Ventilation

Where do you vent? More complicated than respiration, more important than air-conditioning. All people need a place to vent; a place to put off all of the things we are unable to deal with in our lives. We need a place where the good the bad and the ugly can be stored and sifted through until, we hope, mostly the good remains.

But if you're anything like me, and I use the word you loosely, you have trouble venting. This post may not be very long, but I hope it communicates something useful. Recently, I have found it increasingly difficult to vent. The people and places I once relied on or expected to be used for such a cause have not delivered as I had expected. This seems to be a recurring theme in life, one that I thought I had already learned. The problem is, I forgot.

Where do you vent? Where do you go? The right answer might be obvious, but the right answer probably isn't the same. I know where I should vent, but it seems to have become the last place I ever go. The feeling I get when I am left unsatisfied by an attempt to vent reminds me of James 4:2

You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet [fn] you do not have because you do not ask.

 It is a loosing battle to try and let go of your deepest pains to someone or something as damaged as your are - that is certainly not to say that it is un-fruitful; some of the strongest relationships are born amidst sharing our troubles. No what I mean is that to share with another alone is an incomplete solution to a completely messed up problem - your (my) heart.

Remember the complete solution, just six verses away, James 4:8

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. 

As a parting thought, it is very important that community is built among the hurting, and I'll always be willing to listen as are many of your closest friends. But I promise you, no one can heal and deliver like your heavenly father.