I received this short letter from someone just read Discovering The God Imagination. It’s responses like this that get me pumped and remind of the joys of writing.
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Thank you for Discovering the God Imagination! I was given up by my biological parents and adopted into a rather abusive family. All of the adoptive brothers violently sexually abused me and the parents knew and abused me in their own ways. After high school I fled from their home, quite a wounded, self-hating soul, and the Lord found me.
At this point, I have spent 16 years struggling to make sense of my life, especially with my newly found God. I found much understanding and healing through working with Godly teachers and counselors, with Dan Allender, and through practicing SOZO prayer, seeking to remove the inner obstacles that block me from hearing the Lord’s truth for myself.
But no matter how much I hear Him, and I certainly do, I still struggle with this core lie that I am evil and that is why all the rejection and abuse happened. And further more, each time betrayal and hurt visit, which they do in this world, the seeming ‘evidence’ cuts deeply into my being – no matter how hard I try to claim it is a lie and take hold of the truth the Word proclaims.
I’m not yet finished with your book, but it resonates so very deeply, not just with my experience, but with my continual study of the Word. Your writing also strikes a chord close to home because my husband and I have a neurological psychology practice. We provide neurotherapy, which acknowledges the immense innate self-healing properties of our brains and central nervous system. The therapy encourages our ability to exercise self control over our brains and bodies – just the participatory task of self control you call out in your book, and the Lord calls out in His Book!
Anyway, I just wanted to thank you. I look forward to re-reading all of the Word, especially the Prophets, through while trying on these new lenses. Already, as I read, these scriptures immediately take on new light: Judge not, lest ye be judged; Choose this day whom you will serve (God or yourselves, in self protection); and Romans 7 & 8.
Thank you for taking the Word so seriously that you risk questioning the interpretive lenses of the fall and of tradition. Thank you for asking the hard questions about how we continue to participate in and exacerbate the damage of the fall in our own lives, and for calling out the hope that we can also participate more profoundly and experientially in being children of Light in a dark, worldly system . Blessings to you as you join our Lord in His ways of battling for truth, love and peace.
