mgpcpastor's blog

Prepared for publication in our local paper, The Border Watch.

There are sayings that are a part of everyday life. Sometimes those sayings are based in truth, and sometimes they really don’t stand up to any examination.
I was reminded of this last week when reading a short article based on the phrase ‘Time heals all wounds’.
The point of the article was that time doesn’t heal all wounds. Searching around the Internet points out that plenty of other people have made the same observation.
There are many situations with physical injuries where intervention and treatment are needed straight away, and any delay would not result in healing but in further deterioration.
It should be conceded that ‘Time heals all wounds’ is usually offered in situations of emotional pain, rather than physical ailments.
But even in those situations the advice falls well short of the truth.
There are those who have experienced emotional trauma and the intensity of that trauma doesn’t seem to diminish at all with the passage of time. For some it seems like it’s getting stronger. Year after year they’ll continue to tell the same story of what happened to them, giving voice to the hurt they continue to feel.
That’s in contrast to other people who have also suffered, but who no longer feel the emotions as strongly. They still remember, but the hurt no longer dominates.
Some people do experience healing over time, while others don’t seem to. What is the difference?
Well, it’s not time itself. Days or weeks or months or years alone won’t do it. Healing takes place over time, but time itself is no healer.
Coming to terms with what happened is the beginning of healing. That process of understanding may take many forms. For some, accepting you were an innocent victim; for others taking responsibility for something you did wrong. Knowing our actions or reactions contributed to a problem.
Some folk who’ve had a bad experience feel that healing involves forgetting. They feel bad because they remember. Healing can allow the memories to remain, but they don’t dominate our present thoughts and actions, rather they inform what we think and the choices we make.
Failing to deal with injuries, physical or emotional, for a long time can result in scars that magnify pain.
Christians are encouraged by the Apostle Paul to understand their relationship with Jesus enables them to own their past experiences while being free to look to the present and the future with the expectation that our past hurts don’t define who we are, or who we have to be.
That life of being who we’ve always been, but also being something new is reflected in the phrase ‘born again’ as describing Christian life.
Don’t ignore your hurts in the expectation they’ll go away or get better.
Time isn’t a healer. It won’t heal your wounds. Time is the context in which healing takes place. Seek a healer.
Christians know Jesus as their great physician, the place where our healing begins and continues to grow.