Come as You Are – Carrying Brambles

Greetings Dear Reader,

I have encountered thorns in many forms.   They all have one thing in common.  They hurt.  When stuck by thorns we react.  We pull away.  We inspect the damage, remove the object, and tend the wound.

This leads me to wonder why we carry so many bundles of brambles in our souls.  We hang on to the things that have pierced us.  We keep the thorns in our flesh.  We let them wound, burrow, and fester until we are defined by the thorns. 

For some reason we allow ourselves to be defined by our pain.  Things from the past possess our future in a way that causes us to destroy happiness and hope.  We become people who wear our hurt like a banner.  That is not who we are supposed to become.  It is not who we are.

All of those hurts have a place.  They do shape us but we are not meant to carry them.  We can give them to Christ and he will heal us.  We can lay down our hurts.  It is frightening to do so.  It is hard to extract them and let them go.  We no longer have to be defined by our hurts.  We can be defined by the healing that is in Christ.

I must not listen to the voices of our past.  We must be healed to live.  I must not allow my pain and fear to impact how I am with others.  It must not define my choices.  I must follow Christ and to do that the hurts must fade into the past.  Carrying the brambles only hinders my journey.  I have to move forward and cannot do so if I do not lay down my hurts. 

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store."  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)