Redemption Group - Week One: Heavy

One of our participants will be blogging their experience through this fall round of Redemption Groups. Here is their first post:I’m still in need of deliverance and rescue but I’m glad I know where to find it.  The word redemption encompasses both deliverance and rescue. For most of 2012 my life was turned upside down. I lost my marriage, my identity as I knew it, experienced strained relationships, and had a bout with illness that affected every day of my life. Even as a Christian, a devout podcaster and one well versed in Christian-ezz, I found myself ill equipped and underprepared for this year’s struggles. I was still in need of Jesus and His redemption now just as much as when I came to know him for the first time.In life, when you experience great challenges, disappointments, and struggles, look for the root and not the fruit. That was the first thing that God revealed to me on Friday, September 14, 2012 the beginning of the fall Redemption Group session. God revealed that it’s easy sometimes to see the tree and its fruit but not always easy to see what caused the tree to grow and bring forth fruit. This revelation leads me to my story and experience with Redemption Group thus far.The first weekend, in a one word definition, was “heavy.’’ On Redemption Group’s opening Friday you could feel the nervousness, passion, desperation, and anticipation for God to do something, anything, on our behalf. It’s an interesting experience when a bunch of hurt and wounded people gets together in the same place seeking God. I would compare it to being really hungry, starving almost, but having to wait a good period of time before you can eat. As the weekend progressed we told our stories. The hurt, the pain, the vulnerability was exhausting. I realized in our stories that the one common denominator was pain. And that pain had blocked our perception of who Jesus is and what he did (and is doing) with his life, death and resurrection.After the weekend of exhausting exposé, the following Tuesday should have been called “digging for the root.” Remember the tree! Yeah, after the first weekend even now the tree and its fruit are still there. The first Tuesday with God’s guidance the leaders of our group handed us a shovel and one at a time we began break ground, searching for what has caused us not to see Jesus. Each group member has begun to search for the lifeline to the sin that has blocked us from seeing JESUS for whom, what, and why he lived, died, and was resurrected. Please pray for us in the next few weeks as we continue to dig and endure this part of our journey.For more information on Redemption Groups go here.