Spiritual Mothering? Mentoring? How can we possibly let someone into the muck and mire of our lives if we won’t even let them into the piles of chaos behind our closed doors?

Discipleship? Spiritual mentoring? How can we possibly let someone into the muck and mire of our lives if we won’t even let them into the PILES OF CHAOS behind closed doors?

(Yes. Yes. That is a photo from MY real house. It’s been a booger of a year. How ‘bout you?)

Of course, some of us do try the whole discipleship thing. Spiritual sisters. Brothers in Christ. Etc. We tiptoe out a tiny bit and risk. We share of a habitual sin or temptation in our lives. We whisper a sincere question or doubt.

AND THEN BAM! Rebuke without hope. Judgment without deliverance. Gossip in the name of prayer. Silence and avoidance in the name of love.

Not always (thank God!). But man. When you get spiritually beaten up? It’s a beating like none other. It’s worse even than the punches or belt whippings that bloodied your childhood. Because this person uses all sorts of Bible verses and God talk and words like “love” **WHILE THEY DO VIOLENT HATEFUL LOVELESS THINGS TO YOU**.

Is it any wonder why we don’t rush to sincerity and authenticity in our church relationships?

Isn’t it like the proverbial housecleaners who laugh at your dog hair and dust and tell others what a dirty failure you are as a homemaker? And then they wonder why so many of their clients feel an urge to clean their houses the day BEFORE the professional cleaners arrive?

Makes perfect sense to me! It’s just like the way so many of us only have our “spiritual mother” or “accountability brothers” over to the spic-n-span parts of our house and our lives.

(Seriously? In the history of time, has any accountability group ever started with pornography STILL PLAYING from the night before? The credit card statement for tens of thousands of things we really can’t afford right there in the middle of the table? The empty bottle of pain-killers that was filled yesterday and supposed to last an entire month?)

Oh, friends. If any of this is resonating with you,please let me be crystal clear about one thing …

Any “discipling” that tempts you to PERFORM? Present a FACADE? Hide your fears; memorize an Excel spreadsheet of what to do and not do; lie about your struggles; view the “good” and “spiritually mature” leader from your church wayyyy up there on a pedestal while you are stuck wayyyyy down there in the pit?

If this is the “spiritual mothering” or “discipling” or “grace based / doctrines of grace / gospel-proclaiming” discipleship that you are being encouraged to do … RUN!! RUN FAR AND FAST AND GET AWAY!!

Reject it. It is not discipling. It is not Christian. Run from it and run to GOD. Turn to God’s Word. Start with God, end with God, and in the middle be all about God.

Here. Let me give you a great place to start even this very evening.

Let’s all open our Bibles to Isaiah 62 and remember what GOD says about his children:

ISAIAH 62
(excerpts)

1 For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch.

2 The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will give.

3 You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

4 You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married.

5 For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you …

11 Behold, the LORD has proclaimed to the end of the earth: Say to the daughter of Zion, “Behold, your salvation comes; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.”

12 And they shall be called The Holy People, The Redeemed of the LORD; and you shall be called Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken.”

—

You shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD shall give!

Do you ever feel forsaken and desolate? Forgotten? Unloved?

Hear the truth: You shall be called SOUGHT OUT for GOD’s delight is in you.

Take that, messy junk room!
Hear that, judgy church leader!
Listen up stretchy black pants that can’t stretch no more!

THIS is how we grow in grace and sanctification! This is how we get in the battle! We remember that, because of Christ, we are crowns of beauty, a royal diadem, in the hand of the Lord.

We learn to hate sin because we remember how much God loves us and how holy HE is! We persevere in vulnerable relationships with (imperfect but) trustworthy people because we know that the Christian life is life together, in the family of God. And anyway: “The Lord is with me. What can mere mortals do to me?” (Psalm 118:6)

Be encouraged, my friends. Worship and ENJOY your Heavenly Father! Don’t let the sins and fallenness of sinful, fallen people tempt you to harden your hearts toward ALL people. “Forgive, just as in Christ you have been forgiven. And over all these virtues put on love“ (see Colossians 3).

Amen?
Amen!

(Oh. But in addition to all of these spiritual truths, if you DO have an actual room or two that looks like mine and you could use some help from the LEAST judgy person you will ever ever meet about such things—-I *LOVE* getting to help make order from chaos. So if you can get me to you from Montana, maybe I could help out a bit! Fun fun fun!

But fair warning: I will *NEVER* think that 30 books is the right number—-unless you are describing the combined total of books on both bed stands and one end table. ?!)

Nite nite and much love—
Tara B.

(This is a re-post of a late-night FB share from weeks ago.)