excerpt from my memoir, Scars and Stilettos. 

Appendix Chapter on My Healing Journey)

Does Jesus Love P0rn?

Does Jesus Love P0rn?

“Are you saying Jesus loves porn?” a half-dressed girl in a children’s bounce house asked us as she held the “Jesus Loves P0rn Stars” t-shirt up to herself.  She was one of a few dozen girls hired at the p0rn convention to entertain the patrons by swinging on swings and playing on see saws and other children’s apparatuses.

“No. Because that would be weird,” Rachel a fun-loving, boisterous volunteer began,“but he loves p0rn stars and all of the people IN p0rn. I think if he were here today, he'd show up at p0rn conventions and say the same thing.” 

Throughout the rest of the Exxxotica P0rn Convention in Los Angeles last weekend, the Treasures team partnered with XXX Church and shared that very message.  Jesus loves people.

We were joined by Crissy, a stunning young woman who left p0rn at the height of her career, in order to follow Jesus. Her compassion for the women still in the industry seeps out of her pores and was evident in all of her encounters with them.

One moment I looked over to see her eyes filled with tears as she talked to one of the girls. “I was in the business for 6 years,” she shared. 

The woman’s face softened upon seeing Crissy’s empathy.  “It’s hard, isn’t it?” the woman responded.

Next to the bounce house was one of many tables of women signing autographs.  But these women were not signing autographs for their p0rn-stardom.  They were noted as being the “Scandalous Women of 2010”, a title awarded for having affairs with the likes of Tiger Woods and Jesse James.  They were being given celebrity status for having sexual relationships with married men.

My stomach flip-flopped.  Are we really living in a culture that rewards adultery with fame?

I was reminded of Jesus’ response to the woman at the well, a “scandalous woman” of her day.  “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water," Jesus said to her.

Out of all of the people in the bible, this woman’s story resonates with me the most.  I have been a scandalous woman in my own right and I identify with the depth of her need and the lengths she goes to in order to satisfy it. After years of looking to men, food, sex, attention, (you name it) to fill me, I have discovered that only One Thing will satisfy.  Only Jesus can quench my insatiable thirst in a way that is true and lasting.

My heart broke as I handed each the women signing autographs a gift.  Not BECAUSE of them, but FOR them.  Because I believe that if they knew the “gift of God”, they would not be compelled to drink from the salty cup of infidelity.  If they truly knew, they would walk away from that hollow well of fame, and instead thirst for Living Waters.

Jesus loves scandalous women.  He loves p0rn stars and addicts.  He even loves prideful, religious, judgmental folks.  And when I contemplate my own heart and nature, it is just as awe inspiring that He loves me.

Love, Harmony Dust

www.IAmATreasure.com

www.ScarsAndStilettos.com

Jesus and the Magic Wand

A Treasure for You: The Treasures E-Devotional

Jesus and the Magic Wand
By Harmony Dust

In the popular story of Cinderella, our heroine goes from handmaid to princess with the wave of a wand. Most of us would say that this sort of transformation belongs in fairytales but, truth be told, many of us are hoping that someone with a magic wand will come along and fix everything that’s wrong with our circumstances.

I have had the opportunity to share my story for a number of media outlets, and time and time again have seen well-meaning producers look for the magic wand in my story. Some have even tried to peg Jesus himself as my own personal fairy godmother…granting my every wish and desire. And while the transformation that has taken place in my heart and life is pretty miraculous (just ask the people who knew me when I had taken up knocking men in the head with my stilettos when they crossed me). I always tell them the same thing, “Healing is most often a process.”

We like the “healing and transformation” part. It’s the “process” part that isn’t always enjoyable. So often we say we want to change, but we end up getting knocked off course by the first wave of difficulty that hits us.

The Gospel of Luke gives an account of the sermon on the mount during which Jesus gives keys on how to live. He addresses everything from giving, fasting, and prayer, to loving people, marriage, and dealing with anger and emotions.

After he finished giving all of this insight and wisdom he says…

I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. Luke 6:47-49

Much of the healing journey consists of the “digging down deep” part this passage refers to. This is where the work comes in. In order to heal and to develop the kind of faith that will withstand the storms of life, we’ve got to do some digging.

I am reminded of a time when the front yard of my childhood home in Venice was filled with crab grass. My mom took my brother and I out there one day with shovels and said it was time for us to uproot it all. She called the crab grass conquering grass, explaining that its roots would choke out any other seed we planted. As long as we let the conquering grass rule our yard, nothing else would be able to grow there.

The same is true with our lives. Some of us are working hard at planting new healthy seeds, but we haven’t uprooted the old stuff. And we wonder why those same old hurts and issues keep rearing their ugly heads in the garden of our lives. Those old, conquering issues are choking out all of our efforts to plant something new.

In order to lay a proper foundation for healing to take place, we have to allow God to dig down deep and uproot the things that are choking our efforts to get well. Abuse, shame from our past, unforgiveness, roots of rejection and abandonment—all need to be removed from the soil of our lives for healing to take place.

Incredible healing and transformation is possible. It’s available. If you have been waiting on Jesus to wave a magic wand over your life and nothing seems to be changing, chances are, He’s handing you a shovel.

Let’s get digging! Let’s get healed!

Love, Harmony
www.iamatreasure.com

Where Does it Hurt

Where Does it Hurt?

The other day, my 1-year-old took her first tumble in the bathtub. After hitting her chin on the side of the tub, she slipped face-first into the water. I quickly swept her to her feet and began to examine her for injuries. She looked me directly in the eyes and cried at the top of her lungs. She wanted to know one thing, “Am I going to be okay?”

After finding no blood, bumps, or bruises, I held her in my arms and answered her question. “That was so scary but you are going to be okay, darling. Mommy is right here.” Within moments she quieted and went right back to playing with her bath toys.

Pain can be good. It tells us that something is wrong—that there is something that needs to be addressed.

I realized that my daughter’s response to her pain and fear was actually very healthy. She turned to me, her caregiver, and allowed me to assess her injury and give her comfort. It got me thinking about how I handle pain. Do I always go to God, my loving caregiver, and allow Him to assess my injury? To tell me if there is a wound that needs tending to?

The following day, I found myself hitting a wall. How many of you know that walls can hurt? So I came up with a solution: “I need a freaking piece of chocolate,” I said out loud. The chocolate tasted great, but it didn’t solve the issue. My prescription for the pain was insufficient.

In that moment, I could hear God whisper to my heart, “Come to me…Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”. In that moment, what I needed was the loving presence of my Caregiver, my Loving Father. I needed to spend some time with God and allow Him to assess my hurts. Like my daughter after her fall in the bath, I just needed God to tell me that I was in fact, going to be okay. It was an instance in which I just needed some perspective.

But sometimes our pain is an indication of an actual injury that needs tending. Perhaps an unhealed hurt, or a root of unforgiveness or rejection. We are walking wounded, trying to pretend that all is well—stuffing our faces with chocolate, our appointment books with activities, our minds with television. But these things can only offer temporary relief from the symptoms of our pain. They do not heal our injuries. We again find that our prescriptions for the pain are insufficient.

And there comes a point when our prescriptions for the pain can actually bring more pain. A point when they go from being insufficient, to destructive. It is when the chocolate becomes binge eating and excess weight that jeopardizes our health. When the pain of our loneliness causes us to look for connection in affairs and meaningless sex that jeopardize our families and our hearts. It’s when social drinking turns to drunken stupors, hangovers and missed work.

There comes a time when our prescription for the pain becomes our addiction. We are chasing after what we think we need when only one thing can satisfy.

God has a cure. He says, “Come to me” for “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Ps 147:3). In the arms of our Loving Caregiver, there is rest. There is safety. There is comfort. There is healing.

Written by Harmony Dust for Treasures
www.iamatreasure.com