For many of us we’ve found safety in prison. The prison of shutting ourselves off to the world because we think we’re better off alone so no one can hurt us. We think we’re better off alone because God thinks so poorly of us. We’ve been hurt, shattered, bruised and beaten emotionally and/or physically and we have decided to put up a fortress around our heart. 

I’m here to tell you that while that may feel like safety, it’s become imprisonment. It’s not the way God designed you to live. Trauma hurts us but it cannot break us. God has promised us a future and a hope and if He spoke it into motion, there is no way it can be undone.

I know the feeling of being too far gone. You, my friend, are not too far gone. You’re just in need of a lot of love and care, needing to learn how to begin to let some of that wall start to be chiseled away. Through God’s power, loving people, and your mind and body's ability to change and heal, this is your reality. 

Our brain and nervous system find a false sense of safety in isolation and loneliness. How can this be? Our brain isn’t concerned about our well-being, it’s concerned about making sure we are out of harm’s way. Harm to a heightened nervous system can be conflict, childhood trauma, avoiding uncomfortable emotions that we try to repress, even healthy people can feel dangerous when we’re used to chaos. We feel safe when we’re alone even though we feel trapped in a prison.

Healing has to happen in the safety of being seen and known by God and by safe people. God created us and knows us more intimately than we know ourselves. Brain and nervous system regulation happen when in proximity to God and to others, this allows us to turn the danger signal down and begin the healing process. You are needed in this world, all of you. The best parts, the messiest parts, and the parts that feel like they need to stay in the dark. It’s time to come out of hiding.