The Whole Story

What does Jesus think about the woo?

I was having a text conversation with a friend last night while sitting in the parking lot at baseball pickup about her upcoming book that is almost ready for launch.

I had initially texted her because I know her to be a safe space for the WOO. She loves Jesus & she loves the woo. She has bravely shared publicly about her journey into the woo, where it has led her, & namely how it has helped HEAL her of past traumas, wounds, & even addictions.

Our text convo about which book cover she should go with, quickly transitioned to the fear behind whether to incorporate an image of crystals on the cover of her book.

“I feel like if I include them, I will immediately turn off Jesus peeps.”

“Ugh, I feel that deep.”

Back and forth we went for a few minutes.

There’s a fear that I believe specifically women of faith have, to show up as their whole selves, despite the cultural constructs and norms that faith has informed them to have. I’m not sure why I’m saying them, because I’m talking about me.

I have many fears, that I believe are shared with others, that to be a Christian looks a certain way and that if you “dabble” outside of that, you will be excluded from various circles because it doesn’t fit what “they” deem to be true.

Why can’t mainstream Christianity accept the woo-woo of spirituality? Things like crystals, signs & wonders in nature, energy frequencies, and yes even card readings. I became a Christian in high school and was sort of always taught that things like that “were of the occult”. Dangerous. Keep Out. Don’t open that door because it will allow evil in.

So I haven’t (outside of those summer days in 6th grade where my friend Kristin, and her sister Michelle, and I locked ourselves in the dark bathroom of her parent’s house with a Ouiji board). That felt scary if I’m honest - even though there was Mattel logo on the back, not some ancient cursed voodoo.

Exploring the spirit realm for the objective of healing does not feel scary. I’ve seen many friends now experience massive healing through non-traditional methods.

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Several years ago, I was volunteering at one of my most favorite places on Earth - a Young Life camp in Canada called Malibu. While at camp, a random acquaintance I barely knew, walked up to me one day and handed me a piece of torn up paper and said, “God told me to give this to you.”

I was freaked out.

What in the world did this tiny piece of paper say? I definitely didn’t open it right then and there, because I was fearful of what would be written inside. Never had I ever had someone say something like that to me, and then act on it.

What was this message God told him to give me? Geez, was this my new life’s direction? Was I supposed to have another kid? Was he actually a secret admirer disguised as a God messenger? Literally my mind was SWELLING with possibilities of things God wanted to tell me.

Once I found a quiet spot, with one eye closed, I slowly opened the piece of paper.

Words. Eight (or so) of them.

It wasn’t at all what I thought it would be.

Written there in sort of chicken scratch, the individual words occupied their own line. The words were all affirmative & positive - but not complete thoughts, and not complete sentences. A picture of this piece of paper exists somewhere in the ether space of my life, but I can’t remember exactly what it said - but something along the lines of:

Beautiful

Loved

Chosen

It made NO SENSE to me. I was expecting the most aha light bulb thoughts to occur - like this is what I’ve been waiting for - a direct manual FROM GOD HIMSELF - on how to live my life!

I didn’t get it.

Confused, I folded the piece of paper, put it back in my pocket and went about my camp experience. My friend who I was leading with asked, “So what did it say?” I showed her, and shrugged my shoulders. It was nice, but it didn’t MEAN anything to me.

Without sharing someone else’s story, later that week, I was sitting on a bench with one of the high school girls I was helping lead that week when she began to confess some dark things to me that she had never confessed to anyone before. And instead of verbalizing them, fearful she wouldn’t be able to make it through with a steady voice, she shuffled a tattered journal over to me and said, “I wrote it down for you to read.”

So I read what she wrote, and my heart BROKE into a million pieces as the words that filled the page were her penned out inner thoughts of worthlessness. Her inner thoughts had been plagued by LIES, and these lies were crippling her. The battle she had been having was in the darkness of her mind, because the enemy of lies had tricked her into believing them to be truth.

I quickly remembered as I began, reading the piece of paper! With the words!

It was word for word a TRUTH to combat the LIES that she had been believing. Line by line. Truth in exchange for the lie.

I began speaking them out-loud over her from memory.

It was one of the most tender, spiritual, transformative, bonding experiences I’ve ever had with a human. I barely knew her and our souls were connected in way that to this day, I’ve never experienced again. She sobbed as she listened, and tried to receive the truths about who she was, who God had actually made her to be, and what her true identity was. Not the lies - but the truths.

Beautiful.

Loved.

Chosen.

Eventually I pulled out the piece of paper, showed her the chicken scratch written there, and told her the story of this “weird guy” who gave me this “message from God” that didn’t make sense at all to me, but actually clearly ultimately was for HER.

The experience radically changed what I thought about who God is, how he uses the gifts he’s given people, and the lengths at which he’ll go simply to tell you (when you can HEAR) that you are loved.

If encounters like that are true, and acceptable - a random guy getting a chicken scratch message from God to give to someone else - then why can’t we believe (and accept) other spiritual things? I later went back and told the guy (because we were all still at camp) the story of his words and the impact they had for someone else. He was blown away. And said that normally, he doesn’t get to know what it means, or how it plays out. I Spanish-inquisitioned him with all the questions, “How did God tell you? Do you normally do this to strangers? How often? Can you tell ask God to give you something for ME?”

He laughed at my insatiable curiosity and agreed, he would ask God for a direct message for me. No guarantees, but he would ask.

In my experience, healers have gifts that don’t make sense to many people. They are different. And oftentimes REALLY different (society prob says ‘weird?’). IMAGINE if this guy would have allowed Christian cultural fear to keep him quiet because what he was about to do was “weird”? He confessed to me that he had been able to see visions from God his whole life. It was a gift he had attuned to since he was little. That it showed up as images in moments of quiet and meditation for him, and that oftentimes the messages were for others.

The spiritual world exists. And I believe that God created it. I have experienced people who possess these “weird” gifts, and there’s no denying their healing powers, and the message they possess.

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Back to my text conversation in the baseball parking lot, I ultimately advised my friend to leave the crystals on the cover. They had been integral to her healing journey, to her everyday spirituality, and that Jesus wasn’t afraid of it. As we tell our stories, I told her that it’s best to put the crystals out there to start because if they’re going to judge you for Jesus & crystals, they’re going to judge you. And I think there’s more of us out here who WON’T judge the crystals, are curious about it, & want to hear more stories of healing.

So taking my own advice, this is my version of putting the crystals on the cover.*

My belief is you can’t accidentally worship the occult. Do I think there is evil? 1000%. Do I think that all of the woo, especially in the natural world, should be grouped into that category because mainstream Christianity decided it so? Nope.

Crystals, wonders & signs in nature, people who have abilities to connect with loved ones or hear/see visions from God himself for the sake of HEALING - I think Jesus uses it all.

That’s my story, and (for now), I’m sticking to it.

*For the record, I don’t know anything about crystals, I’ve never used them, and they’re just a part of the woo that I personally haven’t ever explored. But I don’t have any judgement over them because crystals came from the Earth…and God created that…soooo unless the trees are also in on the occult, I think we’re safe. ;)