Many of you have high pain tolerances and can handle it pretty well. For some, you take two Advil and call it a day. For others, all you need is to slap a Hello Kitty bandaid on the wound, and the tears stop instantaneously. But what if it's heart pain? The emotional heartache kind, where pills and bandages are ineffective. The ones where you think you overcame and moved on from, but the memories keep jostling for your attention. It's like the scab that keeps bleeding and never heals. You're not picking at it, but other things keep hitting it, so the scab falls off again, and it requires extra time to treat yet again.
I'm sure you have sustained heartache like me and can testify how real it is. You may not tangibly see any cuts or bruises on the outside, but if you break it down, you may find the despair to be even more grievous.
It's vital in any healing process to allow time to help heal the wounds. When my son sprained his ankle, the athletic trainer who monitored my son's progress confirmed his ankle was 100% ready before he was able to move on with his regular physical activity. Shouldn't we do the same when it comes to healing our hearts? Permit ourselves however long it takes to heal correctly and completely. If we don't, it may eventually open the doors to bitterness and anger.
One of the best ways to keep those doors locked is by giving the keys to Jesus and allowing Him to diagnose the problem and wait for His prescription for guaranteed healing. We may desire the "microwave" prescription, quick and easy, but most often, it's the "slow cooker" prescription, slow and long. You know what else? From my experience, it usually involves forgiveness because forgiveness leads to restoration. If Jesus, who never sinned, forgave His accusers, who then am I to hold on to the resentment?
I'm learning not to self-diagnose for the temporary bandaid but to go to the Great Physician for my permanent wholeness. It's time to take the open scabs and let them heal into closed scars.
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