We've all got wounds. No matter how much we hate them, try to ignore them, or even deny that they're there, we all carry a wound, and probably a few. For the past few years God has been working in my life, bringing wounds to my attention so that I can begin to deal with them. It's crucial that we do deal with them, because wounds impact our lives.
As I've been examining and sharing my experiences with the major wounds of my life, I've realized a few things about wounds, and I want to share these lessons.
Wounds impact the way we approach life.
My first wound was from wrestling, and it was this wound that made me begin to withdraw from and shut down. I had poured myself into something, gotten so close to the goal, but when I hit a setback I gave up. This would become the way I operated for years, I would limit my risks, playing it safe, when things got hard I'd stop fighting so I didn't get hurt again.
Wounds impact how we relate to others.
The wound I received from my first lead pastor role caused me to push people away. When I was attacked I wanted to avoid my attacker. I didn't want to confront the issue because it meant taking a beating, and I didn't do my job well because I was constantly stressed and frustrated over this one individual. This wound prevented me from pastoring as well as I could have.
Wounds are manipulated by the enemy.
The wound I carried from my time in Michigan went untreated for so long because the enemy got me to focus on the wrong issue. He took a scratch and made it seem like a bear mauling, when in reality the real wound had already been inflicted. When we get wounded, the enemy doesn't want us to find healing, and so he'll try to distract us by focusing our attention on false wounds.
Wounds can be self inflicted.
The wound I carried from my former mentor was a wound I let happen. I didn't want to address the issue, due to my other unhealed wounds, and so I simply made a wound out of an issue that never had to be one. Had I brought up the issue, it could have been an opportunity for healing to begin to take place, but instead I gave in to the tendencies I had grown accustomed to, and I inflicted a wound upon myself.
Wound keep us from God's best.
The wound from her has opened my eyes to what God has in store. Sometimes we see something good, but it isn't the best. We get wounded, and we get so hung up on what we feel we're missing out on that we begin to exist, not chasing passion because we're nursing a wound we don't want to let heal. When we are wounded, we can't operate to our fullest potential, and cannot be fully utilized by God.
Wounds, left unhealed, are defining, or rather debilitating. Wounds don't tell us who we are, they try to, but they don't define us because they aren't from God. Wound debilitate us, making us ill and weak, unable to discover our identity, recover our passion, pursue our destiny, or live in the community with others.
Wounds are tools of the enemy, but healing, scars, are from God. "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." (John 10.10)
Wounds are part of life, but they aren't real life. We all have wounds, but let's refuse to live with them. Let's not let the enemy steal our identity, kill our passion, or destroy our destiny. Let us pursue healing and live abundantly within community.
Fight the lion, 1 Peter 5.1-11
TO GOD ALONE BE THE GLORY!
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