Back to the Basics

I started reading a book written by Pastor Donnie McClurkin entitled Eternal Victim, Eternal Victor. Throughout the book he talks about his life, it’s pretty much his personal testimony. I already really enjoy reading biographies, but Pastor Donnie’s story is unreal. I’m already drawn to this man’s story and if you’re in for a nice quick read, I would recommend it to anyone. Here is a brief portion of Chapter 1…

“Yet, regardless of the constant protection, the cure continued. On June 6th, 1968, tragedy struck that would alter the affairs of our lives. While playing in the yard on a sunny afternoon in June, with my siblings, I made a neglectful mistake. I was supposed to be watching my two-year old baby brother, Thomas, at play, and left him in the un-gated yard to cross the street to retrieve a ball. Unbeknownst to me at the time, he was following me. As my mother was watching out of the living room window, she screamed for me to get the baby. I turned around just in time to see my baby brother struck down by a speeding car in the middle of the street-killed with my mother helplessly watching from the window. My mother got to him just in time to hear his last word: “Mommy!”

We had never experienced this kind of trauma before and my mother was devastated. It was her baby. That was the first funeral my sisters and I had ever attended and Ill never forget it for as long as I live. My mother and father were estranged at the time, and we all had to go and stay at my grandmother’s home for a few days for her to care for my mother. After seeing that tragic event in front of our home, my mother had to get away. My father went to view the body, and met us there at my grandmother’s house. I realize, now, that it must have been much worse for him because He and my mother were separated when it happened.

After a few nights at my Nanna’s house, they sent all of us children home to be watched and cared for by our Uncle Clarence. What they had no way of knowing was that this family member was a pedophile. This is the man that scarred my life when I was 8 years old. It is not necessary to recount the horrid details of this invasion, but that night I was sexually abused and raped by this same uncle, and it caused great hurt and confusion in my life for many years to follow. And there’s where the nightmare begins. I realize now that his happened because he, himself, was a broken man. He was unhealed with no one to help him.

In spite of the damage done to and in my life, I understand and forgive him, whole-heartedly. How can I do that? Once YOU are healed, it becomes easy to let things go, and to forgive people knowing that all things work together for good to them that love the Lord and are the called according to His purpose. Nothing that happened to me could happen to me without the allowance and purpose of God.

So, then, it becomes therapeutic to forgive. I found that forgiving releases you from the stress and anxiety-from the hurt and the hatred. It allows you to finally let go of the bitterness that makes life miserable. Instead, forgiving helps you move on with your real purpose for being and know that everything that has transpired is destined to work out for your good, if you can somehow see God through it all. After all, we’re not the first to go through major dysfunction. Let’s look at a biblical example, in order to bring out this point. C’mon…the next chapter…

I’ve given my brain enough time to unwind from all of the reading/homework that was due last semester, so now it’s time to get back to work. I put together my reading schedule for the summer:

June:

• 90 Minutes In Heaven by Don Piper with Cecil Murphey
• The Journey by Billy Graham

July:

• How to Have That Difficult Conversation You’ve Been Avoiding by Dr. Henry Cloud & Dr. John Townsend
• A Tale Of Three Kings: A Study In Brokenness by Gene Edwards
• The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Tested by Time by James L. Garlow

August:

• Speaking with Bold Assurance by Bert Decker & Hershael W. York
• What Now: Making sense of who you are and where you’re going by Marc Estes
• Walking Wisely: Real Guidance for Life’s Journey by Charles Stanley

This book was AMAZING! It was the most convicting novel I’ve ever read. It’s intense from beginning to end and it leaves you reflecting over your own life when you’ve finished reading it. Believe me when I say this; my life was literally changed after reading RESCUED. It’s that good, I promise.