"wounds"

Hello again my friend. I have been asked to speak at a conference in Atlanta on “Healing Relational Wounds” --primarily those from the opposite sex or marital partners. In light of this assignment, I will be writing about this topic for the rest of the week. I hope you find my musings helpful.

The other day I was at the gym working out with my wife. She pointed down to my shin and said, “Look, you’re bleeding”. Sure enough I had wounded myself during an exercise.

Wounds are a part of life. They are going to happen. Scrapes, cuts, and sometimes even breaks. Self inflicted wounds and wounds from others--even from those we love. My 21 month old son is eventually going to be hurt. Will I ever be the one to wound him? Inevitably, I probably will. The truth is that we will all eventually wound and be wounded. It it also true that the deepest wounds in life can come from those we love.

The question is, “Is there hope? Can my wounds ever really heal?”

The answer is a resounding yes! God has designed us with an amazing ability to recover and expand as whole human beings through the process. Yes, our bodies and our hearts were created to heal. My wound from the other day is completely gone. You can’t even tell where it was any more.

But there are some wounds that run deeper than my superficial scrape. There are wounds that cut so deeply that they touch the innermost parts of who I am-my identity. These kinds of hurts are normally not inflicted upon us by strangers, but by those we know and love. People like fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, close friends, even or especially spouses. These kinds of wounds require attention and care. These are wounds that leave scars and they require a healing process. They also involve help from others. Most importantly, they require the healing that comes from a loving God who understands us and cares for us deeply-more deeply that our deepest wounds.

Just yesterday I was reminded of a deep wound that I thought was healed but obviously it is not. This is a deep wound that goes all the way back to my childhood. I am praying about this wound again today. Maybe you could pray for me as well.

Do you have any wounds? Have they healed? Are you doing like so many of us-just soldiering on as if you can handle it. “I’ll be alright” you say, or “That was so long ago, it’s not affecting me now.”

I’ll let you in on a secret that I have learned (am learning) the hard way. The past lives again in the present if it hasn’t been healed. This is an unfortunate fact of life. But there is hope.

Join me this week as we explore “healing wounds”.

Chris