Life Experiences

Life experiences, both good and bad, have the potential to change us forever. For example, those who have been on airplanes that have made emergency landings tend to view air travel much differently than those who have never encountered any airline problems.

Last Saturday afternoon, we had our spiritual abuse/cult recovery support group meeting. As Angela and I began driving home from this meeting, I realized just how much my experience with spiritual abuse has forever changed me. The recovery process is long and hard, and I realize that much progress has been made on my journey. It was not that long ago that the idea of setting foot in a church was a daunting task to me because I never wanted to go back to church again. It was almost as if I was going back to the scene of a crime. Spiritual abuse is not something that I have encountered just once in my past, but I have experienced it in many of my previous church experiences. In addition, I have seen people close to me just destroyed in the name of ministry or minister. Angela and I discussed just how much we have progressed on this journey of recovery. We actually have started attending a church again, and this is a HUGE step for me. However, the idea of being involved in a small group is still intimidating. I don’t know if I am ready for that yet or not, but that is ok. Recovery takes time and healing will take place in my life there as well.

Whenever I spoke at churches in the Orlando area I always had an analogy that I used in regards to our Christian walk. This analogy is that in our Christian walk we never “arrive”. We never get to a point where we have made it and have totally figured everything out. This is true in recovery too. Recovery is a journey and I don’t think that I will ever “arrive”. Rather, I will journey on this road, for my experiences have forever changed me.