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Get in Love


The theme at The River Church-

Get in love
Grow in love
Get others in love

Addictions and compulsions are rooted in relational brokenness. To love another deeply is to build relationship with them.

Those that have addictions and compulsions cannot be intimate. To expose your inward self, being transparent would be too risky for the hidden addictive lifestyle. Intimacy is not possible, because if you really knew who I am you would bee repulsed. But... Embracing that risk of intimacy is the path to healing and freedom.

An addict is driven to seek relief from their pain. When the addiction is in control of the relief then it prescribes a mode of relief that only it can control. A mode whose long term side effect is yet deeper addiction. The true prescription for healing addictions and compulsions is counterintuitive to this lifestyle of addictions or compulsions.

The lasting relief that leads to healing comes in the form of building deep relationship with one or two others and with yourself.  This path of building is found in developing true intimacy, raw honesty, and trust. This is the path to healing of the pain. This path must be sustained by living a life of intentionality. Intentionality is the daily, weekly, monthly, and year by year delivery system for lifetime relief and healing.

You may think, "ok, addiction is not what I struggle with."

With a grateful heart be thankful for that!

Then, apply this to struggles that are normal to your life.  Most all of life's struggles flourish in the anonymity of life lived alone. I had many friends, had lots of fun with them but kept a big part of me tucked away in a cabin hidden the wilderness of my life.
The financial struggles, anger issues, "knucklehead" decisions I made lived in that cabin and placed unattainable demands on me. That was the part of my life lived in anonymity. It controlled everything I was.

To "get in love" was to bring my full self into relationship with another person. To bring my tucked away cabin life to Jesus, who is the fullness of Grace and Truth (John 1.14), to be loved, valued and connected. Not only Jesus but significant people I have in my life were allowed to know all of me... and I them.

Transparency that is reciprocated by another is a sure path to deeper relationship. To introduce a little part of your "cabin self" to another and they, in turn, allow you to meet a part of their "cabin self" allows grace to facilitate a deeper personal relationship that frees up what was hidden. It sounds like work. It seems, at first glance, to be dangerously vulnerable to another, which translates to the possibility of being hurt.

There is risk involved. But the risk versus reward is worth it. The reward?
On a personal level you begin to see that amazing person you really are. You find that the problems that were so overwhelming for you have solutions that are attainable and sustainable! The purpose of your life begins to emerge. An amazingly deeper relationship with Papagod unfolds. Personal and practical problems that were chained to you begin to drop off!

Beyond the personal reward others are inspired and encouraged by who you really are. Living out of who you are frees up the potential your life has. You become empowered to make a difference in the world around you.

"Get in love" is not a catch phrase, it is a call to action, to breaking through the daily and weekly routine with intentional action that makes a difference. Breakthroughs in life many times, if not most times, involves breaking away from the ordinary to make space for the extraordinary that you so desire to see. That's why it is a "Break-Through".

To get in love starts with the "getting". I can go to the refrigerator and get a soda. No big deal. Or, when I want to get a black Friday deal I get all the ads, get my money, get to the store a day early, get first in line, camp out at the store, get in there in when the doors open, get my stuff!

For me, getting in love is the latter. It's not casual, it's worth the getting!

Comments

  1. Belinda McDanelApril 24, 2014 at 7:29 AM

    That was great, Rocky. Being in relationship is the best healing place to be. Thanks for thinking and sharing.

    ReplyDelete

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