Remove These Thorns

By Greg Michael McCrary

Life's foundation is depicted around the notation of how people feel toward each other. If there are attributions or similarities that allow individuals to be comfortable with one another, a level of acceptance is given.
Three entities determine our coexistence – family, society and religion. These are the recourses by which most live without judging or questioning their personal validity of life. Yet, who you are is not subject to these three. It may be prominent, but to be free in body, soul and spirit, we must separate from whatever holds them captive.
Are you living or existing?
What has you hiding or living a secondary life that means you exist without others?
In Remove These Thorns, Greg-Michael McCrary challenges readers to think about their relationship with God. If He says NO to delivering, healing and changing you, how do you live?
Everyone has tragic, comprisable pasts they are unwilling to discuss, but it leaves many as prisoners in a wall of shame. Yet, we are allowing an erroneous moment to trap us in fear and embarrassment.
What thorn exists within your soul that has developed into shame?
Is it a secret career path, private lifestyle or conception of a birth that ended quickly because of what others might have stated?
Whatever IT may be, IT is exclusively you.
Who you are was written before your birth within your parents. Understand that if there was a moment you had to reconfigure, your decision would not have been the same.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Greg Michael McCrary
• Release date: Dec 13, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223436287

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Copyright © 2023 Greg-Michael McCrary

First edition 2023

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without permission from the copyright holder.

The Author has made every effort to trace and acknowledge sources/resources/individuals. In the event that any images/information have been incorrectly attributed or credited, the Author will be pleased to rectify these omissions at the earliest opportunity.

Published by Greg-Michael McCrary using Reach Publishers’ services,

P O Box 1384, Wandsbeck, South Africa, 3631

Edited by Andrew Pender-Smith for Reach Publishers

Cover designed by Reach Publishers

Website: www.reachpublishers.org

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Greg-Michael McCrary

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Introduction

Is it generally possible for humans to live in total truth through the elimination of hiding sensitive information about themselves? It’s disheartening that our religious, personal, cultural, and societal beliefs have remained a hindrance to freedom for many individuals to live. We often fight not to enter the confinements of prison. However, we daily place ourselves within prison boundaries due to fear. The sense of freedom is the release of not allowing the outsiders in your life to sentence you into bondage by speaking against who you are. Reverso Dictionary describes bondage as: "captivity, confinement, duress, enslavement, enthrallment, imprisonment, selfdom, servitude, slavery, subjection, subjugation, thralldom, vassalage, or yoke. I must ask, which of these fourteen words describe your inner situation?

What we see, hear, touch, and smell are not our reality. Maybe they’re an illusion or fragmentation of our desired reality, or perhaps our perception of what we consider reality in a particular situation based on the way we receive the information. Because of various factors in any time or place, each of our five senses can easily be manipulated (often subconsciously), meaning our perception of reality may not be so. Hiding yourself due to the non-acceptance of your personal versions of reality is a malfunction.

What one may be hiding is a reality of the individual. Within the individual’s mind, he or she may have suppressed themselves so much that they’ve become a figment of their own imagination. Unfortunately, this will turn into a shame. I’ve discovered that in order to change the future, one must review, receive, and return to one’s own reality. You need to review the true identity of who you are as an individual created in the image of God. It’s remarkable that we learn and study the behaviours of colleagues, friends, partners, and associates, yet we do not understand who we are. The unknown person residing within us. One needs to receive oneself and accept one’s reality. One must not desire love or acceptance from anyone but have the power within to give it to oneself. The desire to be needed by others is only the neglect of oneself being exposed. When you receive, acknowledge, and accept your reality, only then will you be capable of handling others. Finally, return yourself. One should never introduce oneself to anyone incompletely. Once you have found, understood, and accepted all your flaws and conditions, offer yourself back to the world with confidence and nothing to hide.

Imagine a newborn baby resting for nine months in the womb of his or her mother. Consider the sense of comfort, security, and stability this child felt while growing up and the connection formulated between both. The only thing this child hears for these nine months are imagery-building affirmations. At the end of the ninth month, the comfort this child has had with their mother is over as it is time for the mother to give birth. The mother and the child endure discomfort and a level of pain during birthing. It’s interesting to note that before being born, all this developing child heard was things they were able to do and become while being in the womb. Once a child leaves the womb and enters this unknown world he or she encounters a different language. This child hears from the time he or she is a toddler, what not to do. When you are a teenager, you are told that you’re not able to do this or that career as it doesn’t bring money to you. At the toddler stage the child learns how to suppress their emotions and who they are. Altering ourselves and our desires to be accepted into life is self-limiting. It is as if you are a piece of a puzzle and you’re trying to force fit yourself. If you’re not meant to be in a particular picture, you’re not, and that’s fine. Position yourself in the picture that fits who you are and not who people say you should be.

Unfortunately, defeat is often associated with shame. Many individuals are currently residing in the land of shame and pity have become stuck through no fault of their own. Shame is the feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrongful or foolish behaviour. The truth is that we all have shameful moments in our lives.

1. Having a child when one is unmarried

2. Not accepting your sexual orientation

3. Married yet in an abusive relationship

4. Leading a double life: marriage and cheating

5. Stealing or being involved in corruption

6. Having an abortion and not informing anyone

7. On drugs and can’t be freed (and no one knows why)

8. No longer living how I used to live

9. Living a fantasy life

Society and the Church have placed individuals in categories which restrict them from living in the purpose of God. Imagine that your shame is your purpose on earth. Whatever your most dreadful moment in your life may be, it gives you the purpose to aide someone else. This is turning lemons into lemonade. This series is designed to display not only the compassion and love of Jesus but also to offer strength to you that will eliminate shameful living. Your next is much greater than your now. You must be willing to change the name of shame to something more positive to help you climb onto your platform of purpose.

Many individuals consider shame to be the same as guilt. They are similar yet they are different. Shame reduces one’s tendency to behave in socially constructive ways; rather it is shame’s cousin guilt, that promotes socially adaptive behaviour. Like shame, guilt occurs when we transgress moral, ethical or religious norms and criticise ourselves for it. When we feel shame, we view ourselves negatively; when we feel guilt, we view a particular action negatively.

Guilt is a sign that a person can be empathetic. It is an important trait that one feels guilt to help one’s ability to see someone else’s perspective and to behave altruistically to have close, caring relationships with others. Of course, to some extent, guilt and shame often occur together. Guilt can trigger a sense of shame in many people because of the discrepancy between the standard to which they hold themselves and the action that caused the guilt. The connection between guilt and shame grows stronger with any increase in the intentions of our desire to misbehave, the number of people who witnessed our misdoing when we do go astray, and the importance of those individuals to us. Shame will also increase if the person who was harmed by our action rejects or rebukes us.

• Merriam-Webster defines shame as follows: Shame is the painful emotion caused by a consciousness of guilt or shortcoming or impropriety. It’s the condition of humiliating disgrace or disrepute.

From my personal experience, I would say that shame is information that you won’t share with those who are close to you or who may judge you for who you really are because you are afraid of being embarrassed or rejected.

- Chapter 1 -

Who Am I?

The greatest accomplishments are birthed from the greatest obstacles.

If I were to inform you that who you are is not who you were, would you believe me? Our lives are altered by our surroundings. Religion, family, friendship, one’s associations with others, culture, and society have a way of unconsciously adjusting or openly pressuring one to conform in such a way that one is forced to become a person one would not choose to be. When I was growing up, I often knew who I desired to be. It’s funny because when I was speaking with my sister, Veronica, while visiting the United States, she reminded me, Greg, do you recall you wanted six to ten children? I immediately remembered and disregarded the notation with a laugh. I’ve always desired to be an obstetrician. Yet, as I grew up, I found myself with no biological children and I am now an entrepreneur and a bishop. One seeks to inspire the world and express the nature of God.

I’ve heard many questions throughout my years. One of the most significant and that gives me strength is: Who Am I? What is my assignment, my purpose, my call, and my identity? Who Am I? The only way a person will ever understand and meet who they are is by being willing to return to their beginning. In the Old Testament, Genesis 1:26-27, God speaks a soliloquy in which he discusses creating man within His own image according to His likeness. Understand, this is the only creation He made with such importance. This states there’s a level of importance and appreciation. In the Book of Jeremiah 1:5, He now informs Jeremiah of something truly outlandish and powerful. "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. In other words, there’s nothing shameful, closeted, suppressed, hidden, or thrown away of you that He doesn’t know. These things did not stop God from approving who He’d created you to be. In Jeremiah 1:5, God says, I knew you first". I wrestled with both of these scriptures due to identity conflict and crisis. In both contexts, society, family, religion, et cetera, weren’t present to determine what was proper for who I was. You need to come to the acceptance that God created you for a purpose, and that you are purposefully created good.

If we placed more energy into who we were and not who we are, our lives would be more relevant and therefore easier. The person that we see daily is vanquished. He or she is subdued by the fear of trying to be accepted, acknowledged and become accepted by individuals around us. We have fallen into the trap of conforming to what our surroundings have taught us to be and this has been many years in the making.

Who were you? When you were first created you were given a purpose, a destiny, and meaning in life. Imagine yourself as a little child and think of your conversations with others in primary school. Remember you desire to fit in with the coolest children or those who appear to have more of a social status than you. Perhaps you returned home with questions such as: Why don’t the other kids like me? When did you introduce who you were to the other children if you’re busy trying to fit into the crowd with them? This same pattern continued when you became older and developed more. However, it became harder rather than easier for you to adapt to those around you.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines adaptability as: "able to change or be changed in order to fit or work better in some situation or for some purpose: able to adapt or be adapted".

This definition of truth is acceptable to many, even when we submit our CV for the purpose of seeking employment, we state that we can change and be adaptable. Society has taught us how to be a masked individual. You are taught and encouraged to dismiss who you really are to get what you truly desire.

Who are you? Is not a truthful way of stating this question. It should be: Who have you become? In order to properly identify with who you are, you must be able to translate yourself without fear, shame, or guilt. One must feel comfortable with the fact that if one isn’t accepted as oneself, it is fine. An introduction doesn’t come with silent apologies. This is particularly important to bear in mind whenever one finds oneself searching for a way to show who one is to others. If am making a silent apology or showing reluctance while introducing myself, it is a major indication to me that I am not operating in my true identity. Or, as I have heard before, in my own truth. By now, many may be asking, "Should I disclose even my personal and private life to individuals I do not know? Of course not! There