Scars

I have a series of scars on my arms (I went through a particularly terrible summer where it seemed like I drew mosquitos to me every time I inhaled..or exhaled). This weekend, those scars were used to teach me a lesson that I want to share with you...

Scars are simply signs of your survival. See, each scar has a story. A story that shows some part of you was broken, some bond was separated, some external force pierced you, and in one way or another, tore you apart. Yet…with time, you came back together. You were reassembled. You readjusted. You healed.

I know that it’s not the way it was, but, you know what? You’re not bleeding anymore. I don’t cry over healed scars the same way I cry about the incident that caused them. Actually, I don’t cry about healed scars at all. I don’t look at my arm, and see it as “the mosquito bite arm”…it’s just…my arm. I don't see it as what it's been through, or through the lens of what it's had to endure; I see it as what it is now.

I want to remind you that we’ve all been wounded. We’ve all been broken. We’ve all gone through moments and seasons of extreme pain, because some part of us had been torn. Our hearts have been torn. Our minds have felt torn. Our families have been torn. Our finances have seemed torn. Our lives have felt wounded beyond repair. Yet, somehow...someway….you survived. You mended. You recovered. You’ve been restored. It may not be painless, but it doesn’t hurt as much as it used to. Or maybe it is painless. Maybe you’ve completely healed externally. You don’t cry as much. You’ve forced yourself to push past it all, and made it through alright. Yet....you can’t stop looking at that scar. You can’t stop wishing that things could be the way that they were 5, 10, 15+ years ago. You can’t stop comparing what you had to what you have. You can’t quite...completely let it go. There’s a constant film marathon running in your mind that centers around what happened to you, and you haven’t found a way to stop it.

There’s freedom in recognizing that...the weapon didn’t prosper. It’s a scar, not an open injury. Be healed, and walk in that healing. Be whole, and walk in that wholeness. You owe it to yourself. You owe it to your future. Your latter days can’t be greater if you keep trying to recreate the past. From one formerly wounded person to another….take your heart (and your mind) out of what happened to you, and walk into what God has for you.

Background music: Healed - Donald Lawrence

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