From Underwater: When Encephalitis, Brian Injury and Epilepsy Change Everything.
In my book Underwater, some grief will come out. Some pain will be released.
But join me. Please join me on the voyage into my own Neverland, my own Narnia, my own life underwater. Find yourself and your own story within my story and the stories of others.
Be honest about yourself. Know yourself well.
And listen.
Listen to deep hurts and large hopes. Listen to reluctance, but dive in anyway. Listen to voices condemning you, and silence them. Listen to voices encouraging you, and receive them.
And listen for a song. A new version of an old song. A song about you—your past and your future, your pain and your pleasure, your wounds and your healing, your limps and your blessings.
Listen to it.
Learn it.
Sing it.
While staring at the gorgeous colors, swimming among the dazzling creatures, and slowly adjusting to a new reality, embrace the wonder underwater.
This is very interesting. I find it really encouraging because I let the voices of condemnation affect me too much and just reading this reminded me to work at silencing them. I need to listen for encouragement, not condemnation. Very good!
I love this post! It reminds me that even when we are in the hardest moments of our lives there is something that we can see, hear, and learn. There is beauty in the pain because there is always hope. There is always someone to lean on. There is a God who sees us and knows us. There is a future that awaits us.
This post reminds me that this life is not all there is. I long for the day when I walk through those pearly gates for the first time and I see His face and every scar and ounce of pain from this life is stripped away. I cant wait to see the colors in heaven, the colors, and the peace that is there. The certainty that in that place death is no more and no longer can death separate us from our loved ones. God is great.
The encouragement to face the dark parts of ourselves is something we fear. You make it sound like it really isn’t all that bad. Thank you for the reminder to silence the voice of condemnation – Christ didn’t come to condemn us, and neither should we condemn ourselves.
This reminded me that there is always a lesson to be learned. There is something we can glean from each and every experience, whether it is an experience that is enjoyable or not, we can take something from it. We know ourselves better than anyone but God, so it is important to be all eyes and ears on Him.
I think we often hear the voices, but we rarely choose to truly listen with the intention of filtering. I hope to grow in this. To allow the voices necessary to help me grow, and to lock the door on those that bring nothing but harm.
This post resonates with me because I am sure the one who lets thoughts run rampant in my mind. I let negative and positive thoughts run sometimes for too long and I dwell on them for hours. I hope that I can grow and mature in this area so I can be able to control my thoughts and allow what needs to stay their stay and what I need to go out can go out.