Tuesday, July 22, 2008

SCARRED

I went to a church service tonight and I heard a message that really touched my heart. It seemed to be a message that was tailor made just for me, and yet I looked around and saw many tears. The name of the message was SCARRED. The young minister began to talk about the many different types of scars people have - physical, emotional, and spiritual. My children and some of their friends were sitting in front of me and I thought about some of the most recent scars they have experienced. I thought about my friends who have been through the same things I have with a church and some have been through a lot worse than I could ever imagine. As he began to talk I knew that this service was going to bring healing to my life. It would take too long to try to cover it all, but I want to share a few things that really helped me.

He had some great illustrations - see if you can picture these things. He had everyone stand who had any type of physical scar. Almost every single person in the room stood. This signified how our co-workers, our friends, and strangers we come in contact with, all have scars that we don't know about. He also had a girl walk out with a jacket on, looking really happy, but when she took her jacket off, she had on a white shirt with pieces of red tape to symbolize scars in her life. He played a video of different people, who looked happy, but each one told about an event in their life that had left an emotional scar. The things he said and the illustrations he gave made me so aware that there are people all around us who are hurting. Then......

He shared about the scars that Jesus has and how He was thinking of each one of us when He took each blow. Each time Jesus was beat He thought about how much He loved us. Jesus pictured us in His mind and had thoughts of how we would be somebody in life because of the scars He was taking. Because of what Jesus did for us, we can overcome the scars in our lives. This young minister shouted, "Jesus thought we were worth it!" I was so reminded tonight of the love Jesus has for me and you.

He concluded the service by saying , "Jesus doesn't want us to let our scars defeat us. He wants us to use them to help others!" We all have scars that hurt, but when we look back and remember how we got them, we can use what we have learned to help others. I left there with great hope and a resolve to help as many people as I can. That's really what this blog is all about. I care enough that I don't want others to have hurts that cause scars in their lives. I thought about many of you tonight - ones who have been called names, ones who have lost children, ones who have lost friends, ones who have lost jobs, ones who have been mistreated, and I just want you to know that Jesus loves you and I love you.

4 comments :

Anonymous said...

What an awesome service this must have been. I can't imagine being in a service where hurting and scarred people are actually ministered to and not bombarded with "just sow a bigger seed and all your answers will come" or "the reason you are having problems is because you are not tithing". You know, when Jesus was incurring all those scars for us, I think whether we would tithe or not was not on His mind.

Anonymous said...

What a powerful post! Thank you for sharing about that service. You are helping others by what you have learned from your scars and for that, I thank you.

Jesus loves us so much! The reality of that love is bigger than the scars! I am challenged to continue helping those that are still in the middle of the abuse. Once they are rescued, they can help others too!

Anonymous said...

Once again you added another meaningful post. What a great visual example was used in the meeting.
I am glad God's love is ever extended to us - guiding and directing us, giving us hope, and healing us (in many ways)!

Anonymous said...

I keep coming back to this post. It has really helped me. Thanks for taking the time to share everything you do.