I have thoroughly enjoyed this series of blog posts on the healing process. I suppose this is because it reminds me of my own journey toward wholeness. I am not writing to you as one who has mastered this process but as one who is currently on the road toward wholeness as I write.
Sometimes it is easy for persons who are far removed from suffering to give advice to others on how they should move forward. As we distance ourselves from the pain it can be easy to forget how much suffering really does hurt and often the process that led to our healing can become a vague memory. Purely speaking for myself, I don’t want to forget. I hope I never forget. As the healing occurs and wholeness is achieved I never want to forget just how desperate I was for life, joy, and hope.
It is by way of suffering that I have learned how to stop grasping at life and simply embrace it. I have met so many that have tried to forget the pain, who have removed it from their hearts and choose not to look at the scars left behind. To me the scars serve a purpose. They are no longer wounds but reminders that the Father has made the ugly beautiful. For me the ultimate healing does not come in forgetting, but remembering. Remembering becomes a sacred spiritual practice where our hurt and pain are not ruling or inhibiting our lives, but serving as a reflective piece that bring joy and gratitude into our presence as we gaze upon the scars.
The steps that I have been writing about are not a guarantee. There is no perfect formula for moving out of pain toward wholeness. If you are looking for an easy ABC, 123, or 7 step process stop. It doesn’t work that way. You can’t buy your way out, unless you buy a shamwow, it does everything!
Confession, Community, Befriending Pain, Confronting Shame, and Playing through Pain are all a part of my journey. I have found those steps to be huge pieces of the puzzle toward wholeness. Your journey might look different. The one thing that I am quite certain of is that suffering, pain, and heartbreak will fall on all of us. I hate to be a Debbie downer but it is true. The question is not if it will come, but when it will come. And when it does how you choose to approach the darkness will have life lasting effects on you and your loved ones.
If I could leave this series with one lasting thought I would want you to know the following. While the darkness finds us all it does not have to define us. In viewing our lives as a story it is just a chapter, a piece of the puzzle, one piece of the pie, assuming of course that you choose to face it instead of ignoring it. If that is your choice, (and make no mistake it is a choice) it might last a few chapters. Our stories are part of a much bigger story. A story that is being told on the grandest scale, a larger than life story about the whole world and all of time, a story that includes all people, everywhere, past, present, and future. Our stories are folded into the great love story of the blessed trinity. Their unique love and desire for relationship with us humans is the backdrop of this great story. Everything in history, everything in scripture points to this story of God desperately wanting to be with us.
Your story is not over because it had been scarred. Jesus was scarred as well. He was bruised, crushed, humiliated, and rejected. Jesus experienced the darkness and most certainly lived to tell about it and experience the joy and endless love of His Father. In doing so the Son offers to bring us out of our blindness and give us new eyes to see the Father’s love for us. This is where true life exists. This is where new stories are written. The best chapters of our lives are written when we understand who we are and that God really loves us that way. This is true freedom. Embrace it. God is handing you a pen, blank sheets of paper, inspiring you to write the pages of your life in His warm embrace. Beautiful indeed.
Stay thirsty my friends!
theuglybeautiful 