Generational Curses

Eventually, given the time and the money most people end up in therapy (or many could at least benefit from it.)  The circumstances warranting it are always available.  I don't know anyone who was raised in a perfectly wholesome home with a problem-less family and grew up to be a dysfunction-free person.  We all have issues, and for the most part I'd say this is with good reason.

Tragedy strikes, bombs blow up, trust is broken, struggles are stuffed, resolutions are abandoned, temptations mislead, life and people fail us; and at some point we fall through for someone else as well.  We cut and bleed.  Our broken-ness hurts, and it all too often nicks and slices at others too.  This is part of the human condition, common to all mankind, at least as old as Cain and Abel.  

I am a proponent of counseling - with a caveat.  I guess counselors fall within the realm of  "them."  By that I mean dentists, doctors, car mechanics, real estate agents, teachers, police officers, politicians, massage therapists, waiters, authors, landscapers, and on and on.  Mankind, basically.  I approach all strangers with a balance of respect and reserve, holding my judgement and trust until I know them better and can decide on whether my confidence will be well-placed with them.  In counseling we deal with our most inner self and how we engage with the rest of the world.  So my caveat is that a submission and honor for the One who made us be foundational within this examination.  I've lived life and done my share of self-reflection and ponderings on both sides of that line.  

Oftentimes, I find that this crucial element (like in prayer) falls through the cracks.  The realm of psychology has led us to greater understanding of ourselves, to be sure; but if we leave behind a grasp of God in whose image we are formed, our healing and self-identity will remain incomplete.  This is not a mistake made by unbelievers alone.  I have heard and read much being made of the subject of generational curses.  What hold is closer than that of family?  On whom do we most depend from our earliest beginnings?  From where and whom do we come?  And from whom could our betrayal cut most deep?

Paul spent a good deal of time with people of all kinds, both Jews and Greeks.  In Acts 17 we find him greatly distressed by the rampant pervasiveness of idolatry in this city, and we also see that this location is a gathering arena for discussing all the latest, newest, most cutting edge thoughts of the day.  The two were thriving rather hand in hand, it seems: the search for answers to all of life's questions and the vast number of theories, reasonings, heroes, and things that we can come up with.  As Paul speaks, he is bringing a concept that is new even to these front-runners of thoughts.  He is explaining to them how this message was not only from The Beginning, but dove-tails perfectly into all their missing slots.  This is the the gospel, and he wants to introduce them to the One for whom they are searching.

I find these words particularly stunning: "For in Him, we live and move and have our being... We are His offspring."  Among this worship circle of things other than Christ, amidst the shiniest thoughts of the moment, between the ties even of blood relation, he illumines our identity as image-bearers of God in whose hands we twist and turn.  

No wound, no wound, not even that made by the betrayal of one who should have loved and cared for you, is beyond the healing power of Jesus.  Far as the curse is found.... as far back, as far forward, as far deep.  Yes, as far as the curse is found.

Oh! What a Savior...

Shared at Simple Lives Thursday, Works For Me Wednesdays, Far Above Rubies