Damaged

One of the labels that I carry around like some stupid badge of honor is damaged. I hold tightly onto it but also hide it away where no one can see how big or deep the hurt goes. About a year ago, my kids and I were driving back home from Denver. Heading up I-25 just about to break free of the city chaos and out of nowhere we were hit by another car. We didn’t even see it coming. When I pulled over, and got out to examine my vehicle things didn’t look that bad. We had 3 flat tires, a dent in the rear quarter panel and the bumper from the other vehicle was lodged in the wheel well but overall my car appeared to be in pretty good shape.

A few weeks later, we were informed by our insurance company that our vehicle was being totaled.  The frame suffered irreparable damage and the rear axle was nearly broken in half.  Isn’t this just how our own pain and suffering is?  We go through life and we get banged up along the way.  We experience hurts and pain that many times no one even knows about.  Most of us just have just a little bit of visible damage, we are a little guarded but still friendly and our hurts are usually invisible to those around us.  No one sees the damage that lies beneath the surface.  The twisted frame and broken pieces are carefully hidden beneath the surface from the rest of the world.

We are told over and over to give our hurts and fears over to Jesus. But I don’t know about you, but for me that is easier said than done.  Even the act of praying to God about my hurts, is scary and painful.  So, I continue to hold tightly to all the pain because if I allow God to even take one pain or hurt the rest might come tumbling down around me.  What would happen if I surrendered?

God is a master at healing hurts.  He takes all the broken pieces of our lives and restores them, making them even more beautiful than they were before.  Stronger than they were before.  God uses the broken, the hurting, and the damaged.  God’s grace means that all our mistakes serve a purpose and are not shameful.  We can choose to allow the damage to permanently sideline us or we can choose to allow God to restore us. 

In Luke 8, we are told of a story of a woman known only as “The Bleeding Woman”.  For 12 years, she had gone to doctor after doctor, she had been labeled unclean, and she must have felt broken and alone.  But no matter how bad things got, she never allowed her pain stand in the way of her faith that Jesus could heal her.   This brave woman struggled through a crowd of people who surrounded Jesus.  She couldn’t get close enough to him to talk to him.  But she had enough faith to know that Jesus could heal her.  She took the leap and just barely touched the edge of his robe.  The woman was healed instantly from her affliction. 

Now I want faith like that!  I want the faith to give Jesus my hurt, and my pain, my shame and the broken pieces that I have carefully buried away.  Do you believe that Jesus can heal your brokenness?  What would it take for you to surrender the control and lift the rug where all your pain is secretly hidden away? 

This world is filled with hurting and broken people.  God can use our imperfections, pain and failures to influence the lives of others.  Better yet, God can use our redemption to reach those who are hurting also.  God wants to take all your failures, fears, hurts and pain and use them to make a difference in the lives of others.

Jesus said to the bleeding woman after he felt the power leave him, “Your faith has made you well, go in peace.”  Isn’t that the ultimate goal?  Don’t you want peace from your hurt and pain?  Faith in Jesus has the power to heal our hurts and take away the pain if we will just let him.  Put your faith in Jesus and allow him to heal your hurts.  Then you can shout from the mountain tops that you are restored.

Prayer:

Father, I hide away my pain and my hurts. I hide them away from you and the rest of the world. I have been too ashamed and too scared to give my hurts to you. Father give me the courage to lift the rug and allow you to put back together the broken pieces of my heart that I have kept hidden. Father, use my pain to reach others. Give me the strength to face the hurt and dry my tears when they fall. Father you make all things beautiful, and I know that you can heal this pain and make it into something more beautiful than I ever knew was even possible. I put my faith in you that you can heal my hurts and that I will be restored.