To me, being led by God, reminds me of the times that I had my two oldest sons with me when I was running a short woodland trap line, when they were little, between 6 and 8 years old.
I was about my business. They… were tagging along.
I very much enjoyed having them along, and I very much enjoyed stopping and teaching them things about the animals in the woods.
And I super enjoyed when we were walking out, walking through a picked corn field.
They were laughing and laughing… when I looked over at them, they were taking turns pegging each other in the back with clods of dirt!!
I just had to shake my head.
Walking with God… sometimes I am a clod… other times He stops and leads me over to a track He left… in the mud… and shows me…
Galatians 1:1 “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”
He also said, “…and the truth shall set you free…”
My recent revelation, my personal admission, and realization of… “my dad broke my heart, and he either couldn’t or didn’t want to spend any time with me when I was a little kid”, had me experience, now get this… joy.
Huh?
I realized the truth of my situation, I didn’t feel BLAME for my dad or feel SHAME for myself… I just realized the truth of the situation and felt… joy.
How did I know it was joy?
I’ve felt joy before. We have a name for it… joy. And I know the look on my face when I experience it.
Joy is actually the big brother to Victory!
And we experience both when we are RELEASED from our personal emotional cage or chains.
Jason Wilson, author of ‘Battle Cry: Waging and Winning the War Within’ explained on a podcast, “Our emotional cage doesn’t have a door, and our emotional chains have no locks, as men with trauma in our past we choose to stay in the cage, and choose to hang onto our chains, making an attempt to avoid more trauma, if we try to work with our emotions.”
Here is a man who just painted a picture for me.
I’ll be buying his book, I’ve watched some of his videos, and he has the words that line up with my personal experiences recently. Or at least, he has words that I find that I can understand… it helps when you can understand something.
Funny how God does that.
Funny how he gives us abilities… one of mine I’ve found is moving ahead, some may say “plowing ahead” but that’s just splitting hairs, moving ahead, looking, researching, tracking… an idea, or concept, or explanation of a subject like “emotion identification and how to handle them”, “emotional intelligence”[think back to the clod] and “understanding what personal growth is”.
I’ve found a few people recently who I will be looking to for more specific information now that I’ve stepped out of my cage and dropped a chain or two.
Mr Jason Wilson is also a martial arts instructor to kids and young men in Detroit, operating his Cave of Adullam Transformational Academy.
https://mrjasonwilson.com/catta
To me, this is his SPECIFIC offering, calling, work/service… that he provides.
Myself and others have only discovered him because of a viral video of him and one of his students.
And now as I look back on my own kids journeys, all 5 of em’, I can recall my life lesson to them.
It was always “mental fortitude” because I knew, or thought I knew, that I didn’t have any, no mental fortitude, no self control, and no real skills or abilities… so I tried to teach them how important those things were to have in life.
And I tried my darndest as a dad to be the kind of dad I wish I had had… knowing all along that I was a fraud. I didn’t really know anything, because I was learning on the fly.
When I set that trapline up, out in the woods, I had just recently learned how to trap, sure I always wanted to learn how, but having those boys was the impetus to learning, and dang if I didn’t have a ball taking them along… and as a side note I was able to turn that little bit of trapping skill into a little side job… for about five years.
As I discover more of me, Mr Wilson has ignited my brain, thinking of how I can improve my writing skills as I try to hone my ability, my skill, my service to others… to someday be my specific offering to the world.
Because I gotta tell ya, “With all this freedom, joy, and victory recently, feeling like I’m standing in the sunshine, I can clearly see that… I got nothin’!”
That’s with a little tongue in cheek…
But with the clarity, I can see where I’m lacking, that’s a good thing, but with my new emotional gratitude, I can also see clearly what I have as skills and abilities… I can now give them proper due… and use them to keep following God and to keep figuring this thing out!
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