Title:- Dealing with Damage
2 Chronicles 24:12
....and they hired masons and carpenters to repair the house of the LORD, and also those who worked in iron and bronze to restore the house of the LORD.
Every corporate company has in place plans for the back up and recovery of important client data. ‘Disaster recovery’ as it is known, has been big business for many years. In addition to corporate disaster planning, in this is age of terrorism, every government and local authority also has plans to help recover from doom and destruction of every kind. The message is clear, plan for the worst and then live knowing that despite the cost, recovery is possible. However, though it may be wise, perpetually planning for and dealing with disaster is a stressful way to live. Don’t you think?
All of us have or will encounter incidents in our life, which we count as personal disasters. One way or another we struggle on and to some measure we ‘recover.’ I say 'To some measure', for I acknowledge that ‘recover’ may be far too positive a word for some of us! The reason for that, is the scarring and damage that the disaster leaves both upon us and in us. Shakespeare puts it so well in Sonnet 34 “Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day,”
For no man well of such a salve can speak,That heals the wound, and cures not the disgrace:
Nor can thy shame give physic to my grief;
Though thou repent, yet I have still the loss:
The offender's sorrow lends but weak relief
To him that bears the strong offence's cross.
Just how do you best deal with the damage then? May I suggest a few things?
Firstly friends, we need to bow our knee to the Sovereign God and acknowledge that we are not in control. Our life is in His hands and we know that we cannot heal ourselves. We need His healing touch.
Secondly, we need to face and feel the pain, acknowledge the loss and grieve over it. It’s OK to feel and grieve you know! Indeed, it is an absolute necessity!
Thirdly, we need to acknowledge the difference between the ‘wound' and the 'scar.’ These are substantially different. Think about it. The wound hurts for a while, but the scarring is ugly and fixed upon us so much, that it is hard to forget. The scar has marked us and for better or for worse, it has changed us. We will never look the same again.
The wound can heal, but the scar will stay. However, the choice regarding what we do with the scarring is ours. Shall these scars be perpetual reminders of our pain, or rather, will they become to us, our jewels of learning and growth, our red badge of courage, our sign of an overcoming sojourn?
Today I want to encourage you to LIVE. Choose life, choose love, choose faith, choose hope. LIVE! Make your scars your very own war medals. Your purple hearts of conflict recovered from.
Listen: - So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, The crawling locust, The consuming locust, And the chewing locust,…. Joel 2:25
Pray: - Father, if You will, come lift my scars and remove them completely. If not, then make beautiful and precious to me, in Jesus name I pray, Amen.
Hast thou no scar?No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land;
I hear them hail thy bright, ascendant star.
Hast thou no scar?
Hast thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers; spent,
Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned.
Hast thou no wound?
No wound? No scar?
Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,
And piercèd are the feet that follow Me.
But thine are whole; can he have followed far
Who hast no wound or scar?
BY AMY CARMICHAEL - IRISH MISSIONARY TO INDIA FOR 55 YEARS
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