Simon Swift’s latest guest post. A bit of heaven here, and in the wider scheme a challenge to any views as to the value of ‘good’. If we leave ‘final destinies’ to God we can then get on with, endorse, support all genuinely good works… and surely they are kingdom activities. Simon lets the article speak for itself.
Last night I was at an event celebrating ten years of a local charity: *WORTH, helping Women On the Road To Healing. They provide help to women who are recovering from being in an abusive relationship. We heard stories from victims of abuse who are being helped by this charity. They where stories both harrowing and inspiring as we heard their journey to recovery and healing. Interestingly the methods used to help them in the process were all creative ones. Things like gardening and flower arranging, nature and mindfulness, writing including poetry and reflection, painting and creative crafts, and dance. All enabling the women to find self expression.
It’s not surprising that the woman who started it all is a christian, because what she is doing for these women is bring down a little bit of heaven to earth. Helping to plant a seed into women who lost their self worth and even their identity in an abusive and controlling relationship. By creatively giving them a sense of self worth and identity, they begin to recover, getting their life back and a hope for the future.
At the heart of abuse is control. It can be found anywhere, not just in marriage, relationships and family, but in the work place, in religions and other institutions including governments. At its worse, it strips the victims of their identity and they loose their self worth because they are often blamed for all the abuse they receive; it’s always the victims fault.
When a victim of such an abusive situation escapes, they need to recover from the trauma of they experience. They need to be able to leave it behind and start to find a new life. That is where charities like WORTH can help. Using creativity to give them a vehicle to rediscover their own self expression. Creativity helps to develop their own sense of identity and value which gives them hope.
For me I see that this charity is bringing down heaven to earth whether they realise that or not. Perhaps we can even go as far as to say that this charity expresses, in action, the beatitudes of Jesus.
There is a place in this world for our faith because it should be our lived out expression of the kingdom of heaven. The world tries to convinces us that our faith is only to be expressed in private, behind closed doors. But that is a lie. Our faith is about freedom. Living out our hope expressed in our daily lives as love. Faith that takes delight in seeing life grow in both our selves and in others, and in doing so we discover we are partnering with the one who is love.
*If you want to know more about WORTH and what they do, here is their web site: https://www.worth-charity.co.uk/