Sunday Soak: The Dam Healing Process
The courage to transform our wounds into testimonies of Jesus's faithfulness.
Friends, we have made it to the fourth week of our series on removing the dams (or strongholds) in our hearts. If you’ve missed any part of this series, you can go back and read them here:
Week 1 - These Dam Strongholds
Week 3 - Break the Dams (This one might be my favorite thing I’ve ever written, so highly recommend going back to this if you don’t have time for all of them.)
Moment of truth here, I have really struggled with how to write my message this week, and I’m going with the lesson a good friend taught me when she said, “Perfection is the enemy of done,” so you’re getting a bit of Hail-Mary pass on this one, and I’m just praying it’s somewhat coherent, because it feels mildly incoherent.
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Some years ago, a couple of people and I attempted to begin an outdoors club within our church. It flopped after our very first organizer meeting, the primary reason being that a common trend in the Church had shown up in one of the founding members.
She was a fairly new Christian with an incredibly traumatic background - childhood abuse, hard drugs, mental illness, broken relationships, and jail time - and when she gave her life to Christ, she had thought that the new life in Christ meant that she could leave behind the old life in total, without ever really addressing any of the things she’d been through. She wanted to jump straight into being a leader in the church and becoming an authority figure over other Christians in just a few weeks after her conversion.
She thus viewed the outdoor club as an avenue for her to exercise that desired authority, with only a rudimentary knowledge of the Bible, salvation, and what it meant to follow Jesus. And while yes, she could certainly leave her old life behind, it’s not like the scars disappear for any of us overnight, and it seemed evident that she was seeking a control-driven way to outrun the chaos that had defined her past.
Totally OK - we’re the Church, and we can handle that messiness - but simply being freed from dams does not mean we get to go all “reservoir today, flourishing ecosystem tomorrow!” It actually takes some time and intention to work through our past pain and scars.
Sure you can say, “Brit, look to the crippled men, the bleeding woman, and the lepers Jesus healed. That was immediate!” And I would say yes, we know their sins and ailments were taken away in an instant, but we don’t know what came after. After a lifetime of being paralyzed or years of being separated from family and community, we can’t expect that any of these people just resumed life as usual. Life was difficult in those days for people who had been able-bodied long term, so it’s hard to believe that any of them were able to go waltzing ahead into their “best lives” without at least some transitional time in which they faced greater healing in mending broken relationships, addressing the mental and emotional toll that years of hardship had taken, facing the loss of time toward cultivating skills and a career, financial loss, and other serious, realistic matters.
When we remove dams from our rivers, we have an opportunity to restore them to their natural, free-flowing state as an integral part of a thriving, beautiful, vibrant ecosystem. However, there are some stages to bringing that forth.
Yes, Jesus removed the burdens of these people in an instant, just as He saves us instantly, frees us from shame and condemnation instantly, and forgives us instantly. But deep healing takes some time and effort on our part as well, and sanctification by Christ takes a lifetime, no matter how thrilled we are to be freed of the things that once held us in bondage to this world.
So let’s jump in and unpack this a bit. I think of dam-breaking in three phases:
The first is breaking down the actual dams, which we’ve already talked about at length. The second is the restoration project that allows us to spend time re-cultivating the ecosystem that has been devastated by the dams, which includes confronting problems that necessitated the building of these dams in the first place, as well as the fallout from having had them in place. I will spend the bulk of today on the second stage. The third is long term conservation, where we continue to be faithful to what we have cultivated, but ultimately allow God to direct our lives and sanctify us. I will only briefly touch on this at the end.
Anywhere dams have been built and then removed, there are consequences of the structures. The sediment buildup behind the dams must be relocated, excavated, or allowed to filter downstream in an orderly way; the banks must be redefined and the riverbed restored, and the land that was once submerged underwater must be cultivated to return to its natural state.
Honestly, this process goes shockingly fast. A lot of dam restoration groups note how quickly native grasses return to the riverbanks and how fast fish populations grow again. In fact, studies of dam removals have shown that the rivers heal remarkably fast when the dams are removed quickly and the sediment is able to relocate quickly. The sediment then becomes integral to the healthy restoration of the river and the surrounding area as it carries vital nutrients to the rest of the ecosystem.
On the Boardman River, the brook trout population has grown 713% in lbs/acre since 2010, two years before the dam removal project began. Brown trout, which are non-native to the river, have actually decreased as the native brookies have returned. This is huge, because brook trout are picky fish, whose presence indicates to us that this stream is cold and healthy!
A huge factor in the restoration process for the Boardman was the collective effort of stakeholders to restore the ecosystem. There was a plan not just for the water, but to restore the grasses around the river. Prior to the dams being built, logging had been a huge industry for Northern Michigan, the river system had been deforested in the mid-1800s, and that reality had to be confronted by planting native pine trees that had been decimated.
So we have a combination of really great news and really hard news through this picture. First, the healing will be a lot faster than we think, and second, we have some things we have to confront.
I get why we want to avoid this. For one, the sediment in our own experiences could consist of any number of things. Lies we’ve unknowingly believed, for example, that we still don’t know are lies. When I became a Christian, the word “vulnerability” was literally not in my vocabulary, and I had a belief that stuck with me for a very long time regarding my value as compared to men. I had no idea until I began dating after my divorce that I was even carrying - and acting on - on those beliefs.
But to such a great extent, I also believe we don’t want to face what we have done and what has been done to us, that is, the ugly parts of ourselves we’d rather not see distorted in the fun-house mirror of self-confrontation. No one wants to spend their weeks crying in the shower over the hard realities of life - that we’ve been hurt, we have hurt others, we are often affected by those who have been hurt, and we have made selfish, disgusting decisions that leave us feeling guilty and ashamed.
I would certainly rather skip over all that and go straight to the free-flowing life of Jesus Christ, basking in the warm-fuzzies of being saved, loved, chosen, and holy. And certainly, we are those things. We are, my friends. We are. But if we choose to pursue that free-flowing, clear, beautiful water, then we have to understand that the water will be cloudy for a while as the sediment dies down and the turbulence subsides. Whether or not it runs freely and clearly, though, depends on our response to Christ in the total picture of our lives.
Will we or won’t we take up this Cross? Will we or won’t we turn over all of our lives, not just as vessels for the Holy Spirit to carry out the Gospel mission, but to let the Gospel richly cover our whole lives and experience? Will we allow Christ to have the final say on abuse, sin, identity, shame, and lies, and to allow the Living Water to make it beautiful, revitalizing our stories in the way that He works all things together for the good of those who love Him?
I believe that this intermediary stage makes up a significant portion of what the Pauline Epistles focused on, I believe this is what caused praise and rebuke for the churches in Revelation, and I believe this is one of the most crucial responses we have as Christians (post-salvation) to Christ, because it can be so damaging to the mission of the Gospel when our wounds are allowed to fester, rather than be healed.
When the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, Ephesians, Galatians, and Colossians, he wrote in response to incorrect theology and behaviors they had adopted. Rather than confront the sin and darkness they had been so used to prior to receiving the Gospel, they had altered the Gospel, excused sin, and continued to practice what they had done before they had received Christ. Paul spent much of these letters confronting the sin they had adopted or continued, the beliefs they had adopted or altered, and the trends he saw that were not in line with the Gospel they had heard.
He even wrote to Timothy and Titus to address issues they were seeing in the churches, and Philemon was written specifically to facilitate the forgiveness and reconciliation between a master and slave.
Here is a sampling of the problems Paul confronted:
1 Corinthians 3:3 - Jealousy and fighting - “You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?”
1 Corinthians 6:7-9 - Conflict and vengefulness - The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters. Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God?
1 Corinthians 6:19-20: - Immorality - “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”
2 Corinthians 10:5: - Worldly thinking - "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."
Galatians 5:13-15 and 19-21 - Sin and hatred - You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other…The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Ephesians 4:25-28 - Anger, slander, and sin - Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.
Colossians 2:8 - Bad theology - "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ."
Colossians 3:12-13 - Unforgiveness - "Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you."
1 Timothy 3:1-3 - discerning leadership - "Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money."
Titus 1:16 - people who don’t walk the walk - “They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good."
Titus 3:3-6 - those blind to sin - “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.”
He wrote these all to Christian Churches - to people who were Christians and who believed the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This tells us that these things that went unconfronted did not magically disappear. Instead, they festered to create discord and strife that had to be addressed by a leader.
The same goes for the churches in Revelation 2 and 3 that saw extensive idol worship and sin in Pergamum and Thyatira, a loss of heart in Ephesus, spiritual deadness in Sardis, and spiritual numbness in Laodicea. These were a result of problems that had gone unconfronted and allowed to take root in the churches, while Philadelphia and Smyrna were praised for their endurance in righteousness and faith, even in the face of lies, slander, and persecution.
This is why our own restoration projects are so important. So here are three things we need to do after the dams come down:
Recognize the sediment build-up and confront it.
Have you been hurt? Friend, grieve it. Pray it out, cry to God and tell Him. Seek counseling or support if you need it. It’s OK to tell God, “I can’t believe this happened to me.” You may even have to put up appropriate boundaries so that you’re not tempted again to build new dams.
Have you hurt others? Seek reconciliation, if possible and safe. Apologize, take responsibility, offer restoration if it’s warranted. If you’ve been wronged by the other person and they won’t take responsibility for themselves, do your part anyway and know that God is the one Who brings justice.
Do you harbor unforgiveness? Then forgive! Forgiveness does not take time, as some are inclined to believe. Forgiveness takes a choice you make to obey God.
Have you been hoarding gifts, treasures, community, or anything else for yourself? Then ask a pastor how to let those things flow freely downstream. Look for ways to serve, pour out, and invite others. Look for ways to be a blessing. Read Isaiah 58:10-12 to see what a special calling this is!
Do you have pride that needs to be confronted? Ask God to reveal it and uproot it. Dare to ask your friends and family what they see. Make decisions that elevate others and esteem yourself as lower. Get rid of bitterness and envy, and learn how to celebrate others.
Do you have a set of lies you believe? Those invasive species - rip them up! Start noticing your thoughts and cataloging them. Whatever doesn’t line up with God’s word about you or the world around you, replace it with the Truth.1
Do you have past sin that you’re trying to keep in a separate compartment from your faith? You’re going to have to confront it, repent, and do the work to keep it out of your life. You may have to break off relationships, change jobs, get professional help, or go to other lengths to get rid of it. But if you give it to God and tell Him you want it gone, He will lead you to freedom.
Are you hoping to escape the life to which you have been called? Submit your whole life to God, and know that Jesus can use your circumstances, even the ones brought on by sin or disobedience of your past, to give you a mission field. Resolve to live a life worthy of the calling you’ve received right where you are each day.
This all comes down to the fact that Jesus does not want any of us living in the sludge of our former lives. He is faithful and just to forgive. He wants you to put on the clothes of your new self. He wants you to put on the holiness and righteousness He has given you. But to do that, it takes the recognition that there are things in our lives that we have been carrying and wearing, and they have weighed us down since before we knew Christ.
I’ll put it this way. When I put on my wedding gown, I didn’t put it on over my street clothes. The shlubby clothes came off, and I showered, scrubbed, shaved, and moisturized. Then I put on the clothes that symbolized my new life with Zebulon.
Start planting native grasses and trees.
I really believe in planting the Truth by reading the Bible daily. Yes, daily. The Bible tells us to write the Word on our hearts, to be able to teach it to others and to feed others with it. Studies show that reading the Bible 4x per week will have a marked, profound difference in your life, while reading it 3x or fewer per week will not make you look any different from the world. So yeah, I do mean daily!
Psalm 1:3 says, “But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, and who prospers in all he does.” This is actually a Biblical picture of us being planted like trees by flowing water when we meditate on God’s Word faithfully.
We should also be part of the Body of Christ by attending and investing in a local church, where we need to serve, grow, be in community, and be held accountable. The Book of Acts is a tremendous resource for a picture of the early Church, led by the men who knew Christ as a Man. Christ Himself prayed for unity in the Body of believers in John 17. His will is for us to all come together as one, serving each other in love, and putting aside all of our divisions to be a unified Church.
Give God time to grow the deeper things.
This is where we start to cross into the territory of the third stage of healing in the dam-removal process, where we take our hands off the steering wheel more and let God direct our path, our calling, and our significance.
Even as we plant little pine trees of the Word all over our souls, it takes time for them to grow. We are sanctified by Christ in the Holy Spirit for our entire lives. God allows us to go through trials, hardships, refining, and suffering in ways that build up our faith and our habits to walk strong with Him.
You may receive a calling now that takes years for God to cultivate and bring into a full harvest. That’s OK. Be humble and patient so that you don’t miss the areas where He’s growing you.
Listen, if we do not let the Gospel of Jesus Christ cover every area of our pasts, then we do not have a testimony, but a festering illness. It’s like someone who has their arm cut off and tries to wish themselves healed without ever visiting the doctor.
That is, if you have said, “God freed me from the life of sin I was living,” but never, “God, I am so ashamed of what I’ve done,” then you haven’t been to the Doctor. If you’ve said, “God freed me from the abuse I endured,” but never, “God, I can’t believe You let that happen to me,” then you haven’t been to the Doctor. If you’ve said, “God has freed me from my attachments to this world,” but never, “God, how would You have me steward the blessings You have given me?” then you have not been to the Doctor.
But when we do this, He will answer us as He did in Isaiah 43:16-19:
This is what the Lord says—
he who made a way through the sea,
a path through the mighty waters,
who drew out the chariots and horses,
the army and reinforcements together,
and they lay there, never to rise again,
extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:
“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
Notice that this is what the Lord says. We do not get to say this! We do not get to tell ourselves to forget about the former things. That’s what He says when we bring our troubles to Him!
When we allow Him to enter those spaces where we are wounded, afraid, hurt, misled, and ashamed, then He transforms our stories into a whole picture of the power of the Gospel in our lives - our past, present, and future - even the past before we ever heard His Name. Then we have a testimony, and we can tell others how to get the full freedom in Christ that we know personally.
I promise, friend, that if you have an inward confrontation you’ve been avoiding, if you give it to God today, you will be absolutely floored by how miraculously God works to rewrite your story into one of freedom and redemption. Then your rivers will be wild and free and your land healed. You will be closer to Eden here on earth than you could ever have imagined.
That wraps up our series on dams, my friends. In the world, we sign petitions to break down dams, and I want to remind you that you can always petition in prayer for God to break the dams of those you love and want Jesus to save. John 15:16 says, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.” So don’t forget to ask Him for those you want to sit next to in Heaven.
I have a big week at work, so we will not have a normal Sunday Soak next week, but more of a guided Scripture reading. Until then, may all that is created testify to God’s power and divine nature, that you may be encouraged by His love all around you.
I try to catch my feelings, which are usually undefined by words, and name them, then try to find the reason that I can put into words. You’d be shocked how often that leads to a set of lies that got under my skin.
Excellent and true, Brittany. Thank you.