Walking with P and me 10 Spiritual Detox

Walking with P and me 10 Spiritual Detox

My brother Sinclair down on the Toe of Texas has been writing about Spiritual Detox.  Yeah, it’s not exactly a biblical name but the concept is about as biblical as it can get.

I’ve worked with a lot of folks trying to detox and it’s tough.  In every way you can think of (and some you can’t) it’s tough.

Oh, I don’t want to start a fad here or add to all the weird stuff believers are encouraged to do.  Spiritual Detox, biblically, would be the removal of the world from you – another way of speaking of the battle between the spirit and the flesh.

What Patti and I are going through is very much a Spiritual Detox.  We are discovering how deeply the world has invaded our hearts, minds and affections – and how it works to remain there.

So much of our anxiety is over how people, believers or not, look at us in our present circumstances.  The “looks” we imagine are painful, humiliating, depressing, embarrassing – I could go on and on.  That’s one way and place the world has sunk its roots deeply.  Stupid, foolish, naïve – none of those are necessarily sins but the consequences, when viewed through the eyes of others, are devastating.

Hearing, “what people will say,” before they’ve said it is none the less painful for it just being imagined.  How do we know what they will say?  Shamefully I have to admit I’ve heard it said and I’m said it myself.  I have remained silent and opened my mouth in sin.  That’s how I know what people will say.

That’s a tough weed to root out – and rooted out it must be.  It’s dirty, hot, painful and exhausting labor.  Just as you think you’ve got it all – you find another little root.

There is no way to go about this work except with the aid of the Spirit.  He both convicts and comforts.  Without that comfort I’d quit.  Without His encouragement I’d quit.

The tough part is not wanting to ask for help or even share the need.  “What will people say?”  “What will they think?”  So we have to fight to share – all the while desperately hoping someone will come alongside to comfort and encourage as well as guide and advise. 

You don’t want to leave home once you’re there.  But at home, surrounded by all the (excuse me) worthless hooey you’ve surrounded yourself with just makes it worse.  I am actually praying to find a Yard-Seller extraordinaire to do a Yard Sale for us (we have no “yard” and aren’t savvy yard sellers). 

So if you leave homeyou might have to “tell,” and if you stay home everything around you accuses you.  Oy very – it’s tough.

This is just a piece of the Spiritual Detox we are in.  It’s icky to say the least – at times it feels hopeless.  It may well be hopeless – but we refuse to be.  Like any truly good thing it is hard to receive.

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Heb 12:11)