Tag: Healing

Tetelestai Recovery

Break Free from Dark Thought Cycles

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The trajectory of our future is altered by our thoughts when we base them on the perceived realities that swirl around in our brains unchecked. We may hate our pessimism and suspicion, but we can’t break out of the cycle. We may despise our long dreary days of dark thought spirals, but we can’t seem to stop them once they start.

We think about what people were saying about us behind our backs. We wonder if they really wish we weren’t around. We suspect we are going to be fired, dumped, rejected, or abandoned. We replay old conversations, trying to read between the lines so we can better prepare for a number of worst-case scenarios that are likely to befall us.

It has been said that a coward dies a thousand times, a brave man, only once.

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Our thoughts create the reality we live in, whether they align with the truth or not.

To level up, we must develop healthy thought patterns and discipline our minds to stay on a positive track. We can no longer allow our thoughts to wander aimlessly through the minefield of our worst imaginations. We must carve new pathways for our thoughts to travel. We need to keep our thoughts on the high road and pump the brakes when we are headed for the ditch.

But how?

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Tetelestai Recovery

Rerouting Your Brain: Overcoming Circular Thinking Patterns

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“Be very careful about what you think. Your thoughts run your life.” (Proverbs 4:23)

To level up, we must evaluate the quality of our thoughts. There are established neuropathways in our brains that need to be rerouted. We do not wish to remain stuck in circular thought processes, like mental roundabouts, which have no outlet or resolution.

When suspicious thoughts come to mind, after an encounter with someone we don’t trust, we go into self-preservation mode and begin analyzing all the things they said or did that just don’t add up. We evaluate our observations to confirm our suspicions. We are angry that they think we can be so easily manipulated. We contemplate ways we can call it out and let them know we are onto them.

Our mental trails lead us into darkened paths, where we get tangled in the weeds of irritation and resentment. We are offended and angered by such a lack of respect. We vow to be more defiant and difficult, to prevent ourselves from being underestimated again.

By the time we cycle through the process described in the last two paragraphs, several hours have passed and we find ourselves in a depressive state of mind. The series of events that triggered the entire process are irrelevant. Our thoughts, fears, and imaginations merged into a twisted reality that we forced ourselves to endure.

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Tetelestai Recovery

Navigating Emotional Turmoil in Family Relationships

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We find that nothing spotlights our dysfunctions quite so vividly as when family shows up to help! Granted, it is a blessing to have family who care enough to show up, but we also know the risk. For those of us, whose tendency is to shut down emotionally when family dynamics are in play, our emotions become glitchy and start to malfunction. We say the wrong thing, blurt out secrets, wear the wrong clothes, belong to the wrong social groups, and vote for the wrong candidate.

It has been said that family is everything. Families can teach us about loyalty, behavior, and self-preservation. They can teach us work ethics and responsibility. Families also teach us how to be manipulative, sarcastic, and selfish. All families have their own layers of drama, chaos, and distrust.

Some families are quite ordinary. Some families are quite extraordinary. All families have dysfunctions, traditions, trauma, and mixed messages.

Family members know too much about each other and the history they all share. Family can push our buttons like no one else. Family can make us feel included or rejected; loved or despised; powerful or weak. Although family dynamics are messy, they are God’s plan for a place to start. Unfortunately, each generation has an ancestry made up of humans, so we all possess some elements of dysfunction within our family code…

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Tetelestai Recovery

Confronting Self-Sabotage: Breaking the Cycle

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When we run from our dysfunctions, we are ill-equipped for what is in store for us. We seem to find ourselves facing one crisis after another. Often, we walk right into them as if we planned it that way. Self-sabotage is something we practice on a regular basis but really don’t understand why.

No matter where we go, conflict soon follows. As it turns out, our self-defense techniques are portable. We carry them from one relationship to another; one job to another; one church to another. We are searching for the perfect hideaway. We hope someday our dysfunctions will magically disappear and we will never see them again. But time after time, we are hit head-on with a new threat to our well-being and those same dysfunctions rear their ugly heads again…

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Tetelestai Recovery

Embracing Confidence in God’s Perfection

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“Being confident of this very thing, that he, who hath begun a good work in you, will perfect it unto the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6

It feels wrong to say we are perfect. We aren’t quite sure how to align the character qualities of honesty and humility with such a bold statement. It seems like both a brag and a lie.

Yet, we believe in a God of faith, who “calls things that are not, as if they are” (Romans 4:17). His words make things happen and His words say we are being made perfect.

Therefore, if we remove the dimension of time, we can most assuredly say that somewhere in time, it has happened. Therefore, we step outside of time and claim it now. We call out what God has promised and continue declaring it until the truth becomes our reality… 

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Tetelestai Recovery

From Struggle to Serenity: Embracing Change

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Greed, lust, strife, envy, deception, and fear were familiar to us. Generosity, honesty, loyalty, wisdom, honor, and humility existed outside of our comfort zone. These traits seemed unattainable for those of us who seemed so deeply damaged.

We sometimes felt it was impossible to be comfortable in such unfamiliar territory.

Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible with God.” (Mark 10:27)

Within these words of Jesus, we found our stability. We stopped beating ourselves up for failing to accomplish what no human could. We realized our New Normal was a gift from God. We could not force it or coerce it. We would not need to use our old manipulation techniques to con Him into giving us a new life.

We found relief in knowing that it was His pleasure to make us into the people He designed us to be.

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Tetelestai Recovery

Breaking Free from Toxic Patterns

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Woman yelling angrily at a man while pedestrians walk by on a city street

As God delivered us from our sense of self-obsession and led us to a life of service in His Kingdom, our old methods of self-preservation seemed to stop working. When we disrespected others, we felt disgraced. When we shouted our aggression, we were repulsed by the sound of our own voice. When we played our manipulative mind games, we became sickened by our own maneuvers.

This left us in a peculiar predicament. Our former defense mechanisms and power plays were useless. The methods we had developed and perfected were worthless. There was nothing left of any value in our bag of tricks. The old life and the new life were out of sync. The disharmony in our souls sounded like an elementary school orchestra warming up before a concert. The conflict was deafening, and the sound of chaos nearly drove us mad.

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Tetelestai Recovery

Experience Freedom: The Impact of ‘It Is Finished’

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Two metal chains breaking with birds flying through the broken links against a sunset sky

Together, we explored the truth and finality of the power of Jesus’ words which delivered complete healing, grace, and forgiveness to all of mankind.

Not only did it call an end to addiction, dysfunction, and criminal behaviors, but it created a starting point for the beginning of something new, powerful, and unexpected. On the third floor of an old stone prison chapel, we embarked on a weekly tour of Jesus words and works.  We explored, discovered, and embraced the expansive impact of His words, “It is finished!” into other areas of our lives where we still struggled.

There we found freedom, commitment, courage, grace, love, compassion, fulfillment, and the desire to face our ailments and our addictions head on and in a permanent manner. Christ’s grace and what he did on the cross cannot be undone and neither can his words “It is finished.”

We documented what we discovered in that old prison Chapel. We wanted to preserve for others the testimony of our experience with the power of Tetelestai.  Jesus’ word had enabled us to move out of a lifestyle of relapse, despair, hopelessness, and criminal behaviors. We were able to move into something life-changing, and life-preserving, just like Christ’s work on the cross. We were excited to share how Jesus made us each a new creation.

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Tetelestai Recovery

Breaking Free from Labels: Healing from Addiction

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For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7

We are confident that the mental dysfunctions of our past are no longer a part of our reality, but when someone questions our sanity or sobriety, the words hang in the air and make us doubt. We wonder if we will ever be viewed as someone who is healed and delivered. Even though we are clean and have a sound mind, accusations and distrust threaten to rob us of the joy of our salvation.

Other statements that land a direct hit: “Once an addict; always an addict,” or “You are so… stupid, angry, ugly, creepy, aggressive, etc.” These insults are flung during conflicts, as an attempt to overpower and score a win. The irony is that none of the humans locked in conflict ever gain the upper hand. The enemy always does.

As we level up, we begin to recognize the powers of darkness laughing about how easily humans can be manipulated into turning on each other. We can see how every word one human throws at another during conflict or power plays serve as bricks the enemy can use to construct new strongholds in both…

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