Wake Up, Look Up

Hello everyone, and thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch, and in today's episode, we're asking the question, are you stuck in a narrative? Now, stay with me on this one. It's a little more creative than Prompted by a review in the Washington Post of Lena Dunham, hbo, Girls show writer, kind of writer, producer in the Hollywood world. She recently wrote a memoir about kind of a decade of her life, talking about, it's called Fame Sick. And it talks about the difficulties of being famous and relationships and all of that. But what's interesting in the review is that the writer of the review is pulling out kind of a, cognitive, dissonance in Dunham's work. What she says is Dunham says that the chief problem she's dealt with over the last 10 years is a desire to be a people pleaser, to make everyone around her happy at the expense of herself. But what the writer points out is when you write a decade long kind, of memoir about those relationships, airing your dirty laundry, telling everyone how this person let you down or why that relationship ended, you're actually anything but a people pleaser. the writer makes the point that repeatedly in the story, Dunham is self focused. the point is, what did she get or what did she lose? It's not about other people, it's about her. Now listen, I haven't read the book, but when I read the review, I knew this experience because I've done this in my own life and you've done it in yours. What the writer is saying is that Dunham has created a narrative, a narrative in which she's this hopeless people pleaser who just keeps thinking about everyone else and it's costing her. Meanwhile, everyone around her is saying, that's ridiculous. You're actually a narcissist. My point is we can create a narrative of our lives, past, present and future, in which we are the heroic victim, the one person trying to get things right that everyone doesn't understand. And we might then think that because we're the heroic victim, all the relationships that we've lost, the friendships we've lost, are really just sad things that happen to us, tragic characters through the mistakes and malice of other people. Meanwhile, everyone we used to be in relationship with knows we're actually the problem. You know, Jeremiah says it, this way in Jeremiah 17:9, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can Understand it. You know, Jeremiah says the heart is deceitful. Your heart, my heart. Deceitful. Who is the heart deceiving? Well, it's me. My heart is deceiving me. Constructing a narrative in which I'm the good guy and everyone else is the bad guy. And look, you've heard me on this podcast. Champion therapy. I think it can be an incredibly helpful tool. It can also be an incredibly destructive tool because the wrong therapist will buy into your narrative, helping you to see the world as though everyone else is the bad guy and you are the good guy. Know what we actually need in a therapist? A counselor, a pastor, a friend, A spouse is someone who helps us see the sickness of our own hearts. It isn't that other people haven't hurt us. Of course they are. It isn't that some relationships don't fall apart because of other people's mistakes. Of course they do. But we can't actually aim at those things, can we? We can lament them, we can grieve them. We should. But we can't change them. What we're actually empowered to change is our own role. What we need are friends, counselors, therapists, pastors, who say to us, but what if you're not the hero? What if you're not the victim? Hey, let's take a look at where you might have contributed. You know, one John one says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us. In other words, if we'll stop making excuses and start owning things, healing can actually come through Jesus. So if you're finding yourself stuck in a narrative and look, I've been there, I really have, so I empathize. But if you're starting to realize, well, hold on a second. Maybe M m. Maybe I have turned myself into this heroic victim. Maybe the same gap in Dunham's thinking exists in yours. That's okay. Just acknowledge that and go look for someone or someones who can help you untangle the deceitfulness of your own heart. Remember that even if in this moment right now, you're realizing, oh my goodness, I am the problem, Jesus Christ has died for that. The Holy Spirit of God has come to empower you and indwell you to free you from that. And your future is an eternal destiny where you are not that. Don't be afraid to own who you are and what you've done. It's actually the first step of healing. I hope Dunham figures that out and takes that step. But more importantly, I hope you do. Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. And while you're here, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get further content or even download the CCC app, where you'll find even more resources to help you grow in your faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

Have an article you’d like Zach to discuss? Email us at wakeup@ccchapel.com!