Confession #79 - Not such Stranger Things

Not much of a thriller enthusiast, I was never really drawn to sci-fi and scary movies.  My twelve year old daughter, on the other hand, loves them.  She has a love of dark things that I can't quite relate to.  As a lover of Christ, it concerns me, but that's a topic for another day.

Finally indulging her curiosity, we watched the Netflix show "Stranger Things" together.  Surprisingly, after the first episode I was hooked.  Being a kid from the 80's the show is an homage to that era and includes references and music that brings me right back to my younger days.

In the story there's a place, another dimension so to speak, called the "upside down".  It's a mirror of the world we live in but with darkness and alien-like matter growing everywhere and certainly danger all around.  At any given moment this horrible flesh-eating monster can capture you becoming a lifeless incubator of  it's spawn.  Gross, yet

somehow still entertaining, LOL. The point I'm trying to make is that there really is no life in the "upside down" although it looks like the same place we live and work in daily, it's devoid of light, love, and happiness, even the very air is toxic, it's a place of nightmares.

My life has been so incredibly challenging for a long while.  I'll spare the long story, but let me just say that living between a volatile person and someone who continually likes to push their buttons makes for a hellacious life.  Always feeling like you're the glue that has to hold it all together.  Constantly, trying to calm everyone down, and walking on eggshells in the hopes of not upsetting anyone; it's exhausting.  So when other things add to that like a failed business, lack of funds, loss of jobs, hurricanes, worry over aging parents and discovering serious emotional issues about someone in your care, it completely sets your world upside down.   And that's where I've been for a few years, I've been living in the "upside-down".  It looks and feels like the world I always knew only toxic, devoid of light, and happiness.  It's much like living in a nightmare you can't seem to escape.

I've been praying to be rescued from this upside down for some time now.  Hoping for a supernatural power to save me.   But things only got worse and worse until I discerned

that the power I needed to save me was with me all along.  See it's not such a strange thing to discover that you have a strength inside yourself you've never known.  It's not so strange to discover that you can conquer monsters and escape the "upside-down" with your life in tact if you not only know but yield to Jesus and His power.  In Ephesians 3:16 it states, "...according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being."

The Bible teaches that inside all of us believers we have the power of heaven.  Romans 8:11 tells us, "The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you."  This is the Holy Spirit.  The same power that performed all the miracles that Jesus and the disciples did, we possess; when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.  We have all the power and authority of heaven.  Not separate from God but with Him. Additionally we have the authority of heaven to overcome the evils of this world.  In Luke 10: 19-20 Jesus himself tells us, "I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.  However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

Sometimes it's not until we are in a strange place with monsters after us that we discover this power source.   Because of the Holy Spirit, I discovered a strength I didn't realize I actually had.  By plugging into Jesus, He ignited a fire of determination in my soul to make some of the most difficult decisions I've ever had to make.  I believe the Lord allowed these challenges and a trip to the "upside-down" so that I could discover this strength, and to teach me to yield it's power with authority and prayer.  And my faithful Heavenly Father stood close by always shining a light into my "upside-down" to help me find my way out.    The Lord placed good people along the way to help lift me up, He encouraging me with his truth and wisdom and once on the other side, covered me in a warm comforting blanket of grace and mercy.


I realize that the enemy is always trying to drag me back, and there's plenty of opportunities to slip back into the "upside down".  Romans 5:8-9 reminds us, "Be self-controlled and alert.  Your enemy the devil prowls like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith...".  Understanding that I have the power through staying plugged into Christ, and through the Holy Spirit to lift me up and to remove the stranger things out of the way enables us to live right side up again. Jesus tells us in John 10: 9-10, "I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture.  The thief comes to only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."

Honestly, I know how I came to be in the upside down.  It wasn't just because of my circumstances.  Because the truth is that we will have trouble in the world.  Jesus tells us that in John 16:33.  But He goes on to say, "take heart, I (Jesus) have overcome this world."  The path that led me to the "other dimension" wasn't my problems, it was my lack of Jesus.  I pulled away when my life didn't make sense and lost the light and joy only a close relationship with Jesus can bring.

The truly strangest thing about it is, to garner this strength, it takes complete and utter surrender to

Christ for the power to work because it's through our weakness that His power works most and enables His glory to shine.  (2 Corinthians 12:9) God granted me the strength through the power of the Holy Spirit to escape and I know that God will do the same for you if you let Him.  I know that if you surrender to Him all control, all worry and concern, all your sorrow and fear then a fire will start to burn within you and God will help you out.  You cannot let go of God the source of power.  You have to hold on tightly to Him and the power He has given you.  And also be willing to do whatever is necessary; to make the difficult choices and sometimes even risk loosing something you might be trying to save.  God knows what's worth saving and what isn't worth saving better than we do.  Trust Him with your life and He will rescue you and make your life right side up again.

Dear Heavenly Father,  thank you Lord for rescuing me from the "upside-down" life I'd been living.  Thank you for giving me a strength and determination to fight my enemy and victory over my circumstances.  Thank you for helping me make impossible decisions that lead me out of the darkness and into the light.  Thank you for helping me see that being in a relationship with you is not such a strange thing but necessary to navigate this world.  Lord I pray for my sisters-in-Christ who may be stuck in their own "upside-down".  Lord help them tap into your power source to get them to safety and make them right with you again.  In Jesus' precious name I pray.  AMEN