Healing takes place, in part, by changing the behavior that instigated the wound. There is a big part of me that wants to get on a motorcycle and travel at high speeds – I love it, I long for it, I don’t do it. Motorcycles are not the problem; my decisions when I’m riding fast are the problem. I have spent years healing from wounds acquired in motorcycle crashes. I’m learning to love and long for other activities that won’t cause me injury, while longing for that which isn’t good for me.

We tend to gravitate to what we know, in part, because we don’t know what we don’t know. We love and long for the unhealthy because we don’t know the healthy. God’s word calls us to shift our being, our thinking and our doing – away from that which causes death and destruction in our heart, soul, mind and spirit. Peter says we die to sin and live to righteousness – in death to sin there is life. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. ²⁵For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” 1 Peter 2:24-25

Fear, in part, keeps us from what we don’t know. If I slow down and stop taking wild chances will I “feel free?” Or for some the fear might be if I speed up and take some wild chances will I “feel free?” Peter says you used to live in malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander, those activities of the body – mind, lips, and ears. He begs, taste and see that the Lord is good for your soul. Just taste the healing that is yours in the living stone and you not only get a taste, but you become a living stone because IN Christ we become who he is for us. Peter declares,

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. ² Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— ³if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. ⁴As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, ⁵ you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:1-5

In Christ, there is no “part,” there is the whole gift, full and free. God calls us to shift our thinking to the holy, the whole, the free, and the healed, “for me/for you”. God, in Christ, renews our minds, he refreshes our souls, he is very gentle with our hearts – his dwelling place, and he places his spirit together with our spirit. Our lives, as messed up and hurting as they are because we chase the unhealthy things we love that wage war on our soul, are whole and a spiritual sacrifice that is pleasing to God.

Our whole being, our heart, soul, mind, spirit, and body are being called by God to learn to receive the things God loves and cherishes – first of which is me (you/me) and everyone else. We have returned to the Shepherd of our soul! Our hearts are touched by his word, we have tasted that the Lord is good, and we are learning to long for the pure in Christ.

May God grant us courage to identify that which exhausts us and rest our cares in Christ. May God grant us boldness to speak the miracle he is working in our hearts as he wakes us up to his word and work. May his peace guard our hearts and minds in Christ. Blessings IN Christ, Cindy

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