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| Snow falling on my backyard - 3/9/17 |
Howard Thurman writes: "There are many people who would feel cheated if suddenly they were deprived of the ego definition that their suffering gives them." (Howard Thurman: Essential Writings, 56)
Some people are self-defined by their suffering. They are men and women of sorrows, and that is all. To free them of their sufferings, to redeem them, would be to deprive them of their core identity.
Such people resist the redemptive activity of God. They need their sufferings. They will feel like a nobody should their being-victimized cease. Prisonhood is their "normal"; freedom is alien to them. Their chains define them.
We must have compassion on all who are hurting, but some suffer beyond their hurt. Self-inflicted suffering is added to the pain in such a way that their identity is intertwined with it.
To escape this demonic life-condition requires a revelation of their true self, their true identity, as children of God, made in God's image. Only then will they be horrified by the chains that are not needed, and cry out for release and redemption.
If you are a Jesus-follower and relate to this, then read this and apply.
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You can contact me at: johnpiippo@msn.com.
