Bible Connection Podcast: Bloom in the Dark
Many people have pain and wounds they don’t talk about. Fear and shame create a cycle of isolation and hopelessness. But the Bible is light to these dark places.
After suffering decades of abuse of all kinds, Paula found herself as a single mom in a new city, jobless, with three young boys to homeschool. In these circumstances, she heard God’s call to start a ministry helping people still caught in the darkness of brokenness and shame. Bloom in the Dark started with real, raw stories of people who found hope and restoration in the gospel with the slogan, “Use the fertilizer of your past to bloom in your future.”
The book turned into a TV show, Bloom Today, now syndicated around the world and on Amazon Prime. Paula’s co-host and ministry partner, Ginny Priz, adds her own story of addiction and choices that turned into painful and embarrassing consequences.
Together, Paula, Ginny, and their team of counselors, life coaches, pastors, and more, share the good news that there is no pit too deep in your life to experience freedom, joy, and abundant life in Christ.
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Bloom in the Dark
Mission
To raise awareness about the damage caused by secret pain and abuse, and demonstrate the hope and healing found in Christ Jesus through ex-victim testimonies, connections, and tools.
Vision
A culture where people choose redemption and healing in Christ Jesus so they bloom despite darkness and pain.
Values
LOVE: Love God, Love yourself so you can Love your neighbor
HONESTY: Be honest with God, yourself and others especially when it hurts
FORGIVENESS: Forgive God, yourself and others quickly
ENCOURAGEMENT: Encourage yourself with God’s Word, your words, and other’s words through what you see, hear, and speak.
Excerpt from This Podcast
8:31 — What does the word “ex-victim,” that’s printed on your shirt, mean?
Paula: I don’t need to be ashamed because somebody else did me harm. I can claim victory over that. I don’t have to do it, but I also don’t need to run away from what it was. I can’t heal from something I never admitted happened. I’ve got to own the fact that it happened. I’ve got to own that I was a victim, not to stay there and make it my ID, but I get to own it so that I can say there’s healing, there’s change, there’s growth. I don’t have to be that any more. And by wearing a shirt that says that, I’m letting other people see that I’m not walking in shame anymore. I can own the past and not be there anymore and claim a completely different future, where that past in my story helps me help other people.
8:31 — How do you sustain a mentality of not being a next victim?
Paula: It has been renewing my mind. It’s a nice Scripture to say, “Oh yeah, you’re supposed to renew your mind” and everybody knows that, but what are you actively doing to renew your mind? In my case, if I’m not facing God, if I’m not choosing truth, if I am not actively creating new neural pathways in my mind in the thought processes, then I will be automatically reverting to the victim mindset: in the damage and the susceptibility to perpetrators, and to situations. I have lists of perpetrators, male and female, over 40 years of damage. And so for me, learning and shifting and changing those thought processes and those patterns, and recognizing where that truth is in my story, and having to have that be absolute front of mind focus—it’s not a random thing, “Oh, I should read the Bible because that’s a good Christian thing to do.” It is a lifeline for me. It is absolutely necessary to be able to stay an ex-victim. It is necessary to have the courage to step out and tell my story and to encourage other people to do that. It is the truth that sets us free. If I don’t have that truth constantly there, then the lies take over and that’s not okay.
Episode Links:
Bloom in the Dark website
Bloom in the Dark book
Bloom Today on Amazon Prime
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