Tag Archives: Peace

The Sinister Mind

12 Monday Feb 2018

Posted by in Beginnings, Inspiration, recovery

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One of the hats I wear is co-founder and coordinator for COME2LIFE. COME2LIFE engages youth in emotional health conversations, inviting them to experience help, hope & healing. Our signature workshop is called, The Butterfly Effect, a two hour, interactive, presentation that gets us talking about what causes our emotional health to be in chaos.

Recently, we had the honour of presenting The Butterfly Effect to 120+ grade 7, 8, and 9 students. We’ve got a lot of positive response from the youth but a few days later, one of them sent us this poem. She said we could share it.

The Sinister Mind
By Taylor P.

When I am alone, my thoughts tear me apart
Ripping at my heart it does
I am sick of feeling this way, my words are completely numb
“Please make it stop.¨ I say, tears flow as my thoughts scream louder and louder
The pain is deafening, fear and dread rip through my veins
Shame and guilt are words that rip and tear at my slipping sanity like wild dogs
Shove happy pills down my throat, I don’t care
I want my needless hurt to stop
I don’t want to sink further under, stones tied to my ankles
I don’t want to feel miles of shame for things I’ve never done
I want to be happy, calm, at peace
I don’t want to feel comfort by taking sharp metal to my scarred skin
My eyes burn red, my mouth feels dry
I want to sleep, I don’t want to eat
I want to be okay

As I make my way through the dark
I see a light, a placid light
The light caresses my face and brushes through my hair
It’s feather soft to the touch
It engulfs my body, covering every crevasse and every space
It wraps around the miles of skin that I possess
It’s warm and sweet and suddenly I am okay
Suddenly the light has returned in my eyes
For the first time in a long time, I am at peace
No more shame, no more guilt
The burden of being miserable is gone
The ache of being me is gone
The mirror is no longer an enemy
The demons that lurk in my mind remain nothing but ashes
The monsters that hide in my world are now the fuel that makes me stronger
As the wounds turn to scars, this battle was won
I made it through the grenades of doubt and the bullets of hate
I am free at last.

 

 

 

 

Accept

07 Tuesday Jun 2016

Posted by in Inspiration, Observations, Spirituality

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Many times, I have conversations on the topic of salvation. My focus is always on God’s incredible love and grace that he demonstrated definitively at the cross.

At some point, someone will say, “God’s grace provided salvation but in order to be saved, we need to accept it.”A variation on this is when someone says, “You have to trust in Jesus to be saved.” Or “We are saved by faith and not works.”

To me, what I see the bible saying over and over, is that there is an infinitely important distinction between salvation by grace and any other statement made about having faith, trust, or belief.

To illustrate what I mean, please  consider the following two sentences and ask yourself which one brings you the greatest level of peace:

I have salvation because I have accepted God’s love and grace.

God has saved me because of his love and grace and I accept that.

The Three – Torment

28 Monday Jul 2014

Posted by in Inspiration, Spirituality

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The Bible letter, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, is God’s last message to a dying planet. In Revelation 14:6-12, three angels shout a warning to “those who dwell on the earth;” people who hate God and hate those who love God. It’s a message given in great love because God is willing to go to the uttermost to reach even his most aggressive enemies.

Please consider the second half of Revelation 14:10: “He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.”

If you’ve ever read this passage before, even if you are reading it for the first time, did you get a picture that sounded like: he will be tormented BY the lamb? If you did, you wouldn’t be the first. It’s a picture that has been painted by those who don’t like God, pop culture, and even Christians.

However, if we remember that the “he” in this verse is anyone who has chosen to be “those who dwell on the earth.” These are those who have so completely aligned with the Beast (a symbol of a Christian looking politcal-religious institutional power on earth that is the Dragon’s main agent in the world now) they have become beast-like. As worshippers of the Beast, they manifest it’s character or in other words, receive it’s mark.

Does it make sense that, for such a person, being in the presence of the lamb would be torment?