Do Your Wounds Show?

     Well, my body is still recovering from my blundering fall last Saturday. My arms are so sore I can barely lift them. I have bruises on my left arm and hand and I have a scab on my right elbow and big toe. Everything is sore and aching. My knee is better than it was but it is still swollen. It seems to swell at night. My knee is very tender and now the bruising is coming with full vengeance. The bruise on the left of my knee is about the size of my hand and the right side on my knee is starting to marbleize; it is going to combine into an interesting picture. I cannot stand to wear jeans or pants over my knee, so I wear shorts each day. With the dark bruising there will be no way to hide my knee which means I have to explain to everyone what happened.
     It makes me wish I could see people’s spiritual and emotional bruises, wounds, and scares. It would be nice if the person that ticks me off with their rudeness had their wounds visual; maybe then I would be quicker to show kindness and grace. Most people that frustrate us have wounds that are causing their behavior. We tend to live by the saying out of sight, out of mind. So, if we don’t see their hurts we forget the fact that they are causing side effects for the person we are dealing with. We let our emotions blind us to needs.
     The solution is what it always is; we must surrender daily to the Holy Spirit. We do not have to see their hurts because Jesus knows all of them and if He is leading us, He is responding to them through us. We will be responding in a manner that will be ministering to them. Have you surrendered to the Holy Spirit today? Or did you surrender to your emotions?

My people are broken – shattered! – and they put on band-aids, Saying, ‘It’s not so bad. You’ll be just fine.’ But things are not ‘just fine’!

Jeremiah 8:11