I’m watching the aftermath of our 8″ snowfall here in Atlanta. For 24 hours, it looked like I lived in a snow globe, because you couldn’t see the sky, day or night, only the grayish white of low hanging snow clouds. But once the clouds parted just to expose a small porthole of sunlight, our world changed.
With the first crack of sunlight, the piles of snow that had been perched upon tree limbs immediately started falling off. With the addition of some unexpected gusts of wind, if a person didn’t know any better, you would have thought a fresh snow storm had started. Snow was blowing everywhere, but it wasn’t coming from the sky. It was fallout from the snow on the tree branches.
I had just finished listening to yet another woman’s story about her broken relationships and how they made her feel so worthless. God said, “I want to show you something. Do you see the snow falling off of the branches giving the effect of an active snowfall? That is what is happening in these ladies’ lives.”
“Throughout their lives, they have accumulated layers and layers of belief that they are unlovable and unacceptable. They have read past situations as proof of their lack of worth to others. These experiences and the meaning they assign to them pile up in their life. For a while, the piles can remain precariously balanced on thin branches. While there is no wind and no light to disturb them, they remain unnoticed.”
“But then something happens. A wind blows, the sky opens up, and the environment changes. Suddenly and without warning, the piles are dislodged and create a pseudo snow storm. There is a haze of snow that makes things hard to see. Heavy clumps come crashing down, and some of the branches break. At this moment, they are not just experiencing the pain of their current situation, but an avalanche of hurtful past emotions that were dislodged by it.”
What makes each painful situation in your life unbearable is not necessarily what is happening at that moment. It is often the additional release of past fears and feelings that are triggered by the current issue. If you want to be able to handle what is going on now, you need to deal with what has happened in the past.
Most women only come to see me when their lives have completely unraveled. Even then, they only see me long enough to relieve their current overwhelming pain, not taking time to shake off all of the piles of their past hurts so they don’t come crashing down at unexpected times in crippling ways. They are so afraid of reliving painful memories, they avoid them at any cost and only deal with them during crises.
However, if you want to be able to deal with life’s unknowns, the twists and turns, the disappointments and frustrations, in a healthy way, you must dislodge the piles of past emotions tottering on the branches of your life. You can do this in a more controlled way than during an existing crisis, where the blizzard of falling snow hinders you from seeing things clearly, even things right in front of you.
Don’t wait for a crisis to start dealing with your past. Start reviewing your personal history during quiet moments and systematically go through the issues you know exist. Let the Holy Spirit guide you, and feel free to use my free Introduction To Life Patterns class as a guideline. Heal each unresolved situation from your past so you are free to problem solve each situation in your present. Don’t wait for an avalanche to bring you to your knees.