J 2 R
Relationship - that's what it's all about!
It was 1998. Feelings of disbelief, disappointment, anxiety and pain ripped through my mind and soul. My physical body, although overwhelmed with abuses of all kinds (insert sex, drugs, rock and roll), my physical body was still walking. The inside was dead.
One relationship after the other. I could not seem to get it right. The last relationship landed me in the hospital. I had a choice to leave or stay. I, of course, thought I could help him not be so mean, so once again I went back. It only took another week or so for me to move away. I was on the other side of town at this point. Death threats are what I received when I picked up the phone that next week at my employers. I hung up. As I entered the rental home I moved into the week before,it was ransacked. This time, it was time.
I began my Journey2Restoration. Going to a place of the unknown, I had just enough faith to be hopeful for something different in my life. Coupled with that small mustard seed of faith, was a huge boulder of fear. 'Which would win this race?" Also out of shear fear of being killed, hoping there was more, maybe I was running away. Maybe I was not so courageous. But then again, maybe strength was coming from somewhere outside of me. All I remember is please let me be running to something that I can hope in.
Restoration is all about relationships. To begin the journey, we need to understand God will heal us, and to do that He will restore us where we were broken. And we were all broken in relationship. Whether it is a parental or authority relationship, friends, spouse, or family, for restoration to occur, we need to be restored in relationships that are safe and mature. It's why cycles happen in our lives (ex. job loss, multiple marriages, trust issues, fear, shame). If you notice, all these deal with relationships that were broken. Most of these deal with cycles.
So many unaswered questions...
* Why does this keep happening to me?
* Why do I feel like a prisoner instead of the
receiving His promises?
* Why do I keep doing the same thing
expecting a different result?
These were some of my questions. In 1998, i began to receive the answers.
Journey2Restoration
In 2015, while leading various bible studies, groups and teaching on different topics, I began to see others wanting to understand how to get through cycles, causes of relationship issues, boundary issues etc. They, like me, wanted lasting change. So I began putting pen to paper (or these days fingers to the keyboard) and developed an outline with this as a goal.
Symptom vs. Growth Approach:
As we begin to understand we have bad fruit or symptoms in our lives, it would be great to get a plan of attack to stop the symptoms. But we never identity the true issue in the symptom approach.
In J2R we will delve into a growth approach of restoring relationship. A growth approach sheds light and truth on why things have not worked. It makes one aware and at this point, if an individual is willing to commit to doing things differently, this approaches teaches us why the symptoms are there.