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)

Facing the Giants

FACING THE GIANTS

In the well-known story of David and Goliath, David faced and defeated his giant with a sling and a stone. Historically, in the days of Exodus, the Israelites had been afraid to enter the promised land because of the many ‘giants’ who inhabited that territory. It was the fear of the giants, not the giants themselves, that kept the people from God’s promise for them.

In my own journey, I have had to face some big giants: sexual abuse, rape, father issues, fear, rejection, abandonment, unforgiveness, and bitterness, to name a few. To rattle them off in a list like this is easy, but to actually face each of these head-on has been a battle. I can distinctly remember fighting though Los Angeles traffic to make the one-and-a-half-hour commute to see my therapist, where I had to pay upwards of $60 an hour to face some of my giants. I would much rather have been sitting on my couch, eating chocolate ice cream and watching reruns of Seinfeld. But if I wanted to walk in the fullness of God’s promises for my life, there were giants to be faced. Sometimes I felt like David: as if I was facing a seasoned combatant with weapons as puny as a sling and a stone. But during those times I learned that, like David, God has given me the tools I need to face the giants in my life, and that I never have to face them on my own. (Taken from the appendix of my memoir, Scars and Stilettos.)

If you are ready to face the giants in your life, you don’t have to do it alone!  We are launching Celebrate Recovery at Oasis and all are welcome!  This is a safe place where you can get on the road to recovery from your own hurts, hang-ups and habits.  For more details, visit http://www.oasisla.org/life--oasis/celebrate-recovery/

Love, Harmony & The Treasures Team

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