written by Redeemed 1/16/12
I hope that doesn’t make you feel too uncomfortable, but I want to be upfront with you. You have been the object of our prayers (and not ours alone). You are our mission field.
If someone would have said those words to me just over a year ago, I would have been very afraid. I didn’t want to be seen or identified. If I could have had it my way, I would not have existed at all; but being unable to deny my existence, I was determined to stay hidden in the shadows. These were shadows of shame where I had been banished, I thought, forever away from the light of love and acceptance.
But Jesus shined His light into my shadows, and He wants me to be His lantern so that His light can shine through me – through us – all of the many of me, into your world. In Matthew 5:15-17 we have recorded these words of Jesus (which we have taken as our calling through this blog), “…Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
Not only is it our goal to educate and familiarize you with what life is like for a multiple (at least this multiple); but it is also our hope and goal to proclaim to a hurting and broken world that God has not abandoned you in your darkness. He dearly cherishes hurt people who are hiding in the dark corners of the world, including cyber-world. He wants to show through this undeniably injured people-person that you cannot be too damaged to be loved by Him or be used by Him.
Last night I was reminded yet again that as dark as my world has been, there are places that are even more deeply saturated in utter, complete darkness and hopelessness than we have ever known. But even in the extreme recesses of utter and complete absence of light God is penetrating with blinding brilliance, and He is using deeply injured people to do it.
In John 8:12 Jesus says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
One of our favorite passages of Scripture (especially when we were new to the diagnosis of MPD) has been 1Peter 2:9 [Amplified Bible]
9But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, [God’s] own [a]purchased, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light
and here are a few more fractions of light to contemplate:
Job 34:22 “There is no deep shadow, no utter darkness, where evildoers can hide.”
Psalms 139:11,12 (Actually, this whole long chapter has been dearly precious to us in our multiplicity. It’s extremely well worth the time and effort to look it up and let the words of these passages seep deep into your soul.) [ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night,”, even the darkness will not be dark to You; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to You.]
And one more – a warning from Isaiah 29:15, {Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their work in darkness and think, “Who sees us? Who will know?”} (Let me be clear about this – it is a warning to those who are perpetrators of evil, not those forced to carry it out or the victims who often hide in shame.)
