Wounds

    Every believer has been wounded.
     What are we to do with such wounds?  There is a trend recently to tell everyone our wounds in as much detail as possible and to clearly delineate who has done the wounding.  That may be sound psychology, but I'm not sure it's sound practical theology.  Why?  It appears to be focused only on self--a kind of disguised pity-party.  It makes people feel sorry for me and condemns those who are the cause of my pain, sometimes unjustifiably.  Self-justification usually ignores one's own contribution to the circumstances that ended with the wounding.  And often the wounding is mutual.  I know.  They deserved it, but you didn't--I didn't.
     I believe what we need to do with those wounds is accept them--embrace them as part of God's plan for making me more and more like Him.  To do that, I must lay my wounded heart at my Savior's feet--thankfully.  He has brought or allowed those circumstances to touch my heart and make me sensitive to the wounds of others.  As He demonstrated, self-defense is not necessary or persuasive.  I must leave justice in the hands of God, the righteous judge.  When I give my wound to Him, accept it as a necessary consequence of following Him, I become compassionate, others centered instead of self-centered.  Those who have wounded me become the focus of my prayers, people that I lovingly weep over and readily forgive.  Sorrow mingled with peace brings joy.
     A broken heart is a heart like God's heart.