When You Are Wronged

 

Broken world, broken people. There’s something about our brokenness. It’s messy & it rubs off on others. In this world, we have been wronged & we will be wronged {& let’s not forget, we, too, will wrong}. It’s an occupational hazard. This past year I found myself the victim of a deep gash – not visible, where it could be easily dealt with (ointment and bandages applied; or stitches) – but internally, in my heart & spirit, you might say {where the healing is oh-so-slow & the medicine hard to keep down}. It was an attack that I did not deserve, unlike some where you set yourself up for a blow by your previous actions & choices. It caught me by surprise & sent me reeling. Sometimes I feel like I’m still off kilter trying to regain my sense of me. Wrestling with forgiving my wound-givers is a moment-by-moment decision for me. One minute I am willing to extend mercy, telling my heavenly Daddy I forgive them & hand it over to Him; the next hour I am inwardly in angst over what they did & where I am because of it. They never told me they were sorry… & I needn’t wait for pigs to fly. It is like climbing Everest when the anger you hold is righteous anger over cruel & evil wronging. But, God is still good – still ruling – still in charge. Darkness hasn’t won. It seems funny to write, but I have heard God’s voice so many times through my car radio. It’s not a booming voice like thunder, or the physical sound of my Maker at all, it’s the songs that the DJs play on some of my favorite Christian radio stations. Soon after my wounding, at the most appropriate time imaginable {I had prayed for the words to say, confronted them, & seen them for the last time}, I heard Him speak. This was the song I heard…



There was no doubt. Not a bit. My Father was telling me it was okay. I had been terribly hurt, but it wasn’t a deadly wound. It had been wrong – sinful, and that is why forgiveness was needed & necessary. Those who acted out the evil did not deserve it – perhaps, would not even understand it, but the act of forgiving was in most ways more important for me than it was for them. I may have to remind myself many times that I forgave them & still forgive them.  This I know, there is hope after a wronging. Keep hold of it steadily, trusting in the Lord for healing.

Dear Father,

Help me to continually surrender over forgiveness to those who wounded me. I know it is Your will & I seek to do it. I praise You for who You are: merciful & forgiving to us beyond all imagining. You have sacrificed Your pure & spotless Son for us - when we should have been given death, you gave us life everlasting. Help those who hurt me to find their own healing of brokenness through You; may they turn to You & know You. Guide my paths that are so unknown to me this side of the wounding. I am afraid that is what I fear. Forgive my doubts & unbelief. You have never forsaken me. Illuminate my path with Your peace. I am Yours for Your service.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Love for Healing,

-Bess-