Where does one find safety and healing in their brokenness, hurt, doubts and struggles?  God designed the Church to be that place—a place where our wounds are bound up in love, a place where light floods the darkness, where our haunting shadows are rendered impotent, no longer able to permeate and destroy our lives.

But it has become especially evident to me in recent weeks how much hiding occurs in our Christian communities.  We hide our true feelings, we hide our pain, we hide our doubts, and we especially hide our sin.  We fear that if our walls come down and the dark areas of our heart are exposed, they will be dismissed, misunderstood, or even worse, we will be completely rejected.

So our wounds become imprisoned; we feel as though we must keep our pain and strife concealed until we have experienced victory.  Consequently, the hurting only express their hurt once it is overcome with hope.  The grieving only express their grief once they have found joy.  The doubting only express their doubts once they experience certainty.   The struggling sinner only shares their sin once they are triumphant over it.  The problem is that in our hiding, we become more susceptible to defeat.  Hope, joy, certainty and triumph are unable to flourish in darkness—true victory can only be found when our brokenness is exposed to the Light.

For the Church to be a place of safety and healing we must become more comfortable seeing the darkness in others…when it is still dark.  And we must also have the courage to share our own dark shadows.  Only when we live in the light and our raw wounds are exposed, can God’s grace and love truly flood our hearts for healing to begin.

Let’s let the healing begin…

Author: Christina