5 Minutes with Jesus is a daily devotional series for people in the midst of real life, whether facing anxiety, grief, questions of purpose, or simply needing encouragement and connection. Hosted by Sheila Walsh, each five-minute episode offers Biblical truth, honest reflections on faith and emotions, and closes with a moment of prayer.
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| Sheila Walsh: Can You Truly Be Healed? | 5 Minutes with Jesus | April 7, 2026
- I don't know what your story is.
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- I don't know what you're struggling with.
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- I want you to know you can tell god the whole truth.
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- You can reach out for help.
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- And because of jesus, it really is okay not to be okay.
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- You don't have to be perfect.
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- Because he is.
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- Okay, i have a question.
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- And my question for you is this.
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- Is there lasting healing on this earth?
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- Or are we doomed to simply patch ourselves up as best we can
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- Until we finally limp home to the arms
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- Of our father and heaven?
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- I mean, think about it.
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- If you walk into your church
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- This sunday and you had a broken arm.
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- Everybody want to know what happened?
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- What did you do?
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- What if you walked into your church for ten years
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- With a broken heart and nobody has even noticed?
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- I think that's one of the greatest challenges.
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- You know, sometimes i live that way for so many years.
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- There was so much brokenness in my life, from
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- From my childhood, from my father's death by suicide.
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- From the way i saw myself as too broken to be loved.
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- And over the years, i've learned some things that have made
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- A difference, have been like kind of healing keys in my life.
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- I want to just share
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- Three of them with you to see if they connect with you.
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- Number one is this
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- Tell god the whole truth.
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- Yet you actually get to come as you really are.
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- I remember at my very first night
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- And a psychiatric hospital, i was terrified.
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- I felt as if, i mean, i literally felt
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- As if i'd gone to hell
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- Because i thought god would start loving me now.
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- One of the staff i worked with said,
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- If people find out
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- You've been in a psychotic battle, sheila,
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- No one will ever trust you again.
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- Your ministry is over.
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- And honestly, i didn't really care about my ministry.
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- I was really struggling to save my life.
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- And i remember,
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- One of my first times with a counselor
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- Sitting down and talking and them saying to me, are you.
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- Are you angry?
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- And i was like, no, i'm not angry
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- Because, you know, i've discovered
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- Sometimes when you're when you don't know
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- How to express what's really going on inside
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- And you bury anger, you push it down.
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- What came out of me was sarcasm.
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- You know, i could be smart and sarcastic,
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- But it was just a defense mechanism.
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- And what happened to me during that month
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- That i spent in a psychiatric hospital was such a gift.
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- It was as if god, in his mercy, just began to take brick after
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- Brick out of the wall that i had built around my life
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- And let me know, you know what?
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- You actually get to come and tell me everything.
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- I remember writing got a letter?
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- I know that sounds nuts, like, where are you going to mail it.
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- But it was so good for me.
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- I remember sitting at the garden at the hospital
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- And writing out everything, pouring it all out,
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- Telling god everything.
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- And then i cried over that lette
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- And i felt.
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- I felt like i'd been washed clean.
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- I don't know what your story is, but i do know this.
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- You get to tell god the whole truth.
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- Number two thing that's important to me.
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- Don't be afraid to ask for help.
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- You know, there's a reason we're called the body of christ.
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- There's a reason that
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- So much of scripture talks about being there
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- For one another, bearing one another's burdens.
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- You know, when i had a diagnosis of severe clinical depression,
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- I never really intended to talk about that.
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- I was grateful for the help that i got,
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- But i thought, well, that's not something
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- You, you know, you kind of put in your resume.
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- Being in a psych ward, sure, you can trust me.
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- But then i began to
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- Realize god is a redeemer.
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- And no matter what we have walked through in life,
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- It's a beautiful thing that god will do
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- With a broken life if you give him all the pieces.
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- And here's how i kind of discovered that.
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- I got a call from a pastor
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- Months after i was out of the hospital,
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- And he said,
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- I see that you're going to be
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- In our city and speaking, and a bunch of women
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- From the church are coming.
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- My wife is not because she's on medication for depression,
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- Which nobody in our church knows
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- Because she thinks it would harm my ministry.
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- Is there any way you would meet with her just by herself?
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- And i was like, yeah, of course.
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- So i flew in a day early, and i met them in my hotel, and
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- Her husband stayed in the lobby, and i took her to my room
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- And i said, listen,
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- You don't have to tell me anything about your life,
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- But if you would give me a couple of minutes,
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- I'd love to tell you about my story.
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- And i shared with him my own with her, my own journey
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- Through depression and what god had taught me,
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- And the freedom that i was discovering
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- And the love that i was discovering,
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- I will never forget.
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- By the end of that hour or two together,
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- We were both on our knees, weeping
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- Before the throne of grace and mercy.
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- Realizing that we're not alone.
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- And honestly, i will never forget that day
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- When she left that room
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- And i walked down to the lobby with her
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- And she ran into the arms of her husband, and they both cried.
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- And i remember thinking, lord,
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- I would go through all of that again for that one woman.
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- Don't be afraid to get help, but then realize
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- We're not just healed so that we can be healed.
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- We're healed so that we can show other people
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- What a redeemer god is.
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- Now, obviously, if you're in the stage,
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- I've just been freshly wounded. you don't.
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- But when they turn into scars, scars are proof that god heals.
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- The third thing that was huge for me to understand
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- Is it's okay not to be okay.
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- So i always thought i had to be perfect.
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- That was the kind of deal i made with god.
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- You know, if your earthly father,
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- Who once loved you could hate you,
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- That's technically possible with god, too.
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- So i better get it. all right.
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- I better make sure i never let god down.
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- Well, after i'd been in the psych
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- Hospital for about three weeks,
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- They said to me,
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- You know, you're going to be discharged in a week.
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- You know, we'd like you to take a trip
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- Outside the hospital with one of the nurses.
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- You can go to the mall.
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- You can go to a movie.
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- And i said, no, i'd actually just like to go to church.
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- I don't care what denomination, as long
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- As it's a bible believing church.
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- So they sent me to this little church
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- In washington, d.c., and i remember the sun
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- Coming through the stained glass windows.
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- And i sat in the very back row of the church,
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- And i felt really lost.
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- And i don't remember all the message that morning.
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- But i do remember the pastor saying this.
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- He said, some of you in here feel as if you're dead inside.
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- You can almost feel and
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- Hear them begin to hit the earth on top,
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- He said, but i want you to know one thing jesus is here
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- And you don't have to get yourself out of that hole.
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- You simply have to call in the name of the lord
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- And he will reach in and grab hold of you.
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- Now, i didn't know what the traditions of this church were,
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- But at the end of the service, everyone was leaving.
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- I ran to the front and there was just a plain
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- Wooden cross, and i lay face down in front of the cross.
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- And the organist, i think he was maybe practicing
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- For another service,
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- But i realized he was playing something that my grandmother
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- Used to sing to me when i was just a little girl,
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- And it was rock of ages, cleft for me.
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- Let me hide myself in thee.
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- But it was this line that came back to me.
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- Nothing in my hands i bring simply to thy cross i cling.
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- And i finally got it.
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- I'm not the good news. jesus.
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- I don't know what your story is.
- 00:07:35.278 --> 00:07:37.747
- I don't know what you're struggling with.
- 00:07:37.747 --> 00:07:40.383
- I want you to know you can tell god the whole truth.
- 00:07:40.383 --> 00:07:43.753
- You can reach out for help.
- 00:07:44.353 --> 00:07:46.355
- And because of jesus, it really is okay not to be okay.
- 00:07:46.355 --> 00:07:51.561
- You don't have to be perfect.
- 00:07:51.561 --> 00:07:53.462
- Because he is.
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- Let's pray.
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- Lord, i want to thank you for the freedom
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- That comes from knowing you.
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- I want to thank you.
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- The fact that we get to come our whole selves,
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- That we get to, to reach out and to get help,
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- And then to turn around to those who are coming behind us and,
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- And offer a hand to them and let them know,
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- Here's how jesus met me, and he will be there for you too.
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- Thank you that we don't have to be okay.
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- Thank you that we are loved and seen and cared for
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- In jesus name.
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- Amen.
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