SCAR SHARING

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

Don’t hide your scars; instead, use them, realizing that scars are a map of God’s grace in your life. When you show others your scars and tell them how God helped you get through the struggles that caused them, your scars will point others toward God to help them in their own lives. - Unknown

God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. - 1 Corinthians 1:4-5 (MSG) 

If we hide our scars how can we reveal to others what GOD has done?

If we hide our scars how can we “be there” for someone?

If we mask our pain how can find possible paths of relief?

Unfortunately, our culture, even the church culture often either exploits our failures or shames them to such a degree that we bottle them up or hide them from sight.

But recovery and GOD reminds us that we only as “sick as our secrets”. And the BIBLE reminds us constantly that honest transparency, “scar showing” is crucial to healing and health!

Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed.

James 5:16 (MSG)

MAKE IT COMMON practice!

Hiding the scars only serves to hurt us.

It does me no good to “pretend” that I don’t struggle with anger from time to time.  It does me no good to bury my challenges like lust and ego for if do, I may NOT encounter the person GOD has designed to come ALONG SIDE ME for accountability, grace, truth, mercy, and healing.

I won’t encounter them if I am unwilling to be transparent. 

I need others to be equally transparent to help me overcome!

And at the same time, GOD has shown me the power of scars to provide hope to someone else that GOD is real, that GOD delivers, and the GOD can be trusted with the worst of it.

Case in point.

Sunday we were blessed to provide a seminar for the fine faith folks of Licking County.  The topic? Human trafficking and the role of the church.

One of my jobs was to share a “DEMAND REDUCTION” workshop with the men in attendance.  We focused on things like on-line availability and challenges, the impact of sexual input on the brain and the progression of pornography in our culture.

And then I turned things over to Joyce. 

Joyce is such a dear part of my life.

Joyce rolled up her sleeves and shared some SCARS!  Scars of being trafficked. Scars of being addicted.  Scars from abuse and running.  The men in the breakout were transfixed.  And as Joyce wrapped up her time of sharing a fella retrieved his phone from his pocket and began to talk about his OWN struggle with sexual sin.  He began to share with his brothers and me in the room the IMPACT of James 5:16 and “scar sharing”.  He pointed to some other passages that SOMEONE had shared with him as THEY CAME ALONGSIDE.

Then another spoke up.

Later in the day as we shared the breakout a second time another SHARED his struggle with the folks in the room; revealing a LIFELONG scar of challenge and war with lust and images.

And miraculously out of the pain came the HOPE; that JAMES 5:16 and 1 John 1:9 kind of hope, that GOD was in the business of HEALING those hurts.  They were two rather remarkable sessions.  Very unexpected. 

The sharing time was not on MY agenda but was on GOD’S.

So that begs the questions today.

Sick from too many secrets?

Think your scars only serve to shame?

Read that little quote from the beginning of this again…“…scars are a map of God’s grace in your life.” 

Remember...

“Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you. Don’t waste your pain; use it to help others.”  - Rick Warren 

Share your scars.

HAVE A BLESSED DAY!!!

Love you all!

OPPORTUNITIES for HOPE