The Lord is still setting captives free

At 5, I had a dearly loved hamster named Albert.

My brother and I thought it was great sport to put Albert in the middle of a pillow, fold him in like a taco, spring the pillow open and launch Albert into the air and catch him.

One day, as fate would have it, Albert flew beyond our control and plummeted to the hardwood floor. Screaming hysterically, we took his little limp carcass to my uncle, praying all the way.

My uncle cupped his hand, poured in a little tequila and stuck poor Albert’s nose in it. And voilà! Albert came to!

Why am I telling you this little story? Many children, at the hands of others, were plummeted emotionally and need God to wake them up as adults from those effects.

Some were abandoned, maltreated and mentally, physically or sexually abused, leaving an emotional wound the size of Texas. As a result, they feel raw like burn victims, with relationship problems due to lack of trust issues they have no control over.

The pain is so acute that oftentimes they turn to addictions to numb the effects.

All the time Jesus is saying: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

These old crusty, oozing wounds need to be opened and exposed to God’s healing light, cleansed through grace and dressed with a great deal of care by someone trustworthy to bring wholeness. There are steps that work wonders.

In his book “Homecoming,” John Bradshaw validates and acknowledges the developmental stages when these wounds took place and how that affects adult perceptions. He also teaches how to reclaim the inner child that was abused.

There is another technique called “Theophostic Healing” by Dr. Ed Smith (from “theo,” Greek for “God,” and “phostic,” “light” – bringing our wounds into God’s light). Check out http://www.theophostic.com.

According to this clinical psychologist, emotional restoration that could take years of conventional therapy can be accomplished in one session through the grace of God.

This healing takes place by leading an individual to the root cause of his pain, asking Jesus to be present in the process and exposing to God the lie that the victim believes about himself, lastly asking Jesus to reveal the truth.

Once that truth is discovered (it wasn’t the child’s fault) and the lie that they believe about themselves (that they are worthless, bad, et cetera) is uncovered and God’s truth acknowledged (that they are wonderfully made and loved by God) there is immediate emotional healing.

That broken inner child, through the grace of God, will wake up (with or without tequila) to the freedom of being an emotionally healed adult capable of great relationships and a new perspective.

The contemplative scholar Richard Rohr sums this process up beautifully: “All of Christian life could be described as an ever-deeper encounter between our wounded inner child and the wondrous world of grace.

“Grace can bring us back to the radix, our roots, and orient us toward the conversion Jesus called for. That’s why we say grace is radical.

“Radical grace empowers us to shuck off the system and become children again: children of God, brother and sister to all of humanity.”