Post 8: Face the Truth... Stay off the Bypass!

Coming face to face with the truth, with what's really in your heart...

That's the pathway to freedom.

We at the House of LadyLee are continuing along with the food for thought bonanza and blowout special.

We gonna take it a bit deeper.

Shoot, girl... Might even have you scratching at your weave with these next few posts!

LOL

That's alright. Ya'll seem to running this race with me.

So let's GO!!! We 'bout to run up a hill here! Hang with me, now!

I had something else that I was gonna post up today, but it looks like I'm a tad bit behind (well not really, but I do prefer to post in the mornings before I come in to work).

But I am sitting here eating my 32 bean/8 vegetable soup/stew lunch, and munching on my tangerines and apple, and I reckon I better go head on and pony up and get post 8 up early...

Me and my road dawg ol' Serenity23 have been working through our devotional reading projects since September, and I must admit it is working out pretty well.

I told her, it's like we're taking little spiritual bites here and there.

We usually send our notes back and forth. Most times we find some little interesting piece of information that hits either one of us cold...

I must admit, we run up on info from time to time that solves a few of our problems. Sometimes it ain't pretty, but it helps us get back on the right track. And it helps us each to have someone to talk to confidentially about the matter.

Sometimes she has to console me on a few matters, and I the same for her. Sometime she has to verbally knock me upside my head about something. Sometimes I gotta verbally slap her around about something.

It gets pretty interesting. Add into the mix that whatever we are discussing or questioning, well, all the answers comes up in devotional reading, church sermons, etc...

Something's gonna happen that very same week (in most cases, within 24 hours) to put all questions and musings to rest. Period.

Like I said, it is pretty interesting. Almost like God is a third party to our convos, and adjusts and arranges life accordingly.

And that's a good thang. (Even though I think it creeps us out a little bit).

Overall, I think we are learning one good thing: Start living in expectation.

Really though.

With all that said, today, we are doing our "after-holiday" catch-up notes, and we are moving strong towards wrapping up this current devotional, hopefully, if we get on the ball, by the end of January.

I've come across some really interesting things that I've wanted to use as thoughts of the day. Things that stick with me. I haven't done much of that because I need to get through my 40 posts, and I am trying to set it all up where everything is related... somehow.

However, I am posting up this particular quote because it is indirectly related to post number 7.

It is from Joyce Meyer's Woman to Woman: Candid Conversations from Me to You. Quite an interesting book. A bit TOO candid at times. Makes me think, "Man, she need to get out of my bizness!"

But here's something I found interesting from Chapter 58, a chapter entitled "Face the Truth and Find Freedom".

It's about how people fake the funk like crazy.

People aren't really honest with people, let alone themselves.

So this chapter was essentially a little treatise on working on examining your heart and being honest with yourself.

For facing the truth is the real path to personal freedom.

There are some issues though:

"But as wonderful as the truth is, we must be ready to face it. Truth is often harsh; it shocks us into a reality that we may not be prepared for if the timing is not right. Many women live in an unreal world that they have developed to protect themselves."

"...Don't be afraid of the truth. The Holy Spirit won't call on you to face the truth about yourself until you are ready to handle it."

That deeply disturbed me for some reason, not being ready to handle the truth in some areas of my life, let properly handling it.

Essentially, I have to grow up a little in order to be able to handle the truth. Interesting.

But this passage REALLY hit home with me.

“The only way we ever get free from anything we have experienced in the past is by facing it with God and letting him walk us out of it. I often say, “The only way out is through.” We would rather find a bypass, but that is usually not God’s way. Bypasses are good for road trips, but not for the journey of life. In life, the best policy is plain simple truth –facing everything head on and not bypassing anything.”

Bypasses are good for road trips, but not for this here thang called life.

Wow.

Maybe I consult the past because I haven't fully dealt with the past.

It keeps calling me, calling me, mayne. Sometimes it's like I have 4 or 5 rearview mirrors on my
car windshield or something. And I'm checking ALL of them suckas at the same time.

Or maybe I just keep holding on to it...

And I won't let go.

Hmmm.

So, if you are anything like me, you tend to think of your past, when making plans for the future in an area of interest.

It's quite easy if you didn't have a rocky past in the area of interest. It could be a good thing if you were highly successful in achieving goals in the past in the area of interest.

In that case, the past is a building block of sorts.

But when stuff has been jacked up in the area I'm trying to move forward in, especially where the past is concerned, I must admit that my prayers aren't as bold and over the top as they should be. This is because I am always thinking of that something that happened (seen or heard or personally experienced) in the past when I tried to reach a particular goal.

And in that case, the past becomes a stumbling block...

That sounds a bit complicated.

Let me break it down to something that all the ladies reading the words scrawled high upon the walls of the House of LadyLee.

Ever prayed about losing weight?

A-ha! Gotcha!!!

You're automatically thinking back to all the times you tried but you failed.

Oh my! Lights out! The filmstrip of your mind just cued up and that special film of your past it is rolling full force in full technicolor.

In 3-D even!

(Well, that's what I think about when I think of weight loss.)

Could it be that I consult my past because I haven't fully dealt with my past? Because I haven't fully forgiven myself for past failures and missteps?

Am I even ready or mature enough to deal with my past?

Am I still on that bypass of life?

Or am I taking the freeway straight through, tackling life head on?

Only God knows.

Funny what a 2 page devotional reading has me thinking about today...