We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 1:2-3

Last September in my annual Birthday Reflections article, I wrote about going down into the dark valley called The Valley of Weeping.

Today, though, I want to express my boundless praise for the gift God has given me in that valley, the people I’ve been privileged to get to know there.

I want to shout out my thanksgiving to God for the faithful trauma survivors He has put in my life.

Most of them were traumatized by people who claimed to represent Christ, even Christian leaders.

But in spite of that, these abuse survivors are still following God, or longing to.

My heart swells in thinking about them.
I would far rather sit at their feet than at the feet of the most popular speaker or best-selling author.
  

Many of them will never stand before a microphone. Many of them will never write a book.

Many of them will not have any sort of following at all, because they are simply trying to survive, to get through the next day.

If we take David Platt’s book Radical as inspiration, then the Radical for these people is simply that they have not turned their back on God. The Radical for many of them is that they are still alive. The Radical for them is that they still hope.

I’m filled with thanksgiving for the one who as a child was prostituted by a religious relative and used for child pornography. She has several children in heaven, but only a few of us know to wish her a happy Mother’s Day. She lives the life of the mundane, working a regular job and going to a church where almost no one knows her story.
She suffers the physical effects of the abuse to this day, and together we pray for her physical healing.
She continues to hope in God.

I’m filled with thanksgiving for the one who took her six children to escape from a man who was sexually abusing them (I need to say allegedly, even though she saw it with her own eyes). Now she’s forced to share custody with him.
She works to equip her children to fight spiritual battles while she continues to hope in the goodness of God and His rescue from this Egypt.
Together we pray that her young ones will be delivered and be able to recover from the effects of this great harm.

I’m filled with thanksgiving for the one who, having been horrifically abused as a child, tried and tried and tried again to get help. She didn’t give up. She didn’t give up, in the face of blamers and shamers and bumblers. And now, in a good church where she is finally receiving help on the road to recovery, she is learning to know the presence of God.

I’m filled with thanksgiving for the one whose charming pastor husband walked out on her into the arms of another, who finally came to see that her husband was a narcissist and an abuser, who now testifies to the grace of God and says “God will redeem my story.”

I’m filled with thanksgiving for the one who came to the Lord in salvation only months before she married Mr. SuperChristian who turned out to be a wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing extreme abuser. When she finally got her children to safety, she was physically ill and emotionally shattered. She never ceased hoping in the God she had just gotten to know and was finally able to spend time getting to know again. She continues to trust Him with her head until her heart can fully feel.

I’m thanking God for the one whose life for 25 years was like living in a concentration camp, whose haggard face, when I met her, still shone with the light of Christ.

I’m thanking God for the one who, in a controlling patriarchal family was taught to study the Bible by her father, who truly did study it and there found out who Jesus Christ really was.

I’m thanking God for the one who got out of her abusive marriage and went on to establish a Christian ministry to help others coming out of abusive marriages.

I’m thanking God for the one who said, “If I can just know who God is at the end of all this, it will be worth it.”

These are the Radicals to me.
They get up each day to care for the people in their lives.
For some, “not wasting their lives” looks like hanging on today and living to see tomorrow.

These are the ones who, like the saints in Hebrews 11, may not see fulfillment of the promise right now, but they dimly see something in the future. They hope in God that it will come to pass.

There is no preaching conference with a star-studded line-up, no stack of Christian life books by big-name authors, that I would trade for the friendships God has given me with these women.

Right where they are, they are living unwasted, hopeful, mundane, faithful radical lives.

My life as been enriched and will never be the same.

***

Though this song was posted for those who have suffered persecution in other lands, I post it now for my friends who have suffered persecution right here, around me, around you, some of whom have been literally branded by their evil persecutors. This is dedicated to them.

Beautiful Scars

Words and music by Amy Shreve

 I’ve heard your story. I think you are brave.
And I can’t imagine half of your pain.
Your eyes bear the mark of a child of God.
Whether near or far, you’re here in my heart.
Whether near or far, you’re here in my heart.

And I cry when you have been wounded.
And I die when your blood is shed.
I am a part of you,
and I can see Jesus through
the beautiful scars you wear.    

So don’t think it’s hopeless
or yield to despair,
cause I want to help you,
and God hears our prayers.
The morning will come when there’ll be no more harm.
Till then I hold you here in my heart.
Till then I hold you here in my heart.    

And I cry when you have been wounded.
And I die when your blood is shed.
I am a part of you,
and I can see Jesus through
the beautiful scars you wear.

Which one is Radical?

The Radical one here is not the one doing the foot washing. The Radical is the one with bloody feet who still hopes in Jesus Christ.

 

 

 

 

***
Go here to download your free Guide, How to Enjoy the Bible Again (when you’re ready) After Spiritual Abuse (without feeling guilty or getting triggered out of your mind). You’ll receive access to both print and audio versions of the Guide (audio read by me). I’m praying it will be helpful.