Some of you are wounded. You have places that need healing but fear the pain of confronting that wound. It terrifies you. You don’t want to feel that pain again because it hurt too severely when it happened. So, you avoid it. You disregard it. You stuff it inside and refuse to let it surface. You try to control it. You are one of the walking wounded.
Here’s an analogy.
Let’s say you suffer a nasty break in your lower leg. You could ice the area to reduce the initial pain associated with the break. You could rest it, wrap it, or use crutches. All of these things may help, and eventually over time, the area of the break will not be as painful. But if you do not go and get the bones realigned properly, it will never heal completely. The break must be addressed in order to heal. And if you’ve ever had a bone re-set, or seen someone have it done, it’s very painful, maybe even more so than the initial break, but is necessary for complete healing to take place.
There are people walking around with old broken bones who did not get treatment. They didn’t get the break properly set and as a result they walk with a limp, pain, or both. Maybe it only hurts when someone touches the area of the break, or it gets bumped into by accident. They still bear the constant reminders that their healing is incomplete.
Spiritually, it’s the same. If we do not get wounds tended to properly, the damage remains. It may heal to a degree, but we still get pain or irritation whenever someone or something touches that area of our hearts and minds. It triggers a painful response within us. We may look healed on the outside, but we feel the inner pain and torment still residing within us.
So how do we begin to heal? We go to the Healer. We have to go back to the place where we were wounded, but this time allow it to be reframed with the presence of Jesus. Invite Him into the trauma, into that hurt place. Ask Him to show you that He was there. Bring the anger, the feelings of rejection or abandonment. Bring the depression. Yes, even bring your unbelief. Bring all of it to Him. He can heal that moment in time when the wound hit you so hard you didn’t think you could go on.
To reach toward our healing, we have to be brave enough to crawl out of the mental or emotional cave we hid in to avoid the pain we must face. We have to be brave enough to trust that God is with us-- even when we don't feel it-- and in His own loving way will be with us, as we allow Him to touch and heal all those raw, painful wounds. We have to take but one step toward a loving God.
Just as with the healing of a physical wound, or a broken bone, there may be pain in the process, but if we allow the Holy Spirit to touch the broken places in our hearts and minds, we will find the deep wounds and the ongoing torment they cause are defeated. They no longer have a hold over us. The power they had, is broken by the loving hand of God.
If you find that you are one of the walking wounded, or you suspect there may be things in your life that continually spark painful reminders of hurts incurred, I encourage you to be brave and face those wounds. Invite the Lord Jesus into those scenes, into those memories. Surrender them to Him and ask Him to free you from their hold.
Take that first step. Give all the hurt and pain to Him and ask Him to touch all those wounded places. He will meet you there.
* Sometimes it is helpful to have a qualified counselor or pastor to help us walk through these times. Overcoming trauma and wounds is often a process, and having a counselor can be a great help. It helped me, and it may help you as well.
