Retroactive Healing
How The Psalms Are ‘Re-story-ing’ My Life
The Psalms have changed my life. I was awakened to the gift of the Psalms during a season of radical disorientation. I discovered this gift- a wide and safe place where I can bring all the raw and messy realities of my life experience into the presence of God. The Psalms have become medicine for my soul.
One of the best ways to receive the gift of the Psalms is to pray them backwards, into the highs and lows of your spiritual journey. As I have prayed the Psalms back into my life story, I am being restored and ‘re-storied’ in Christ. I am connecting my story with a much bigger story, God’s Story. And I am finding in the Psalms an ancient community of pilgrims who have been along similar pathways. I am not (and was not) alone.
I invite you to take some time this week to review your spiritual journey. I like to use a visual tool- a ‘spiritual journey graph’- to help chart the highs and lows of my life with God. Click HERE for this tool. The horizontal axis represents time. I suggest you focus on the most recent season of your life, for example, the past 20-25 years (depending on your age). The vertical axis represents your ‘awareness of God’ along the way. (Note: God has been present all along the way, whether or not you have been aware of Him. But your awareness of Him makes a big difference.). I encourage you to mark 3-5 dots along the graph, representing low and high moments along the way. Each dot represents a significant event, relationship, experience or discovery.
When you are done, stand back and look over your graph. Note different movements of the soul along the way- times of orientation, disorientation, and reorientation.
Disclaimer: Remember the spiritual journey graph is just a tool. Your spiritual journey is likely much more unique and complex than can be represented in a graph. Your journey may be less linear and more cyclical. Finally, your journey may not fit neatly into the ‘orientation> disorientation> reorientation’ order or framework. You may currently be in the middle of a season of disorientation… still waiting for renewal. Don’t feel pressured to make your story look like mine, or to wrap your story in a pretty bow at the end. Be real with yourself and God.
Once you have completed this exercise, share it with someone you trust. Stories are discerned, celebrated, and lamented in community. You were never meant to hold your story alone.
I invite you to let your story be ‘re-storied’ by the Holy Spirit. Pick specific psalms to pray back into your story, both into the highs and lows. Match the psalm with the season. The Psalms provide entry points for the Holy Spirit to bring deep healing and restoration.
Why are stories so powerful?
Real relationships are founded on trust, and trust is the fruit of knowing and valuing one another’s stories.
Everyone has a story. I cannot know who you are apart from your story.
Stories are formative. Stories shape our sense of identity, and what we value in life. They help us make sense of our world. They color how we see culture, people, God, the church, the Bible; how we approach decision-making, relationships, conflict, and so much more.
Discipleship involves connecting our stories with God’s Story.
Every story has highs and lows, joy and pain. This is normal. We learn that we are not alone when we share our stories. These highs and lows of life can be arranged around three movements of the soul:
Orientation- These are moments when we are keenly aware that God is present, that life under His loving rule is good, secure, beautiful, and well ordered. (A few examples: catching a glimpse of a gorgeous sunset, hearing a child’s unrestrained laughter, enjoying a delicious meal with friends, being bathed in God’s goodness during worship, and so on).
Disorientation- These are moments when life does not seem to make sense, when God seems absent, when we are questioning God, God’s ways, and God’s presence from a place of pain, failure, disappointment or persecution. (ex. discovering your spouse has cancer, suffering betrayal by a Christian friend, being disappointed by church leaders, falling to temptation, experiencing loss of health or mobility, feeling isolated and alone, and so on).
Reorientation- These are moments when we are able to look back on suffering through the lens of God’s gracious provision and deliverance, and look to the future with hope (ex. being reconciled with a former friend, finding freedom from an addiction, being called to a meaningful job after a long vocational struggle, experiencing a healing after a prolonged illness, finding a breakthrough a mental health struggle, and so on).
Orientation > Disorientation > Reorientation. This is real life. Individuals, marriages, families, churches, even nations and cultures go through this process. The whole biblical Story can be understood through this basic narrative arc.
This website is built around the conviction that in the Psalms, God has given us authentic language for every movement of the soul. To help you connect your story with God’s Story, I warmly encourage you to join me in completing the ‘spiritual journey graph’ exercise.
