A Healed You

Recent events in my life have reminded me of a truth I’ve learned over the years and have mentioned before in this space:

We are all so messed up.

All of us. Every one of us is damaged goods – damaged by broken parents, by neglectful teachers, by heartless playmates, by careless lovers, by threatened colleagues, by self-absorbed neighbors, by prejudiced people, by oppressive churches. We’ve got wounds, old and new, deep and wide, fresh and scabbed over.

Every. Single. One of us.

Most of us acknowledge that this is so. Some of us can even articulate the nature of our own damage. And few brave souls among us have taken steps to find repair. But I’m so distressed over the masses who continue to live their daily lives with battered souls and bruised spirits – especially those who are aware of their broken state and choose to remain in it.

Let me issue a plea here.

You, dear one . . . you deserve healing from your wounds. You do. It doesn’t matter if they were self-inflicted or the result of the abuse or neglect of others. Our God is Jehovah-Rapha, the God Who Heals. It’s his name. It’s his desire for you. You deserve a healed you.

Yet so many hear this proclamation on a regular basis – they’ll even raise their hands and shout an amen – and then they return to huddle in their holes, wallowing in their woundedness. I get it; it’s so difficult to let yourself even hope for change. Sitting in your pain is familiar and comfortable and easy. You may not be able to picture a different life . . . and certainly not a better one. Why try? I’m getting by. This is good enough.

So, let me take a different approach. The world deserves a healed you.

Your family deserves someone who loves them wholly, unhindered by brokenness from your history.

Your work colleagues deserve someone whose words and actions are untriggered by past trauma.

Your friends deserve the intimacy you are keeping from them because you have erected guard rails around your heart.

They deserve those things because those things are God’s gift to them. YOU – a healthy you – are God’s gift to them.

Every year in my BSF class, some lesson question came up that touched on a particular trial in my life, one which I just didn’t share with the general public. But because BSF was a group with confidentiality, I shared it there. And every year, a woman came to me afterwards saying, “I'm so glad you told us. I’m in the middle of that. Right now. Can we please talk . . . please . . .” God didn’t heal me just for my sake; he healed me for her sake, too. My healing was a gift to her.

You, my friend, are the only you there will ever be, and he has entrusted you with gifts, abilities, passions, experiences, and so much more that he intends to use for the benefit of his people. Your choice to neglect your own healing stands in the way of those benefits.

Now, please hear me correctly: I’m not saying the world needs you to play the happy Christian game, to cover up your wounds and act like they’re not there, to just work harder to protect others from being collateral damage in your personal battles. This isn’t about protecting them from the ugly you. This is about granting them God's gift of the healed you.

I’m not giving you a guilt trip; I’m giving you a good reason. A reason to do the work.

Because it is work. And hard work. LORD KNOWS I know it’s hard. Do it anyway. Most everything that really matters in life is hard. It’s not too late. You're not too young. You’re never too old. Take one step. Open up to a friend. Talk to your pastor. Make an appointment with a therapist.

If you can’t do it for yourself, do it for the rest of us. We need the blessing of a Jesus-healed you.