PEELING BACK THE LAYERS

 

In this year of 54, I'm not limiting myself to what I have known and I'm getting to know as the operational guidance system in living. The more foundational system I am more than confident to rely on is my covenant relationship with God. My younger self would have agreed, yet argued on how my conscious actions, my intent and my willpower are directly involved in the progressive trajectory of my life. My older self will simply smile, because I have seen God show up where  everything spelled doom and failure and demise, and He showed up to defy the operation of things. And I have also seen where everything was perfectly in line with Gods word, standards and statutes, and nothing but failure, poverty and hardships prevailed. So yes, the God Factor is the determinant that I choose to rely on. Personally, I have come to know and experience this aspect of Him as Jehovah El-Shakara, the God that does shakara with me; the God that announces me and sets a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

The concept I am addressing in this blog is peeling back the layers and discovering an awareness, a strength, a reality or even a relevance to living that may have remained dormant if that layer had not been peeled. Simple as this concept is, the mystery is the peeling back process. We would like to assume that if you followed the unwritten protocol of living, and ascribe to the membership of the Status Quo club of life, this unpeeling of layers in your life to discover a more knowledgeable and wiser you would systematically happen. Unfortunately not so. The discovery of a more progressive you after a confining and limiting thought process and concept of self is shed happens akin to a growth process of a seed. The shell can simply peel of, or imply trauma and break off. Without attempting to suggest that one must experience trauma to attain some experiential knowledge that acts as a catalyst to unveil a progressive self, there is an understanding that is attained from analyzing and evaluating the trauma. The effective application or utilization of this understanding is what makes one an expert in such fields.

I can take this a step further. As a Christian, my theology teaches me "everything works together for good', suggesting that everything that happens in our lives - the good, the bad, and the ugly - are all resources that God uses to work out his purpose. The bad and even the ugly are relevant. These are ingredients in the kaleidoscope of our lives. There is a relevance, a knowing, an awareness, a confident settlement in ones agency and autonomy that is attained at the peeling back of a layer that could be termed traumatic, bad or ugly.

The bible is rife with examples that not only reveal a higher awareness of God (which is a progressive development), but these examples become opportunities for the Spirit of God to use to minister truth. Rahab the prostitute actively on the clock in her vocation, and Israelite spies show up. She risks it all to help them, and negotiates her well-being at the impending moment of reckoning. Not only did she get her expectation, God swoops in and makes her part of the lineage of the Christ, and has it stated in the genealogy of the Christ to be remembered. Rahab could have been of the mindset that her life as a prostitute was so derogatory and immoral that she would not only keep it a secret, she would use semantics to relabel her career. But it was that exact career that was relevant in the moment of opportunity in the divine operation of God. And God takes further by adding validity and relevance to her by calling her, Rahab the prostitute in the genealogy of Christ.

The key takeaway is this - no matter the experience, identity, indulgence, memory, etc - these are all layers incubating a progressive you. Do the educating, the therapy, the rehabilitation, the discipleship, etc, but be aware that the performance of these are not the foundation of ones confidence, but rather the God factor showing up regardless. And underneath the layers is a reveal waiting to happen. The failure, shame and disgrace has a lesson to teach and a version of you to reveal. I remember when I was blackmailed in my youth, and thought my world had come to an end. I walked on the street thinking I was unworthy of life. Today, I am so appreciative of that experience, I can almost look for the perpetuators to thank them! Who knows what I would be like if that hadnt happened? 

"Everything works together for good to them that love God; even to them who are called according to His purpose" - Roman 8:28