[Guest post by Rebecca Lamarche: This post is a two-fer! First, Rebecca shares a poem. Then, she has an “insight” that is more devotional style. I hope you enjoy Rebecca’s wordsmithery and viewpoint on hope as much as I did!]

Hope with Painted Wings

From the genesis of forming me inside my mother’s womb

Through the exodus from innocence so early in my youth,

In the desert of my wandering, I was thirsting for my purpose,

And You led me through the sandstorms to oases of Your truth.

From every bucket of belief I drew from wells of tainted water,

You dipped ladles full of murky thoughts and turned them into wine.

You did miracles of transformation, restoration, healing ~

Oh, I wonder at Your power and Your tender love divine.

You’ve remade me from the broken shards of clay You crushed to powder,

And on the Potter’s wheel Your artist’s hand remolded dreams.

In Your faithfulness You walked with me from pain to perseverance,

From perseverance onward into hope with painted wings!

Your Word, now, is the compass that I follow on my journey,

My future holds new promise with a purpose from Your mind,

And from the splintered crosses that I’ve built and nailed myself to,

You resurrect my true self from the life I’d crucified.

Rebecca Lamarche, 2013 I BORROWED DAVID’S HARP, Westbow Press /Thomas Nelson Publishers

Shame.

Fear.

Captivity.

These are the splattered black stains crippling our destinies.

It’s shrapnel from a childhood reprimand, words stinging like a scorpion’s tail, assuring us we are but a sorry disappointment. It’s the hot wave that rises from neck to face in red humiliation when mockery and ridicule is pronounced over us.

Shame is when the leviathan of guilt and regret wraps its constricting tentacles around our woundedness… We feel compelled to lock ourselves into a pointless, twisted sort of resignation to succumb to an existence without hope, instead of a life bound for dreams. We declare ourselves unworthy.

Such can be the colorless subsistence of the mind tortured by Shame; and Shame’s offspring are the self-lies and the fears that mutilate our relationships and sabotage our destinies.

Yet, there is a Way, through Truth, to Life…

In our formative years, so many events and influences affect whom our personality ultimately portrays. We each learn to hide our vulnerabilities and weak spots; and we develop coping behaviors that are often self-destructive, and are built on self-lies that need to be washed in Truth!

The psychological stepping stones of an individual’s belief system – the inner “rules” by which the brain tells each of us how we need to play our personal game of Life – are placed into order based on how they ‘drive’ us into action:

1) Core Beliefs drive…
2) Thought, which drive…
3) Emotions, resulting in…
4) Actions and reactions.

We view life’s events, and conduct our relationships, through the lens of experiences that have etched a belief system into our subconscious. We interpret circumstances and process events by forming thoughts that reinforce that core belief. If memories are painful, it is here that our survival instinct can develop a misguided set of “rules”, or core beliefs; hence, misunderstanding, suspicion and self-lies are born, because our beliefs may be founded on untruth. For example, a child bit by a dog forms the belief, “all dogs bite”, concluding (thought) “all dogs will bite me”.

Those thoughts drive emotions of fear, even perhaps hatred, thus determining the way that she will instinctively act, or react, around dogs to survive and avoid pain. The belief that all dogs bite is faulty, resulting in unnecessary and crippling fear. If later in life she marries a dog-breeder, to survive her subconscious phobia, she may take copious amounts of anti-anxiety medication, developing an addiction that self-destructs her health and relationships. Now, replace “all dogs” with core beliefs about “all men”…

God ladles all self-lies and fears out of the well of our tainted thoughts, transforming them into truths that set us free from self-deceptions and painful dysfunction. He dips into His Word and pours truth and healing over us, His endless wellspring purifying our core beliefs and thoughts, that we might see ourselves as God created us, revealing our infinite value to Him. With this new “mind of Christ”, our entire selves are transformed by constant renewal. This reinstates within us shame-free, fear-free, healthy emotions that reflect in positive behaviors, healing in relationships, and restored daring to dream!

Life doesn’t always fly on painted wings, but hope does! Float free on the winds of the Holy Spirit until you reach your destiny!

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

As an Author and Bible Teacher, Rebecca Lamarche hangs her cowgirl hat in beautiful Austin, TX. She has a passionate faith, undaunted by life’s many challenges that have made her road steep and rocky at times. She walks in intimacy and power with Jesus, shepherding women through healing, deliverance and wholeness through her ministry, Spirit Alive Women. Her new book, I BORROWED DAVID’S HARP is a collection of personal worship psalms and stories, much like David, who sang his experiences in poetry and praise to the God in whom he placed his trust.