Unconditional Acceptance
Today I was thinking about a dear friend with an unnerving superpower…x-ray vision. God has gifted her in such a way that when she looks into your eyes, she can see the depths of your soul…even if you were trying to keep that part of you hidden.
I have only met two people who have had this ability throughout my lifetime. My first encounter was with my mentor. I was a college student studying Psychology/Counseling, getting ready to get married (at 20), and had a ton of unprocessed trauma. She worked in a public school system and led a peer leader group with students, teachers, and parents. I was learning about facilitating groups as part of my major, and she was an awesome teacher.
It doesn’t turn out well when you are training to be a counselor and haven’t processed your own trauma. Oh, counselor, heal thyself. At any rate, the group was understandably bringing up the “stuff” from my past that I tried to suppress. I was struggling. One night after a meeting, she took me into her office for a little “chat.”
Basically, she did an intervention on me from a Christian perspective. Working for the public school system did not allow her to talk about her faith without getting into trouble, but she knew I was a believer. She also knew that I had sexual abuse as part of my history.
She asked me if I had ever shared my burden with the Lord. At that point, I only shared surface-level details with people, including counselors. In my mind, my past was black, disgusting, and shameful. How could I share that nastiness with a holy God? Surely, He would reject me and turn His face from me. I was so ashamed that I could not look her in the face…my chin was plastered to my chest. Looking into her blue eyes was like looking into the face of God…she could see all the blackness of my soul.
She asked if I believed the Lord loved me when He died on the cross to save me. Of course, I did. Then she said something that pierced my heart…she said, if you trust Him for your salvation, how dare you not trust Him with your pain? Yes, it was like a gut punch, but with that first prayer in her tiny office… “Lord, I hurt”…that started the unburdening of my soul and the building of my relationship with the Lord that I never had before.
Fast forward to 2022, and meeting my new friend in an IAOTRC (International Association of Trauma Recovery Coaching) supervision call. I was sharing something I was struggling with in my coaching business, and she asked me a pointed question that immediately told me she could see my soul.
If you ask her, she will tell you that this ability is both a gift and a curse. Many people, including myself, at one point in time, keep a distance from her because it is unnerving for someone to see your soul without opening yourself up to her.
But let me tell you about her and my mentor… both of these ladies saw the depths of my soul and the rawness of it, and they held a sacred space for me. It was a space of unconditional acceptance…I could come as I was, even though I was a mess, and I was fully accepted.
Have you ever experienced unconditional acceptance from anyone in your lifetime? In my experience, it is a very rare thing. These two ladies are following Christ’s example.
Jesus, too, sees into the depth of our hearts, AND He loves us no matter what we look like. No matter what we’ve been through or what has been done to us, He accepts us as His own. There is nothing we can do to earn it or lose it. Once we are His, we are always His.
I am so grateful for my friend, who offers unconditional acceptance for me even when I am a mess, but also because she reminds me of what I have in Christ every day.
I invite you to meditate on what unconditional acceptance would feel like for you. If you don’t know the Lord but want His unconditional acceptance, I would count it a privilege to introduce you to Him. Please reach out to me.
