Amanda Lewallen

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What To Do in a Broken and Hurting World

Blog Post

8 Jan

Just two weeks after the birth of Christ, the coming of the King of Peace, and here we are staring our own worst nature straight in the face. Reveling in wounds we’ve allowed to grow and fester because we’ve been burning bridges with each other and we’ve turned away from the Face that commanded us only to love. 

Traditionally Christians all over the world celebrate Ephiphany this week, the day the wise men walked their way to Christ and found Him. The revelation of Christ to the world-  of a baby King come to save a fallen world not with might of rule, but through the hard work of self-sacrifice.

But Eastern Christians celebrate this holiday a bit differently. In Eastern Orthodox Christian churches this holiday is Theophany and it’s a Greek word that means “the manifestation of God.” It means God made tangible to the human senses- it means that God in all His great kindness gives us a moment to see Him, to hear Him, to be present with Him just because He knows how much, in all our human frailty, we need a piece of Him to make our very own.

Theophany celebrates the moment of Christ’s baptism in the Jordan. Before He began His ministry, before He taught, before He healed- He walked before a crowd of people who were there seeking the very thing He was about to give them and submitted Himself before the Father. Theophany is the celebration of the revelation of God as Three Persons, as Trinity, to the world.

And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him;and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son,with whom I am well pleased.” Matthew 3: 16-17 ESV

A Beloved Son. A pleased Father. The rest of the Holy Spirit. This is our God and He showed Himself to us more intimately than He showed Himself to Moses, more kindly than He showed Himself to Isaiah- and He did it because He had come to rescue us. We who were trapped in the valley of death, in the desolation of hopeless despair- He gave us this image of Himself out of His merciful compassion and love.

This moment reveals more than just the Trinity, it reveals that God exists in relationship. Christ submits to the Father, the Father gives His approval, and the Holy Spirit gives Him rest. God reveals Himself as the parts existing in perfect relationship. A theological concept that we struggle to wrap our minds around, but this moment- of all moments- gives us just a glimpse of Who He really is.

We are in relationship to each other. Love One Another.

Theophany is about a God who is reclaiming and restoring all of creation from what we’ve done to ourselves. A God who is beginning the work of washing it all clean. 

Traditionally on Theophany, Orthodox Christians make their way to the coldest body of water they can find. The priest throws a cross in, sometimes after a hole has been made in the ice,  and the young and strong dive in chasing after the cross for all they’re worth, cold and all. It makes me wonder, what if we sought Him?

Because when we’re seeking the cross, we’re seeking freedom. 

And seeking the cross means learning how to see Christ in the face of our neighbor. It means learning how to look for Him in the icy waters of turmoil and grab for Him with all we’ve got. 

We cannot profess to love our God if we cannot bring ourselves to love each other. 

We cannot love being right more than we love our neighbor and if we do, we’ve forgotten the simple steps He walked to the Jordan, and then to the cross.

We have a God who let us see Him, let us hear Him, who let us put a hand in His pierced side- a God who’s only ever wanted for us to know Him. And His only commandment is to love. Theophany is the physical manifestation of God- real, tangible, visible- and He asks us to let Him be made manifest in us. Woven into the fabric of our words and deeds so that He is a real and tangible presence to those around us.

He asks us to do the hard and holy work of humility, of laying aside the worst of ourselves so we can see the face of Christ in those who do their worst. To embrace the poor, the lonely, the scared, and the suffering before we embrace the politics of man. To see the reflection of Christ in the face that doesn’t look like our own- to feel the pain of another like we feel our own. Maybe, just maybe, we can begin to remember the image we were created in.

Nothing less than radical love and compassion is what’s needed to heal. Now. Not on January 20. Not when we feel we’ve been heard. 

Right now.

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amanda__lewallen

Amanda Lewallen
From Augustine's Confessions: "In filling all thin From Augustine's Confessions: "In filling all things, you fill them with the whole of yourself...Who are you then, my God? Most high, utterly good, utterly powerful,  most omnipotent, most merciful and most just, deeply hidden yet most intimately present, perfection of both beauty and strength, stable and incomprehensible, immutable and yet changing all things, never new, never old, making everything new and 'leading' the proud 'to be old without their knowledge'; always active, always in repose, gathering to yourself but not in need, supporting and filling and protecting, creating and nurturing and bringing to maturity, searching even though to you nothing is lacking: you love without burning, you are jealous in a way that is free from anxiety...If I do not love you, is that but a little misery?"  #emotionallyhealthyspirituality #christianmentalhealth #lent2021 #seekingtruth #learningtobeloved #hopewriters #augustine #gospeltruth #bestill #soulcare
#emotionallyhealthyspirituality #christianmentalhe #emotionallyhealthyspirituality #christianmentalhealth #hopewriters #ptsdrecovery #traumarecovery #abuserecovery #seekingchrist #seekingtruth
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#christianmentalhealth
#seekingchrist
#40daysofprayer
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#christianmentalhealth
#healingshame
#traumarecovery #ptsdrecovery #lentisnotlack #40daysofprayer #40daysofalms
Over the next 40 days Christians all over the worl Over the next 40 days Christians all over the world will be practicing Lent.  A time of repentance. A time of mindfulness. A time of preparation. For many Christians, Lent is a time of Church-prescribed fasting. For others, it is a time to decide what food or practice needs to be put aside for a season to focus on God more clearly.  We associate Lent with lack- with deprivation in order to find the abundance that can only be found in Christ, but Lent is more than lack. Traditionally fasting has only been a part of Lent. What if we shifted our focus to include prayer and almsgiving? These three ancient practices together form a three-fold cord that binds us ever more tightly to the God who is preparing to give Himself to us, year after year.  A God of life not of death. A God of abundance, not of deprivation.  What if, while we decreased our appetites, we devoured our prayer life? What if instead of just giving up what we love, we gave to others so that we might become love?  Because what He wants, all He wants, is for us to embrace HIm  For the next 40 days, let’s embrace our God by practicing small acts of almsgiving each day throughout Lent and intentionally increasing our time with the One who only ever just wants to be with us.  Sign up in bio to receive a printable copy of 40 Days of Almsgiving and 40 Days of Prayer, simple and practical activities you can do each day throughout Lent.  #emotionallyhealthyspirituality
#christianmentalhealth #40daysofprayer #40daysofalmsgiving #hopewriters #lentismorethanlack
 #spiritualpractice #healingshame #ptsdrecovery #traumarecovery
Here's me and my Valentine. We are notoriously bad Here's me and my Valentine. We are notoriously bad at selfies, so I just went with it. Love is a very, very fine thing. Cheesy love, hard love, mournful love, swooning love, lost love- I kneel in awe of it all today.  The Good-Morrow by John Donne  I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then?
But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’ den?
’Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be.
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.  And now good-morrow to our waking souls,
Which watch not one another out of fear;
For love, all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room an everywhere.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown,
Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one.  My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;
Where can we find two better hemispheres,
Without sharp north, without declining west?
Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;
If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.
It's Valentines Week, you guys. We know as Chris It's Valentines Week, you guys.  We know as Christ-followers we’re supposed to love one another. A sacred commandment from our Savior not to be missed because it is the very essence of Who He is and what He’s done for us.  But sometimes- we’ve missed the very first step.  "We, though, are going to love- love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love.
He loved us first." 1 John 4:19 The MSG  Sometimes...we just haven’t had enough love, or enough of the right kind of love, in our lives to recognize it. And sometimes that leaves us unable to fully receive the stunningly beautiful love of a Father, a parent, the only One who holds the key to the unshakable, steady, and secure
love we’re really looking for.  Click on the link in bio to receive the Learning to be Loved Notes, along with access to other resources from me. You will also be included in the weekly quiet time emails: nothing too fancy. just some quiet reminders- for you and me both- to slow down and remember to be loved.  #christianmentalhealth #emotionallyhealthyspirituality #learningtobeloved #traumarecovery #ptsdrecovery #seekingchrist #healingshame #valentine #lovenotes
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