By Lisa S. Tarno

I love when an author says something that hits me between the eyes. Susie Larson did it again within her book, “Fully Alive”. God had revealed to her in her times of praying for healing that if He healed her today, she’d lose it the next day because as He impressed on her heart, “You don’t have the infrastructure for healing…You think like a sick person.” Wow! Just Wow! That’s some hard truth right there.

She continues to write, “I began to understand that what happens in our souls happens in our cells…If we employ consistent physical disciplines yet live with a toxic soul, we’ll still be sick and stressed and live far beneath the flourishing life to which our souls are heir.” (Page 41) She began writing that section with a revelation that the storms in her life revealed the lies she believed and the truth she needed. That was a big statement pregnant with meaning. This led me to ask, “What lies am I believing deep down and what is the truth I need to hear from God, not people, in order to live a life of health and vitality?”

That’s a personal journey that I’m curious to embark upon. I even say that from thankfully not dealing with a chronic health problem but post healing from other things I’m not going to outlay in this blurb, but suffice it to say, I, like most of us who have lived long, have had my fair share of  battles to fight. Still I look for ways to be resilient and it continually amazes me the power of the thoughts we think and their impact on the totality of our lives. 

One soul searching exercise she had me do was to reflect upon a time where I felt like my truest self:  feeling safe, joyful and free. The memory that came to mind was when I was little, well before my parents’ divorce, when a photo was taken of me dancing freely to the music being played around a group of people and not having a care in the world. I just radiated joy and youth and abandon. I vaguely remember it. The innocence of childhood is so precious. I want to live the rest of my life like that little girl who chose to dance to the music she heard and be free.

So along with praying for insight to what binds me and truth that will set me free again, I’m challenged to live a life disproportionately to who I am and that others would see how God lives in me. I want my life to radiate the truth that Genesis says, “what was meant for harm will be used for good” in my life. So much of the muckety muck of life tries to weigh us down and I’m to a point of being fed up with it. 

What thoughts do I need to change?

What habits do I need to change to grow in faith and freedom?

What action do I need to ask God to help me with to move toward wholeness?

How do I begin to build an infrastructure of a healthy person?

I pray, “Jesus, help me to dance again and hear your music. Help me to be free of what others may think of me and just dance and live joyfully. Help me to boldly share what you want me to and to trust this time around that enemy of my soul is on a leash and you will protect me. Help my words dance across the page and into the hearts and minds of my readers and that they will be blessed.”