JR. Forasteros - March 10, 2019
The Gift of Awkwardness
Why do we feel awkwardness? And when we feel it, what, exactly, are we feeling? The first awkward moment in the Bible, Genesis 3, shows us both the danger and opportunity of awkwardness. How can we refuse to hide or flee, and instead stay in the awkward promise of the cringe?
From Series: "Cringeworthy"
Why do we feel awkward? And when we feel awkward, what, exactly, are we feeling? In this series, we're going to explore some of the most awkward stories in the Bible. Because awkwardness has a surprising spiritual promise - we can discover sins that were hidden to us, but known to God. If we're willing to let God make it awkward, we can find hope and healing!
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Today’s about Ghost stories. Though they appear in many forms, the quintessential ghost story involves the spirit of a dead person who’s stayed around (usually a haunted house) because they have unfinished business. Maybe they have to deliver a message or ensure proper burial or get revenge. Whatever the case, once their business is complete, they leave into the afterlife.
Unlike our previous two monsters, today we’re not ghosts. Rather, to quote Peter Rollins,
We are the haunted houses. — Peter Rollins
We move through life collecting hurts, wounds and scars, evidence of pain inflicted on us by other people. Some may be slight, exaggerated in our heads – maybe someone who cuts us off or says something cruel or who causes us harm by accident. Others could be huge, life-altering. A spouse who left. An abuser. And there’s a whole range of hurts between.
Whatever their source, however legitimate or not, these people, these hurts don’t just exit our lives.
We carry them around with us, in our heads and in our souls. They haunt us, returning again and again out of the ether to drag us through the past, to relive history, to reopen old wounds.
The problem is we don’t know what these ghosts want. We don’t know how to resolve their business and get them to leave us. We can’t escape their haunting – especially if the person who hurt you is still a part of your life.
