Wounded Healers

  In a world of broken people, the thought of being used by God to heal others is intimidating and overwhelming. We know too well our own failings and weaknesses. Surely God will find someone who has their act completely together to bring healing and hope to the hurting. We believe the myth of spiritual super heroes whose feet never touch the ground as they sail through life as special delivery agents of God's miracles of power and grace. The reality is that the people God uses to heal and deliver us from evil are made of clay.... that is weak and subject to being broken! We are told in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 7, "But this precious treasure---this light and power that now shine within us----is held in perishable containers, that is in our weak bodies. So that everyone can see that our glorious power is from God and is not our own."

  In a world desperate for healing and hope it is up to us to recognize that God wants to use wounded people to perform his wonders. When we can fully recognize that every good thing in life is a gift from above, we become less self absorbed and more God dependent. It's all about Him..... and not about us!

  2 Cortinthians chapter 4 and verse 5 remind us, "We don't go around preaching about ourselves; we preach Christ Jesus, the Lord. All we say about ourselves is that we are you servants because of what Jesus has done for us." When we get out of the way and surrender to the amazing grace and power of a Savior who has conquered death itself, we can be used to heal others.....even while we ourselves are being healed.....from the inside out.

  There is a powerful temptation to wait before we will allow God to use us to help others. And in that hesitation is a powerful and diabolical deception.....that somehow faith is primarily a personal and private expression of belief. If the father of lies can separate and paralyse our 'faith'  to quiet closets of sentimental beliefs, he can keep us wounded forever. The reality is that the things we do for others out of a pure heart heal our own broken places. We should not wait to be healed to love others! God uses the imperfect and the incomplete....we truly are wounded healers.

  Forgiveness and the grace of God in salvation initiate a process of ongoing healing and transformation that are meant to heal not just ourselves but others. God's calling to wholeness is meant to heal not just individuals but communities of people who will walk together in transformative grace.

  In the year 1624, the British poet, John Donne said, "No man is an island, entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main." By this we understand that our healing and wholeness are interdependent. In order for my own healing and wholeness to be complete, I must not be paralysed by a solely inward gaze. When I cease to care for others, I cease to be fully human and thus healing eludes me. We need God, and we need one another to be whole and well in this life.

  Healing goes so far beyond a particular surgical or medical intervention. While modern medicine offers physical healing there remains a peculiar relational aspect to healing that integrates both soul and spirit. Surgeons can clear clogged arteries and staple fractured bones....but they cannot release forgiveness or restoration to a wounded and abused soul. For that we need both the unconditional love of God displayed so extravagantly by our wounded Savior on the Cross and also jars of clay....people like you and me to carry the message.....while we ourselves are still on the road to complete healing. Will you be a 'wounded healer' to carry the message of God's healing and saving love? It's in the going and dying to self that we truly find healing. Truly, no man is an island..... we need one another so desperately as we travel the road to that forever place we call home, where our healing will be final and complete.

Jim