Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Inner Strength (04/20/06)
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TITLE: UNTAPPED STRENGTH | Previous Challenge Entry
By Dawn Thomason
04/27/06 -
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We talked for a long time. When it seemed that no one else could understand the depth of what he was saying I could, for you see, I had once said similar words. I could feel the pain that racked his body as I had experienced it myself. How was it that I was able to mirror his experience and yet have hope and strength?
My brother spoke of suicide and I understood as we share the commonality of bipolar disorder. I had survived my suicidal temptations. In an effort to give him hope, I had to remember what had made the difference in my life and given me the desire to live.
I could pour out my heart and express all that he means to me. I could further expound that the absence of him in my life would create a void incapable of being filled by any other human. However, I knew from my own experience that kind and loving words would be excused as passé. Certainly anything of value and worth wouldn’t be applicable.
Perhaps I should put my love into action. I could open my home and provide shelter from the storm. No doubt he would only feel “trapped” by the embrace and run further. “Unworthy! Unworthy!” he would cry.
Overwhelmed I accepted the realization that I was in over my head. The initials LCSW did not follow my name and I felt inept in counseling my brother. Then I recalled that things over my head are under His feet. Feeling a surge of confidence, I wanted to shout, “Brother, lift your eyes unto the hills from whence comes your help!” (Ps. 121:1; KJV). I halted in mid-thought, as I realized what my brother and I did NOT have in common. He did not have the assurance of salvation and Christ’s unconditional love and acceptance. What gives me the desire to not only live but to thrive is my hope in the Lord. The inner strength that I possess is not a self-produced strength but a by-product of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling.
My prayers for my brother are fervent as time is of the essence. Where there is breath there is hope but the demon of suicide seeks to snuff out his life. I cannot know where he is every minute but God does so I have no need to fret. I pray that God will draw him to Himself and cause him to embrace a love incomprehensible in times past. I pray that he will realize, as I did, that the Lord loved him before he was even formed in our mother’s womb and that he is fearfully and wonderfully made. (Ps. 139). He has a mission – very much possible – that only he can complete for God. I pray that he will access the untapped inner strength that can be his by calling upon the name of the Lord and allowing the Holy Spirit to abide in him. Without Christ he can do nothing (Jn. 15:5; KJV), but with Christ he can do all things! (Phil. 4:13; KJV).
I am NOT an LCSW. I AM an ordinary person with an extraordinary Savior – PRAISE GOD! (to be continued…)
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