[__ Prayer __] my freedom

I'm a low status, --very-- stigmatized person in this community. I'm blessed beyond measure. The Lord saved me from: sin, satan, self, death, and the world...and changed me enough for me to become a member of the family, for the 1st time in well over 10 years!

Thing is...the community around me isn't too keen on God's work in my life. I was left dead eyed by a psychiatrist at a hospital 12 years ago. I'm now bright eyed, smart, healthy, etc. I was genuinely, truly sick for a while there, near death even at times (long story...this is what people on the discard pile of society go thru...), and now The Lord has willed that as who I am now, more and more who I really am in Christ, I'm healthy, physically --and-- mentally ("spirit of a sound mind").

People in the neighborhood taunt me now and then, with talk of getting me committed and mysterious "warrants" that have yet to be served. I --was-- convicted of a serious misdemeanor as part of a plea agreement. I completed 3 years probation and that was the end of that, I hope. An additional charge was dismissed. The lawyer my parents hired for me (Praise God!) managed to get the dismissed charge expunged/erased from the record. In order to do that, one must have the state law enforcement division do a thorough background check before they will sign off on the application. My expungement was officially granted and applied less than 2 weeks ago (!!! God is GOOD!!!), so I'm thinking this talk of "warrants" is just...small town, southern people (mostly men...) picking on an "Uppity mental patient" who "doesn't know his place in society," that kinda thing.

--sigh-- God is good. People...ain't so good, sadly. I'm beginning to doubt mental illness as an entity. I think maybe it really is mostly a form of social control, a way of keeping people (especially poor people, minorities, and women) "in line," etc. Thing is...I'm white, male, and my now "well-to-do" parents take very good care of me (God is good!). Yes, I was genuinely sick for a time, from my own sins, and just...well, "the way the world works," it seems. I'm healthy now, and I'm beginning to think...well, I'm blessed to be on disability, because there's no way I'll be able to get a job around here, but I"m beginning to think all these diagnoses were and are just...what Verna calls Mental Health, inc.: "useless junk".

I've rambled. I ask that pray for my ongoing freedom and safety. I read a novel once where one of the characters said, as she was being put in jail and another character was being committed, "the institutions get you in the end." These days, the main institution for low status, deviant people is jail and/or prison. The Lord moved on my heart to get me genuinely saved (miracle!) almost 4 1/2 years ago, and He has seen fit to spare me all that, thus so far. Thing is...people say this stuff so often, so much, that I wonder if its one of those "where there's smoke, there's fire..." kinda things. Plus, I apparently "p!ssed his shrinks off," so that's made the situation 10x more fun.

OK. I really am wrapping up. I know a lot of you pray for me anyway (thank you, btw...), but I do wanna bring this up because...a part of me is still expecting everything to go down the drain, for some reason. I don't get it.

Thanks.

I have not had the extreme troubles in my life as you have.. Yet there are times when i worry the 'rug will be pulled" you are not alone.. Your friend Verna will tell ya the same.. He often carries us to safety

You are a new person, Christ_empowered, a true member in our Lord God's family.

Don't worry about the what-if's. You know there isn't a warrant out there waiting for you. The police know where you live. If there was a warrant, it would have been served by now. So your neighbors know nothing; their hearts are hardened against our Lord.

Brother Christ_empowered, I do not know if you're to the point of realizing the consequence associated with following Christ as the Apostle Paul followed Him (1 Cor 11:1), but if not, experience is a very good teacher. Just read all the things Paul suffered, and yet he commends those things.
2Co 11:24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.
2Co 11:25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;
2Co 11:26 In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
2Co 11:27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. (Do we have something to complain about?)
2Co 11:28 Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
2Co 11:29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?
2Co 11:30 If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.

CE, after Paul suffered all the Lord was showing him for Jesus' name's sake in Act 9:16, He wrote this following portion of scripture.
Rom 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
Rom 8:17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God (All God's chillun got wings?), and joint-heirs with Christ; IF so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Rom 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

thanks, everyone.

Wow, Eugene, Paul had it hard! CE, I think what it amounts to is the worse that we have it here on earth, the better we'll have it in eternity with God. We have a lot to look forward to! I suspect that the harder we have it here, the more I'll appreciate Heaven.

Eugene said:

If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.

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That's right. I too have some infirmities, so Praise the Lord!! What's the worst that can happen? To die is to gain, and a healthy perspective.