Category: The Healing Journey

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Accessing Presence

I’m seeing a new therapist and I think I’ve found the right professional for my particular breed of crazy. Her eyes don’t glaze over when I talk about Carl Jung or Joseph Campbell or Jesus. She’s there for all my wild digressions and exhibits a compassionate curiosity for the unusual way I approach the healing journey.

At the end of our second meeting I got a bit of homework.

I described the feeling I get when I experience God’s presence in nature and she challenged me to recount that description when I’m distracted from the present moment.

I got goosebumps in her cozy, somewhat retro, office. I realized that I can access presence with God through memory. I haven’t felt the need to reset since our meeting earlier today, but I feel confident that this will be helpful the next time I feel pulled in multiple directions

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Isaiah 35: Beautiful Restoration

Isaiah 35:5 KJV — Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

Isaiah 35:7 DBY — And the mirage shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of wild dogs, where they lay down, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

Translations vary, but it seems reasonable to use the word “mirage” here to describe the world before it is restored to the Eden state.

It is a fitting description of the fallen world. It winks at secular pop culture allusions to The Matrix and simulation theory. This existence seems artificial because it is. It is a fever dream. It is not reality.

In the end, our blind eyes will see and we will inhabit a healed Earth.

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Isaiah 34: No Nation Will Escape

Isaiah 1:2 RSV — Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the LORD has spoken: “Sons have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me.

Isaiah 34:16 KJV — Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them.

I love how there is a challenge to come back, read this prophecy, and know that it is thoroughly accurate in its depiction of destruction.

No nation will escape this wrath. All nations have rebelled and will suffer.

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Isaiah 33: Reap what you Sow

Isaiah 33:1 RSV — Woe to you, destroyer, who yourself have not been destroyed; you treacherous one, with whom none has dealt treacherously! When you have ceased to destroy, you will be destroyed; and when you have made an end of dealing treacherously, you will be dealt with treacherously.

Matthew 7:1-2 RSV — “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.

This chapter details how the Assyrians will be laid low for their rampaging.

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Isaiah 32: Faith Through Crisis

Isaiah 32:1 RSV — Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice.

1 Peter 2:9 RSV — But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

In this chapter, I hear God calling His people to be righteous and just leaders in difficult times.

After the Assrian invasion fails, Judah will suffer economically. God commands the complacent to rise up and prepare to receive the fruits of His Spirit.

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Isaiah 31

Isaiah 31:1 RSV — Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the LORD!

Jerusalem is besieged by Assyria and King Hezekiah is panicking. He wants to call out to Egypt for help, but Isaiah assures him that God will deliver the city to safety.

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Do What You Can

My parents wanted to homeschool me 40 years ago, but circumstances prevented that path.

They always encouraged a
home learning environment that had little to do with school. My father, especially, put my education in my hands and taught me to question the arbitrary authority of the school system.

I didn’t learn about their homeschooling intentions until I announced that we were going to homeschool our sons. In their quiet, unschooling ways, they gave me the space to imagine a more free future for my children.

We don’t get to heal everything in one lifetime, but we do get to set the course for future healing.

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Isaiah 28-30: Misplaced Trust

Isaiah 29:13-14 RSV — And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men learned by rote; therefore, behold, I will again do marvelous things with this people, wonderful and marvelous; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hid.”

Isaiah repeatedly warns against trusting in political alliances, rules and rites, and human wisdom.

It feels like a personal warning as a I read and listen to different resources.

How does one keep one’s heart close to God while (over)thinking deeply through His Word?

I try to remember that I will always hold more ignorance than knowledge.

That’s why I choose to trust in God. The unknowable is nearly infinite, but God is omniscient.