The Hopeful Perspective
Welcome to "The Hopeful Perspective" a podcast discussing what it entails to transform from a personal position of suffering, pain, loss and HOPELESSNESS toward a renewed perspective of security, perseverance, love and HOPE. I am your host, Jason Hopkins, a long time victim and survivor who has personally been impacted by the Lord to be a victor and a thriver! In each podcast episode you can expect to find authentic dialog from a Biblical and experiential perspective—that is, BEYOND mere religious anecdotes and simple academic exercise—though all used together engage how to find the HOPE that is essential in moving from a victim to victory. Survivor to thriver. Hopeless to hopeful.
Please download, share, subscribe and stay tuned for this journey with me. Leave a review to support and spread awareness for the Hopeful Perspective. As a man who has lived, studied and who truly understands the definition of not only 'surviving' trauma, but authentically thriving as a renewed creation amidst a broken and hurting world, I am humbled to share this platform with you. Prepare to be a critical thinker, a passionate responder and ultimately to be inspired towards The Hopeful Perspective. I would be honored to eventually earn your trust, and welcome you as a part of the 'Hopeful' family.
The Hopeful Perspective
Jar Of Clay Part 3: Embracing the Stages of Maturation
What if the key to overcoming trauma and achieving true maturity lies in joy-filled relationships and faith? Join me, Jason Hopkins, as I share the third portion of our new series, "Jar of Clay." Inspired by the book "Living from the Heart Jesus Gave You," we explore the concept of biblical maturity and how 'joy strength' and the brain's incredible capacity to grow its joy center are foundational in developing maturity. We discuss the critical role of unconditional love, trust, and bonding in the differing stages of maturity, setting the stage for growth and healing.
In this episode, we also tackle the cycles of transformation and healing. Facing traumas with honesty can lead to a more mature and whole self, and I encourage those feeling isolated in their recovery journey to re-engage with their communities. For those ready to embrace faith in Jesus Christ, I offer a prayer of salvation and invite them to find a supportive faith community and immerse themselves in scripture. As we express gratitude to our supporters and outline ways to further engage with our podcast, we also preview our next topic on how the brain recovers from trauma. This episode is designed to inspire and guide you toward redemption and purpose in Christ. Join us and become a part of this transformative journey.
Are you inspired by what you hear today? Jason deeply appreciates his listeners taking their time to listening, downloading, and sharing The Hopeful Perspective Podcast. Please help me spread 'hope' to others by writing a review for the podcast making it reachable for all who need to be inspired, encouraged, and changed by hoping once again. Further, understand that downloading the podcast is a surefire way to help increase the algorithm thus the reach of The Hopeful Perspective, even if you delete the episode after listening so as to not affect your data storage. I have also provided a (Support the Show) link DIRECTLY ABOVE THIS PARAGRAPH to click on for those who have shared with me they are "all in" and feel called to financially support the mission and vision of The Hopeful Perspective. A special thank you to those who have made this humble step to financially support the podcast. Without you, there is no US!
Jason Hopkins can also be reached on Facebook as well as Instagram and Threads (jayhop9953). You can also follow 'The Hopeful Perspective' FB page; where you can find more information as well as learn about upcoming news and episodes on the The Hopeful Perspective Podcast.
Welcome to the Hopeful Perspective Podcast. I am your host, jason Hopkins. This podcast is designed to give you a perspective of hope that impacts your daily life in an authentic and tangible way. I have shared my life story, which illustrates God's glory through my own personal experiences overcoming child abuse and trauma, 26 foster homes and institutions, various diagnosis affecting me throughout my life and an eventual brain tumor resulting in multiple brain surgeries on my brain stem. I have moved from merely a surviving former victim to a faithful and godly, thriving victor who has moved to helping others discover hope. Though my past was full of pain and suffering, I have been restored with purpose and sanctification. I have been redeemed. I have also been called to follow Christ in my redemption. Now I want to take a moment to thank you for listening and, if you have been doing so, taking the time to download our episodes, as when you download, along with rating our podcast with an honest response, you help the algorithm immensely to spread our reach. However, our stats demonstrate that while thousands listened and streamed the hopeful perspective, less than 10% actually download our episodes. Please consider bridging the gap to broadening that reach for us. We have also provided a few options to either contact our show with your direct feedback, as well as to support the podcast financially, if you are called to partner with us in bringing hope to a hurting world.
Speaker 1:Last week, we continued our new series entitled Jar of Clay world. Last week, we continued our new series entitled Jar of Clay. Why Jar of Clay, you ask? In scripture, we, as God's people, are often described as jars of clay to illustrate our fragility and our weakness. Yet the Bible also uses a metaphor to show that God's power belongs to him, not to us, and that His power shines through us broken jars of clay. This is also a series based on the healing resource, a book entitled Living from the Heart Jesus Gave you, one that has deeply impacted my personal journey as a broken jar of clay living with dissociative identity disorder, and how this book helped me to live and even lead when I battled this rare and intense personality disorder. I strongly urge you to grab the book Living from the Heart Jesus Gave you, written by Wilder, friesen, Kopke, bierling and Poole, if you want to learn more about trusting Him with your past wounds, so you too can move into your future promises. Though it is a quick read, it is a treasure chest of biblical nuggets for anyone who needs to move from past grief to future glory in Christ. Before we get started today, I want to compel you to grab your favorite snack, hot or cold beverage, get comfortable and come on this journey with me as we explore more of the treasure chests found in Living from the Heart Jesus Gave you.
Speaker 1:We left off last time in our discussion, weighing the positive effects of community, of having a therapist who is grounded in faith, yet also applying the innovations of today's neuropsychology, as well as what it means to move towards biblical wholeness and recovery. We have begun to look at what the life model is and what principles and values living from the heart Jesus gave you as a resource employs its readers to adhere to and to live by. Today we are going to be discussing the concept of biblical maturity. Living from the heart Jesus gave you defines maturity as reaching one's God's giving potential, maximizing our skills, our talents and using them effectively. We needed to lay the foundation we have to this point, much like a carpenter lays the foundation of a house by discussing what it means to have sufficient joy strength lays the foundation for all other maturity and growth in our development.
Speaker 1:People who develop without proper joy strength or joy capacity in the right side of the brain can appear just fine for the first 20 or even 30 years of their life, but eventually the trials and tribulation reveal the faulty joy foundations laid due to their early traumas in their life. I have said this before, but I love how God's word and God's world do not contradict themselves. We touched on this fact last episode that he and his omnipotent wisdom accounted for the deficiencies in our brain structure that would happen due to sin and trauma. How does his sovereign hand magnify and glorify himself, you wonder? The Father created the brain with the capacity to compensate accordingly. You see, while most of the brain stops growing at certain stages of development, the brain's joy center, located in the right orbital prefrontal cortex, is the only part of our brain that never loses its capacity to grow.
Speaker 1:Now your next question may be how does our joy strength or joy capacity develop? Again, I have said this before and I learned this firsthand in my own healing. This occurs within healthy, authentic, joy-filled relationships. The beauty of this is that we can grow this part of our brain at any age, so you can heal from your trauma, no matter what age. You initiate the process, much like our discipleship process and our becoming like Christ. The maturation process in the life model that Living From the Heart Jesus gave you, never stops occurring. Maturity never ends and, as a result, our need for relationship never changes. In order to understand this better, the life model takes us through the various stages of maturity, that is, in fact, irrespective of our age. Each stage has maturity requirements in the form of needs and tasks that one has to accomplish and perform to move beyond the stage. Let's take a look for the rest of our episode at these various stages.
Speaker 1:The first maturity stage one has to move beyond is the infant stage, or the 0-3 years. In this stage, the fundamental need is to receive unconditional love and care, where receiving always precedes giving. Parents supply. The infant's needs to be fed, nurtured, changed, hugged, etc. Developing trust through bonding with parents is so crucial as it requires time, togetherness and the power of touch with both parents involved. We begin forming at this infant stage our basic pictures of our identity and our senses of belonging and value. As we have previously discussed, our initial joy development is crucial and the foundation at this early stage crucial and the foundation at this early stage. We need to be the sparkle in our parents' eyes, and we need to learn that joy is our normal state of being. These form the conditions that actually grow our joy center of the brain, which in turn have executive control over our emotional systems, the rest of our lives. Once these needs have been met, then we can obviously care for ourselves. When these needs and our maturity go unmet, then we spend the rest of our lives trying to get others to take care of us.
Speaker 1:Adult infants, if you will, who have not yet received in these most basic of areas, will come off as needy adults. They will have a difficult time handling their emotions and they will have a difficult time appropriately receiving things from others. Further, they will have difficulty handling valid and constructive criticism or negative feedback and receive anything like this as personal attack. Relationships with one caught in the adult-infant stage are often severely complicated, as manipulation such as fear bonding will be used so that you will remain in relationship to them. I myself was at the infant stage well into my adolescence and possibly into my young adulthood, because I didn't start receiving the help I needed nor the joy strength necessary until I was a young adult. As a result, I know that my relationships were often what are called the chaotic bond, which we will discuss at a later time. For now, it suffices to say that I would draw people close because I sincerely wanted to be close to them, yet I also was genuinely scared when they would be too close, so I would push them away through sabotaging the relationship.
Speaker 1:The next stage of maturity is that of the child, or the 4 through 12 year range. The child at the right age is capable of communicating what they think and feel and, therefore, appropriately, what they need. Learning to care for oneself requires that you master several of the tasks we discussed before. Children learn what brings them satisfaction, and if they do not learn, then others will be the deciding force. Further, as a child, we have to learn how to do hard things, which requires us to learn patience, and that will take parental guidance. We see an erroneous entitlement mentality in the West today, where literal generations are growing up seemingly skipping this key foundational step in their development.
Speaker 1:Children also develop their personal talents, or else they fill their lives with unproductive activities. Children also learn self-care, which requires a sense of knowing their self and making themselves known to others. This also entails having a sense of boundaries. That necessitates knowing where I end and you begin and respecting one another, child adults or those who are adults in children bodies will be highly egocentric. You will go away feeling drained, as though, in order to maintain relationship with one of them, you will always need to give more to them, listen more to them and tolerate more than they would go or be to anyone else. Now they can take care of themselves, but they can only take care of themselves with the exception of anyone else around them.
Speaker 1:When a child moves to an adult stage, or 13 years to the birth of their own first child, you will know this. When they shift from being egocentric to both-centric. As Living from the Heart Jesus Gives you states. Mutuality is the trademark of an adult because he or she can take care of two people at the same time. Adults know how to remain stable themselves, and this point is crucial. They can return themselves, as well as others, to joy. This is so important as a marker because people at lesser developed stages will still avoid escape or get stuck in emotions which will cripple and affect relationships. Adult-level relationships are capable of bonding with peers and develop a group identity. The next stage for discussion is the parent or the first birth, until the youngest child becomes an adult Again.
Speaker 1:We know that just having a child doesn't place me at this stage by default, as I myself can attest in my own story. I had three children and yet was stuck at lower stages in my own maturity for some time. Yet you know, you are at the parent stage when you can sacrificially care for your children without expecting to receive anything in return. Without expecting to receive anything in return, we know that we often feel exhausted, overwhelmed and, honestly, I have often even felt begrudged or underappreciated. Anyone who has had teenagers can attest to this one. It is one thing to feel burnt out on occasion and another to become entitled as a parent to ourselves. Though, believe it or not, there are parents who feel like they should not have to sacrifice their time, money or social lives just because they have dependents. Now, to be clear, this is actually a sign of their own childhood trauma.
Speaker 1:Before we begrudge or hate upon anyone like this that we may know, mature parents also learn that they can involve other spiritual authorities into their family dynamic or the fabric of their lives to help in the rearing of their children's lives. Whether it's grandparents, other family members, good Christian friends, pastors, mentors, there are many people who are going to help shape the promises and purposes our children are called to have, and mature parents will see this. They will also have the ability to walk their children through difficult times. Yet, as you can probably guess, return to joy, which is forever important as it is how the Lord created us. The final stage of maturity begins when our final child becomes an adult. Living from the heart Jesus gave you makes a point that, sadly, most people in our culture do not make it to this point in their spiritual or emotional maturity. This is unfortunate, as the success of any community, church, family, school or even a culture will have a direct correlation to the presence of true elders.
Speaker 1:Guiding and advising A true elder can be themselves in the midst of a difficulty. They have the ability to help figure out what a community has been designed by the Lord to be, rather than by imposing their own designs upon that community. True elders value all community members as the Lord sees them. They parent and mature as many from the community as they are able to. They are able to handle criticism, they speak truth regardless if it is popular or easy, and they empower the youth of the next generation. And true elders are able to identify spiritual orphans who need to be adopted and cared for just as they cared for their own children.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure I have reached the stage of elder yet, though I can certainly identify the elders in my life who have made the impact of spiritually adopting me and influencing me in such a way that I know I am a child of God and I belong to His family and I can hear His voice. I look to these elders much like, I think, some look to their own biological fathers. I am grateful for their presence and their guidance in my life, and I know that in certain days my whole faith has been restored, in part because of their faithfulness to me. I know that I have learned that maturity never ends and that I have never stopped meeting other people. I have thrived when I have been in community or even just committed myself to the process of connecting with others to get unstuck in the areas of my progress.
Speaker 1:Another thing that, living From the Heart Jesus gave you, points out is what is called a transformation cycle. That can take place throughout our life. I have found this to be true as well. The transformation cycles can often be accompanied by anxiety, depression or other new feelings that can be overwhelming. They can follow healing or completion of one of the previously stated maturity stages. Transformation gives a person a new identity when the old one is broken. The pain can be intense, yet that is part of the cycle leading to wholeness. As the cycle is completed, a more fully developed, mature self emerges with additional life skills and, of course, with increased joy. And this is the defining factor of the maturity process that we are required to face our trauma with honesty and authenticity, even when the results can be painful, broken and seemingly tragic. Yet God is repairing at our core because a transformation cycle is being allowed to be completed due to our bravery to push through, leading to higher levels of maturity and joy. And this is God showing us what is hope.
Speaker 1:Yet maybe some of you are feeling isolated from your community. Maybe some of you are feeling hopeless. Perhaps you are turning to listening to podcasts as your way of feeling included or part of something bigger than yourself. Maybe you are on your own recovery journey or have paused your own trauma recovery as things became difficult and it is time to pick up the pace again, as you feel the spirit moving on you today, perhaps you are feeling called to give back to your community and you need to move closer to the afflicted or the lesser of these in your church, family or your community. Maybe you are listening and you have never made a decision to follow Jesus Christ as your Lord and your Savior before today, any direction you are sensing the Spirit moving. I would be remiss if we left our time today without providing an opportunity for us to respond, and I want to pray for you right now. If you're listening, either agree with this prayer or lift those up that are interceding right now.
Speaker 1:Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins and I surrender my life to you. Wash me and cleanse me from all unforgiveness and pride. I believe that you are the Son of God, that you died on the cross for the forgiveness of my sins and that you rose again on the third day for my victory. I believe that in my heart and make confession with my mouth that you, jesus, are my Lord and my Savior and that your kingdom is forever. I want to live my life according to your terms and I want you to change my reliance for myself and any earthly vessels. I have placed hope and instead I want to trust your plan and ask for you to put the people and the processes and the models to pursue restoration into my life. I ask for you to reveal to me where I have neglected the needs of those who are broken around me, where I've become indifferent, incapable or I've been unable to unprioritize those that need to feel the hope of Christ.
Speaker 1:Thank you for being a God of mercy, a God of healing and a God of truth. Might I become a beacon of hope to the hurting. Give us the spiritual eyes to see on earth as it is in heaven, and may our priorities begin to reflect your heart and your kingdom. Jesus, it's in your name that we pray, amen. If you have today agreed with this prayer from the depths of your heart, I welcome you to the eternal family of God and I commend you. If you've returned to the faith, I want to continue as an encouragement for you to find an orthodox, biblical-based faith family who worships the Lord passionately. Also, devote yourself to the reading of the scriptures, as there is so much to grow, to learn and to be discipled in as it pertains to new life and maturity in Christ.
Speaker 1:Next time on the Hopeful Perspective podcast, we will be continuing our series in jars of clay where we discuss the concepts of how the brain recovers from trauma. As you can see, there is so much that can be said short of reading this book to you guys, word for word. I hope, believe and pray this will be transformative for whoever listens, at whatever stage in development that you are in. So I am looking forward to being with you next time on the Hopeful Perspective podcast. Until then, I want to thank you for joining me along this journey.
Speaker 1:Until then, I want to thank you for joining me along this journey and if you'd be so kind to follow, subscribe and, most importantly, to rate and write a review for others on your platform who may need the hopeful perspective in their life. Did you know that you can contribute monetarily by pressing our support, the show link that is embedded on your platform and episode descriptions? All of your contributions are utilized to grow the podcast, to multiply our equipment, to broaden our reach and to share the hope of Christ. I want to shout out my gratitude to the multiple new donors who already have made this commitment to support the podcast financially. Without you, it would not be possible to reach as many people with the messages we do, or anyone who needs to be reminded that hope is real. So thank you so much in advance and until next time, remember you are loved.
