The Elephant in the Room

This past Sunday we completed a "Believe For It" series hosted by Christian Life Austin. We attended last year and when the time came around to participate in it again this year, we knew we had to prioritize this series in our schedule. The Believe For It series is dedicated to posturing our hearts to God where we fully give over our trust in His will for our lives while also believing that God hears us in our need for help. The series is powerful. Whether I am singing worship songs, listening to the sermon, or participating in an experiential practice to symbolize the concept for the day, I leave feeling moved and hopeful that no matter what, God is with us.

On the last sermon, Pastor Brad spoke about a story on elephants, who from an early age, are chained up and trained to stay within a specific radius. He goes on to share that as the elephant grows up, that despite having the power and ability to break the chain, the elephant doesn't. It remains limited to what it has learned from a young age. He transitions the story of the chained elephants to symbolize us as humans. He shares that there are some of us that have been bound since birth to stay put, stay small, and stay submissive to the systems we are born into. In addition, just like the elephants, despite growing up into powerful, strong beings that can easily break off the chain, we stay comfortable within those chains and don't realize our fullest potential.

The experiential piece of the service was having glow sticks that represented different strongholds. A stronghold is ingrained mental or spiritual mindsets that keep us in a pattern of pain, addiction or toxic habits. It can be related to overeating, grind culture, doom scrolling, people pleasing, drug use - prescription or illegal, the list goes on and on. There were three types of strongholds that, when we identified with, we would lift our glowsticks up to acknowledge our challenges and after a prayer, we all cracked our glowsticks to represent us breaking our stronghold and allowing the light to shine instead in its place. As a former therapist and life coach, doing things like this speaks to me.

For me personally, I relate very strongly to the concept of being an elephant. I too have been trained to not realized the fullness of my potential. Through my coming to faith journey, the processing of breaking down strongholds and releasing the chains that kept me living small became part of my awakening experience. The ability to see who I was and what I was capable of began to become clear to me and purpose seemed to naturally flow out as the mental and spiritual barriers broke down.

Stepping into purpose felt like what I envision the elephant doing as it makes its way out of the circus tent and into green, open land. I imagine it slowly moving to then realize it is free from captivity. I see it move in ways it has never been able to before - waving its truck, flapping its ears, and trumpeting loudly in freedom. It gains speed, crushing everything in sight. Not out of destruction, but out of a boldness that supercedes the obstacles in its way. However, it stops and looks back at the chaos left behind it - the people watching in fear, the broken trail of debris and the sounds of anger and confusion of those who were responsible in chaining up the now free roaming elephant. However, it stops in its tracks because it sees something that it can't leave behind - its family and friends. Instinctively freedom's glory is only short-lived when it realizes the souls it loves most are still bound up and captive. It is then that there is one thing, and one thing only, that the elephant is able to do - go back and save its loved ones.

That is where I am at right now in life. I feel this personal pull within myself to show the people I love what freedom actually looks and feels like. It is not by converting people to Christianity, but through showing them how God impacts our lives and transforms it for the better. I don't have to prove anything to anyone, but I do get to show them another possibility of living life, only because I have seen it for myself personally.

I feel this deep conviction to, stand in the gap, as Pastor Brad shared, as a means to give those I love a chance to get free. Because here is the thing about coming to faith that I realized: salvation does not stop with us. We have a spiritual obligation to help people to experience what true freedom feels like. It is a life of peace, joy, and love where encouragement, compassion and gratefulness shape our interactions. We are no longer bound by shame, fear, guilt, obligation, expectation or works despite many of us having only experienced life in that way.

It the path to becoming free easy? No. Actually, it is quite challenging if I were to be honest. It is challenging because it forces you to confront your mindset, your limitations and your fears. Faith, courage and trust help lead you to be free, but it is in your steadfast efforts to keep going, no matter how challenging it gets, that leads you to one day experience the cracking of the glowstick. Once the light is released, there is no going back. The light now shines and guides you the rest of the way to get out of the darkness and into a place where clarity, vision and purpose wait for you.

In the debut book of The Starting Point, the topic of breaking strongholds and persisting through uncertainty is discussed. The story of one woman's coming to faith shows how the light and love of God leads her to revelations that allow her to release faulty mindsets and behaviors and to experience a new way of experiencing life with a transformed heart and mind.

Purposeful Practices:

1. What is the elephant in the room for you in your life? Identify any and all strongholds that keep you operating your life out of pain, addiction or limiting mindsets and behaviors? What do you get from engaging in those behaviors?

2. What would you imagine your life to be if you were to break free from your strongholds? What would that life look like? How would you feel? What would you be doing? What would trumpet out of your mouth if you could shout out joy and gratitude from within? Imagine the visceral feelings of being free. Describe it in detail. Envision what freedom means to you.

3. Get a glowstick (or a few) and write on them those strongholds. Pray over them and ask God to help you gain strength, courage and persistence in overcoming them. Afterwards, break the glow stick and listen to your favorite worship song. If you don't have one, listen to SO BE IT by Elevation Worship featuring Tiffany Hudson and Chris Brown