Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30

PART 2

We’re looking in the mirror of God.

The Christian life often seems anything bust restful. Here we are promised rest. I don’t think this scripture is talking about physical rest. Rest for our souls comes with peace in our souls. Peace from God passes all understanding. It is true delight. We are unable to understand true spiritual rest until we become free in our whole self: body, soul, and spirit. It takes the mirror of God to get there.

A spiritual intervention means that we need the intervening of God to help us deal with our self and its complex nature. Some things trip us up and will take more than just a momentary glance.

Our spiritual life is impacted by the events in life. The compilation of our own set of hard personal experiences that we internalized in our inner self has mounted over time. The problems have increased and grown relative to the disappointments and disillusioning experiences. These have affected our emotional stability and health.

The greater the wounds, the more they will sustain the power to penetrate and cause damage in the inner places. Their presence in our lives affects us even when we are not fully aware of their existence. Some people are healthier than others in this area and some have had greater healing than others. What is true for one person may not be true for another person.

We have to recognize that there is a problem that we need to deal with before we are able to access processes that will help us break-down these negative influences in our lives. Healing may occur step-by-step or it may happen at one set moment. This may be complicated by our own bent to do that which causes self-injury, fueled by choices we make that are self-centered and give us some sort of mood-enhancer at the time we choose to do them, those choices that have a pay-back factor.

Our own self-damaging choices have a tendency to be justified or hidden behind a form of denial. One can recognize this in yourself or in others by the statements and rationalizations which voraciously multiply for why we have done what we have done and why it’s not our fault that we made that choice. This is a form of cover-up that needs to be called out, identified, and addressed or we will never fully heal.

An Analogy – Let’s illustrate this with a word picture. Many people experience the presence of a cataract which forms on the eye and causes limitations in the eye’s ability to see clearly. No one ever plans to have a cataract form on their eye. Just like people never plan to have bad things happen to them. When a cataract forms whether as a result from childhood injury or as an eye ages through a process over time, it will obstruct vision to some degree according to its severity.

Similarly, a “cataract” has grown in our interior self.  This hidden stuff becomes a growing obstruction to our spiritual vision. People wear a mask to hide its presence from others. They confess their sins, they act great, they put on a false front, or they don’t see it as a problem. This must be addressed if we are to experience freedom in our spiritual life.

Wounds, hurts, and pain; selfishness, pride, and rebellion have altered and hindered our vision for God and has skewed our relationship with God. Sometimes we don’t recognize their presence. Like a cataract, our spiritual eye has become cloudy, discolored, and out of focus. There is a distortion in our perception of the spirit-life and our ability to live fully in Him.

Our spiritual “vision” is restricted because of trouble in our interior life. Following the cataract analogy, its lack of clear-sightedness is hampering everything we do. Left unattended, it will never clear up on its own. It is like a silent inner cloud within the soul. We are not aware of how much it is affecting our lives. Even our good acts of kindness and our righteous piety may have scarred our heart if there is pride attached. It is the place where pain or discomfort resides, those things we don’t talk about, things which cannot lift of themselves.

First, we must identify “it.” Once the ophthalmologist confirms the need for medical intervention for the removal of the cataract because it is impairing the vision, a person will proceed toward the remedy. The same is true for our spiritual cataracts.

When God shows us our soul’s condition through highlighting it with His mirror of truth, we will have a decision to make. What do we want to do with it? Will we continue to live with an obstructed view caused by our spiritual condition or will we take measures to remove and improve our conflicted spiritual condition?

God will take us to that place, a crisis of faith, where we can not deny that we are in need of a spiritual intervention.

Next, we take action to begin the remediation. Spiritual surgery is undertaken that we may heal and return to unimpeded spiritual living. It is a soul-changing operation designed for one purpose, to heal and restore us, and with the intent to reveal truth where we have denied or ignored a negative obstruction to continue residing in us.

Once we become aware that there is an issue at stake, at that point, we may either choose to deal with it or not. We make the choice to follow God by doing whatever it takes through surrendering our way and our will to Him. Then He is able to perform the necessary soul surgery where we have been stymied.

Some people choose non-intervention measures. We are always given choice.  We may choose to follow our own way, to not intervene, to protect self and its issues by never dealing with our inner person nor asking God to reveal our issues. This limits His ability to help us.

When this second choice is chosen, the one of avoiding, hiding, or running, it will actually create a wedge between the person and God. Non-spiritual willfulness is a self-protecting response that creates further distancing from the heart of God.

Surgery has a measure of risk and discomfort and the big unknown. Will it work? Will it hurt? How much will it hurt? How long will it take to heal and to return to normal? God’s soul-changing surgical intervention may cause some hurt and it may be uncomfortable. It also has a big unknown. This is to be expected. We worry that He may ask too much of us. We may say, I can live with this. We may rationalize, I’m good enough. I’m doing what God wants me to do. I’m okay, not that bad. You know, I’m doing better than so and so. I can still “see” okay, I’m keeping out of trouble. It really isn’t necessary.

We think we are fine, not noticing that our spiritual “cataract” has diminished our sight and covered our hearts, hiding the places where our hurts are imperfectly kept, forming a facade which may look good from the outside since no-one can tell as it hides the truth about our real self from view.

It is just that, good enough but not all that it could or should be. Healing change takes our willingness mixed with God’s facilitating of the process.  We can’t do it on our own. We must look up and ask for God’s intervening on our behalf.

The surgeon, the Great Physician, will come to our aid if we so choose to remove the cloudy cataract and then insert a new clear lens, God’s healing grace, into our eye so He can heal and restore us to health and newness. To ignore this hidden hurt that resides within us is to glance over a troublesome area. We have failed to involve Divine intervention to reveal and remediate, expose and then heal, the offending contradiction we have lived with possibly for years and years.

We must deal with both past and present in the light of God. He reveals the nature of one’s true self in His mirror of truth. A person’s spiritual life is not able to become real and vibrant until they release their self to God by asking God to take over, to identify the issue or injury; expose their thoughts and hurts; remove it or forgive it; and lastly, replace it with His peace and fullness. God can and will do this for the person who truly seeks Him without restraint.

The sun of God’s love when activated within us, creates a clearer vision, a renewed perception in addition to a greater love for God. No longer will we live with a cataract clouding our vision with its suffocating effect in our heart and soul.

I know several adults who have gone through the process of cataract surgery and its aftermath. It takes time to heal and return to normal living. There is recovery time, carefulness, eye drops, and so forth. However, some have told me how wonderful it is to see objects that before the cataract surgery they didn’t realize were no longer clear; things like individual petals on a flower, patterns on leaves, details on a sign or picture. Seeing clearly again becomes a daily delight. They are grateful for the surgery because of its end result. Their vision and their enjoyment of life has improved.

The same is true when God is allowed or invited to participate in a deep internal spiritual cleansing. In a sense, it becomes a “crucifixion” experience. He can take those wounds and our sins to the light of His glory. Our loving heavenly Father will remove that which is harmful or wrong-minded. He will insert His forgiveness and love, His healing remedy, into its place.

The solution to our troubles is God. The cure is God. The healing comes through Christ’s life. How does God do it? He meets at the point of sin, pain, or disillusionment. He brings healing with Him and infuses us with His love. He cleanses us and sets us free in the inner places. We are now free. Life is just beginning.

Another aspect is necessary. For this to be complete in us, we must question our motives and idols even concerning spiritual behaviors. We must let go of all that we love and grab tightly as our security, including ourselves and our talents, to reach out to God that He may become our security. It is in the seeking, the coming, the surrender.

Here is the key. Come to God on His terms, not on your terms. First we see the X-Ray. Then God proceeds to the remedy for curing what ails us. God snips out the bad, cleanses the wound, inserts His healing presence, and restores the soul to health. When God does this, it won’t be a temporary fix, the mountain top experience. Instead, it will be permanent, life changing, and real. God will do more than remediate the sorrow. He will heal it.

God gives us the tools to live a gracious life, one that is hidden in Him. The turmoil no longer owns us. The pain no longer deadens us. The denial no longer hides us. Pride no longer imprisons us. We are whole. Spiritual rest comes when we are at peace with our whole self and with God.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20 ESV

Why don’t you invite God to participate with you in a deep internal spiritual cleansing. It may very well be the most revitalizing experience you have had so far.

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©N. L. Brumbaugh