Randy’s July 2009 Update
Eric’s Story:
“In the past six months, I moved from the role of associate pastor to interim senior pastor. I am currently a candidate to become the permanent senior pastor of the church I serve.
“Though we’ve been presented with a series of unique challenges, I’ve found a great deal of joy in my role.
“I attribute this to time spent on an inner journey over the past couple years. What might have produced much anxiety and discouragement in years gone by has been energizing.
“By God’s grace, I’ve become more truly myself.
“One experience that promoted this transformation was an assignment Randy gave me early in our relationship. I was to ask three people to identify things they loved about me as well as areas where I needed growth.
“Don’t be too surprised when people jump at the chance to tell you how they think you should grow!
“The most interesting outcome for me was that all three, in their own words, identified the same thing. That made me pay attention.
“Apparently, I get defensive when I hear criticism.
“Now that’s a catch-22. Any effort to disagree only reinforces their point.
“That exercise was part of the process that led to an exploration beneath the surface of my life. Why did I feel personally attacked when I smelled criticism of any kind? Why did I evaluate my value based on what I do rather than who I am? Why did I tend to see myself as either all good or all bad?
“Randy provided a safe place to explore the answers to these questions.
“Through a combination of well selected readings, insightful questions, extended listening, imaginative praying, and lots of love, discoveries were made.
“I don’t suppose I’ll ever be done growing on this issue. But I am much more eager to know the truth—good and bad—about me.
“I’m learning that truth, reality, is always my friend even if it’s not always comfortable to hear.
“And I’m learning that no criticism changes my standing as God’s beloved son.
“One of my favorite verses of Scripture has become Ephesians 1:5:
‘God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.’
“It astounds me that God, the Father, didn’t adopt me in his family begrudgingly. It’s what He wanted to do. And I bring him delight!
“Once this became an experienced reality, it changed everything.” – Eric Flood
Eric’s Process:
Eric’s story describes a beautiful process of healing, redemption, and developing deeper intimacy with God and others through:
- Awareness – Becoming aware of what is going on internally. We need to recognize and courageously name/admit what’s going on and allow ourselves to feel our feelings, think our thoughts, face our realities, and be in touch with our inner life. The truth will set you free.
- Be Known – Bringing things we’ve become aware of out of hiding and into the light of God’s love and grace, where they can be transformed with God’s help. This step of surrender often requires bringing things into the light and being known with safe people as well as with God. Things tend to lose their power over us when they are brought into the light and known by those who love us.
- Invite Love In Experientially – We need to invite God’s love in and experience it fully. Love heals. I notice people (including myself) often race passed this step. We think we know about love and that we’ve already done this in the past. In this step, we need to feel and experience love in the present, in our current discovery/mess. We need to soak in love long enough for it to actually sink into our wounded, defensive, unloved places.
- Develop Our True Self – Rediscovering, claiming, and living out of our True Self, our true identity, so our True Self can come out of hiding and express itself in healthy, loving ways. We change when we rediscover and live as our True Self, and then experientially connect our True Self to God, per Charles Whitfield.
- Empower Loves Flow – Allowing the overflow of God’s love to pour out of our True Self onto others – passing on what we’ve received.
Hey, I just formed the acronym ABIDE! I could do a sermon message on this!
Over the past couple years, I have seen Eric become more loving, confident, and secure as he has engaged this on-going journey of redemption. Eric ministers to a church of about 700.
Thank You:
Thank you so much for walking with me through my journey into living more fully out of my True Self through this Kingdom work I feel privileged to do. You are a blessing to me and to the people benefiting from this ministry.
In His Love,
Randy
Paintings on Cardboard:
PS Here are a couple of my latest paintings:
Emerging From Shadow
Anime Annie Mae
Hmmmm. The picture in my head didn’t look like Japanese anime, but since that’s how it turned out, I swear it’s what I intended all along.
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