Wounds...Scars...

“Never let your wounds go to waste… One day they could lead to another healing.” Beck Payne

 

My pastor spoke on the wounds of warfare this past Sunday. 2 Timothy 4 talks about how as soldiers in God’s Army, we will be wounded to some degree.

There are so many kinds of wounds. One I hadn’t really thought about are the wounds from God.. Really our God would chose to wound us? Yes! He has to make us better somehow. I talk to my friends often about how things happen that move us from the path of life that we have fixed ourselves on. Why would God cause this to happen, well he tried telling us to leave this job, did we listen? No. So he caused something to happen to set our foot on the path that he wanted us on. We didn’t need this roommate that we had, but we weren’t going to move.. so God allowed something to happen that set us back on his path. I remember when my son was younger and some horrible things happened at his daycare. I wasn’t sure about leaving, but I do not do well with change. I don’t want my child to lose everything he knew since he was a kid. You know what? Months later, he didn’t recognize anyone at that daycare at age 2! Instead only 1 daycare had spots open…seriously just 1. This 1 daycare was more expensive (in my eyes) than the others, and if you know me, you know I’m going to get a deal. Well now 6 years later, my other child is still at this daycare. This daycare opened my child’s eyes to his Heavenly Father. My child grew so much at his new school. This new daycare caused my heart to want to visit the church associated with the daycare. Then guess what, we changed churches and here we are! I will give God props on forcing me out of my comfort zone. I won’t say I didn’t shed tear, my old coworkers witnessed it and comforted me.

Well back to God.. God wants to mold us, refine us, and prepare us for MORE!

 

We also have wounds from life, self-inflicted ones, friendly fire (family & friends, and more.  If you think about each of these, I know you can place a list in every category…

He reminded us to have the Victor mentality.. not the victim.. We need to move forward.. Jesus was wounded so could be made whole…

 

I loved how he talked about Scars… They are there to remind us, but they don’t define us. They remind us where we have been, how far we have come.. The same is about wounds.. There are visible scars and those scars that are deep wounds that lay beneath us.. in our hearts.. We need to hold these and see these as ways to move on, be molded into more, and to help others..

 

Scars… Let’s run thru mine..

My right hand holds scars from childhood. I might had been a little tattletale.. I remember trying to get my mom’s attention in the house that we lived in. I banged a little too hard on the window.. well Ok I punched it b/c I was so mad. Well do you know what happens if you punch an old window.. Yep my hand went right through it. I have smell scars that remind me.. I need to hold in a tattle every once in a while. I was so blessed no stitches were required, I didn’t lose a finger.

My right knee holds a scar of Kindergarten age. My mom went on a walk with my sister in a stroller. I decided to stay at my friend’s house, changed my mind, went running down a hill. Yep, knee skin gone. Forever scar is now there. Both my knees hold scars from lateral releases and arthroscopy surgery. This is an ongoing battle that I face.  

Then there is the one scar of that I thought about Sunday while the pastor was speaking about scars. See I hold a scar on my left hand by a knuckle.. I was in High School sitting amongst football players. I don’t remember the class, but I remember the boys being boys and rubbing a metal tip pen on a wooden desk. They were all fascinated about how hot it would get. Well this one boy ask for my hand. I wasn’t really paying attention.. well boys being boys. Let’s grab this girl’s hand to see what it does? It took the skin off! I remembered the rude boy’s name. I remember the day I walked in my mom’s house, my sister sitting on the couch saying that she was going to introduce my cousin to this boy. Then she said that name! Really! Him, he is mean! She was trying to tell me how he was going to be a Pastor. Well I want my cousin to have a good man, but him? That dude scarred me. I was glad he had wised up, but I really didn’t like the idea. Well guess what.. They got married.  I grew to like him, but I still remember her sitting on the couch saying that name and my knee jerk reaction. Now last Sunday, I sat and watched Him as my Pastor. He is preaching a powerful series right now and reminding us of our scars. I went to look and years later, that scar is hardly visible. He is an awesome man of God, and he has been the perfect gift for my cousin.  Scars may remind us, but things change, they may soften over the years..  But I would say that when I got that scar, I would had never dreamed how that football players life would had intertwined with mine. God could had laughed and said.. she has no idea! 

 

We all have scars and wounds that hurt deep. There are some that would hurt us daily if we let them. We need to give them to God. Let him mold us into something greater! Some of them can be used to HELP OTHERS! Use lessons learned, battles fought, to reach out to help others, or even just to encourage them in their battle. Or maybe just to remind them that God is molding them or simplying just pushing them b/c they wouldn’t list to his nudges.. I know my hard headed, disliker of change has to be pushed from time to time… The pushing is uncomfortable, but the end result can be amazing if we TRUST God.