131 - Tell the Truth (Map to Freedom)

Sep 1

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Go to FREE RESOURCES at chipdodd.com to download The Map of Freedom poster and descriptive material.

The Map of Freedom is a diagram of the steps and the process through which we can gain when we reclaim our makeup as God predesigned us.

The steps and growth set us free to give our gifts, trust outcomes to God, walk in integrity, and lead well. (See The Map of Freedom in Free Resources)
The process of growth can overcome toxic shame, false rules, imposed roles, and survival scripts that block a person from being and doing who and what God designed them to be and do.

Arriving at the “places” that “The Map” guides a person toward, takes a person from hearing about something to experiencing something. It is the difference between hearing about the giant Sequoia trees and the experience of standing beneath one.

As stated in the last show notes, the journey requires many switchbacks; is often slow; and takes a lifetime.

We all hope to be able to be productive in life and live fully until we die. We all wish to have an impact for good, unless something is terribly impaired about a person.

We live fully with impact by being able to give; having trust in God with the outcomes; having integrity; and leading well. The result is freedom.

But this freedom isn’t free. We must walk, work, and persevere with an image in mind and the heart involved to pull us forward every day.

The need for expression

Human beings are created to be expressive creatures, created to use our minds to articulate and communicate what occurs our hearts.

Expression communicates the need for connection along with the boundaries that make us safe to trust connection.

Suppression of expression creates depression of the heart, which works against the nature of how we are created. Suppression is the use of the will, complicated by denial and dissociation, to “protect” one’s self.

Eventually, the very things that we use for self-protection become self-destructive, effecting many of the emotional and physical problems that come with isolative conditions. We live working against how we are created.

Feel Your Feelings

The third line or “switchback” in The Map (See “The Map of Freedom” in Free Resources at chipdodd.com) begins with Feel Your Feelings. Human beings are feeling creatures who think. We are not thinking creatures who have to “deal with” feelings. (See Episode 130)

We are created to be able to identify our feelings, as a matter of acknowledging and expressing hope and desire, longings and needs.

We identify, explore, and express feelings as a form of connection, even when the connection communicates boundaries.

Many people misguidedly think that boundaries block connection, when actually they shape how people remain connected and respected.

Tell the Truth

When feelings are expressed, truth is recognized, realized, and revealed—even if one does so only to one’s self.

When we tell the truth, we have answered God’s first question, which keeps us connected to ourselves and God!

In Genesis 3:9, God asks, “Where are you?” (NIV) to Adam and Eve. Adam tells the truth by acknowledging first what he was feeling. Adam answered, “I was afraid.” Adam told the truth about his heart’s condition.

We all need to be able to identify, explore, and then express our hearts. The question we have to answer next for ourselves is, “When do I tell the truth, to whom, and how?” which requires learning, asking for help throughout life, and struggle.

Without the willingness to be vulnerable, we cannot gain or maintain connection.

Connection is life enhancing, if not fulfillment itself.

Our own God created makeup requires that we feel our feelings and tell the truth about our hearts. It also allows us to maintain our own God-created dignity as we submit to His design.

Dependency and vulnerability

Almost no one will deny that human beings are dependent creatures. About that there is little choice.

However, whether or not we will remain willing to be vulnerable is a choice.

To live fully and love deeply and lead well requires vulnerability.

Vulnerability means that we are able to express feelings, and that we have needs and desire that we cannot address alone.

Once we become willing to live vulnerably, the question we must answer is, “How do I live vulnerably in a wise way?”

The beauty of telling the truth

Every child is born to be able to feeling their feelings and express the truth about their pathos. This experience and expression is God-ordained.

When we participate in life as God-designed it, we are participating in remaining connected to God, others, and ourselves.

The child God created is not created to be forgotten, but created to be grown.

We grow through participating in our design.

Dr. Chip Dodd