On Being Real

   Most of us (myself included) hold nothing back when expressing our opinions, anger, and frustrations. However, when it comes to revealing those things that have hurt us, we lock down tighter than Fort Knox. What happens then is that our wounded places begin to ooze over into how we function in everyday life and then it leaks out in the form of irritability, anger, judgement, sarcasm, impatience, and other unbecoming attitudes and actions.
   Lately I have been coming to realize that if I really want those hurt places to be truly healed, I need to be real with myself, with God, and with others. That doesn't mean that I have to divulge every sordid detail of what has happened to me, but I must acknowledge and assess the damages. Then I must pray and ask God to help me recognize when my responses to others are stemming out of my own woundedness and allow Him to bring healing.
   We wouldn't wish our pain on someone else, but when we try to keep it all under wraps, we inadvertently project it onto others thus continuing the cycle of pain upon pain. If we would take a closer look at the ones who have hurt us, we may just see their own ugly, festering, untreated wounds.
   Forgiveness doesn't mean that what happened to us was okay. Acknowledging our hurts does not equal weakness. Hiding and covering up our hurts do not make them non existent. Our wounds are a part of us and the scars are the very things that tell the story of who we are and how God has moved in our lives. I want to stop paying my hurts forward. Instead I want to be real enough so that others can see the healing hand of God in my life and desire to experience it in their own lives.