God makes crooked paths straight

God Makes Crooked Places Straight

God Makes the Crooked Straight

Not long after my wife and I moved into our first brand new home, I arranged for the local plant nursery to deliver and install a perfect weeping willow tree in our side yard.  Ann had always wanted a beautiful, wispy tree that we could one day sit in the shade of, drink iced tea, and reminisce about our kids and grandkids.

God makes crooked paths straightJust a couple years after the tree was planted, all of Kentucky experienced the worst ice storm in over a century.  Literally everything was covered with over an inch of solid ice – including our beautiful weeping willow.  The weight of the ice caused our perfectly straight tree to bend to the point that its tip was actually touching the ground.  And it stayed in this position for weeks.

Once the warm weather of spring melted off all the ice, the tree was finally able to stand back up on its own – but its trunk remained bent in the shape of a banana.  Months and months of attempting to straighten and stake the tree could not fully correct its bent and wounded trunk.

Fast forward a few years to just a few months ago when Ann and I drove by our old house.  Our fifteen-year-old weeping willow tree was now nearly thirty feet tall and fully grown.  Yet upon closer examination, its trunk was still crooked, just as it had been for over a decade – physically mature yet developed in wrong directions.

God Turns Our Shame Inside Out

Toxic shame has had an effect in many of our lives that seems similar to what an ice storm had done to our weeping willow.  We lived our childhoods immersed in emotional, relational, and internal storms, which together caused the framework of our souls to become bent, crooked, and dysfunctional.  Much like the weeping willow, once we reached adulthood and became outwardly mature, our minds, wills, and emotions remained underdeveloped, misguided, and even childlike in some ways.  But that’s not the end of the story God has for each of us.

“And I will bring the blind by a way that they know not; in paths that they know not will I lead them; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight.  These things will I do, and I will not forsake them” (Isaiah 42:16 NASB).

The next four chapters of Addition By Subtraction will provide all of the tools necessary to progressively move our lives from bent to upright, from crooked to straight, from broken to whole.  Let’s take our time and fully experience every moment of this amazing adventure, one day at a time.

Whatever it is, whatever has happened to us, whatever we have done, and whatever unfinished business we might have, our God is so awesome, so huge, so merciful, so intimate, and so gracious, that He desires to bring healing and release from our pasts.

God loves you.  He loves each and every one of His children individually, completely, and unconditionally.  Because of this love, He is gentle and careful to bring to our awareness only the things He knows we need to deal with or reconcile at that particular moment in time.  If it’s not in our conscious awareness, then we can trust that God isn’t ready for us to face it yet, if ever at all.

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Soul health and spiritual maturity cannot be separated.  Our counselors are ordained Christian ministers as well as certified and licensed Christian counselors.  We are able to help you experience freedom from shame, anxiety, depression, or marriage / relationship conflict with methods that are purely Christ-centered.  Please click on this link to learn much more about how our ONLINE THERAPY can help you become a more authentic follower of Christ, and help you find freedom from identity dependence.

Life Training offers convenient sessions at our office in Louisville, Kentucky, as well as online counseling via Zoom or FaceTime.  Our non-profit counseling practice has an outstanding track record for over a decade helping men and women, individuals and couples who are ready to move beyond anxiety, depression, and conflicts in marriage or other relationships find hope and healing in their lives.  Contact us today at 502-717-5433, or by email at drdave@lifetrainingcounseling.org 

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