Overcoming Abuse

 We were born for love. We are on this planet to love and be loved. When we are torn from our original purpose and become victims of hatred, fear and violence, we become deeply damaged. Our sense of who and what we are born for is lost in pain and agony. Abuse is defined as 'to be used in an improper or wrong way...so as to injure or damage.... to attack in words."  Obviously that is an incomplete definition for there are so many forms of abuse in this dangerous world.

 I heard a wise counselor tell me one time, "Hurt people, hurt other people." When we don't get healed on the inside, our circle of intimacy can quickly become a war zone. It's those closest to the injured and damaged souls that bear the brunt of their pain and suffering. There is a generational aspect to the ongoing cycle of abuse and dysfunction. We tend to cover our wounds because they often happen to us when we are children or in a postion of powerlessness. We just don't know what to do with our pain.

 Dysfunction often breeds coverup and shame bottles up our deepest injury. The tyranny of brokenness is we don't have access to the healing we so desperately need. Emotional, verbal, sexual and even some types of physical abuse don't leave obvious wounds. The great tragedy is that when we break a leg, the world comes running to heal. When we break our hearts and souls, the world runs in the opposite direction.

  I am writing this not claiming to know all the answers to being healed of abuse. I do know it can't be done in isolation. Wounds of the soul don't just ever really go away on their own. I believe that it's the unconditional love of God and his people that are the pathway to eventual healing. But how do we access that love in a dark and dangerous world?  In our American culture of fast foods and convenience, hurting people offer real challenges. It's never convenient to give oneself to a suffering soul. People don't get healed from the inside in a drive through relationship.

  I am being challenged to pray and to open up my own life to hurting people. To listen, to learn, to pray and  to share my life and the life of my family and friends with the hurting. Sounds challenging. Sounds difficult. It sounds like a call from God.

Jim