The Soul, Self, Abuse and Religion--Day 2

When we are (have been) abused, we see ourselves as less. It becomes a painting of ourselves whose colors become anchored to the very depths of our being.

How do we "unpaint" that which seems to be rooted to our very selves?

I know this most wonderful young family. On Easter Sunday, I watched a video testimony from this devoted dad as he shared the painful chapter of his childhood that began around age 5: being locked in a dark closet for hours and being the target of sexual abuse while held there.

His abusers? Nuns.

What impacted me most? He remembers speaking to God and knowing He was there with him.

How in the world does a 5-year-old, being sexually abused by a "God" figure, somehow separate the True God from those who would--outside of the closet of treachery--espouse that very God?

He allowed the timbre of God's Voice to be filtered into his hearing and held on for dear life.

The prying tools to unseat any colors used to paint ourselves as less than fully made in the image of God include:

Risking trust in the very God that is falsely linked to the abuse

Holding on for dear life to the hope that God is not aligned with the perpetrator

Giving this God of hope permission to filter in the timbre of His Voice

When the umbrella of religion includes that which diminishes us from who God says we are, we have met an abuser.

The astounding Presence of God affirmed this young dad as he stepped forward on Easter, for there is nothing stronger, more vibrant, or more resilient in God's hands than our vulnerable, broken selves.

This story, and others bravely told, help us check our own paintings of self. What has created a crack in our own soul conduits that transmit to us who we are in God?

Tomorrow: the more subtle abuse of Religion.