The Wound – Part 1

Our struggles, no matter what they are, is a symptom of a much deeper issue going on in our hearts.  I am a sex addict in recovery.  I struggled with my issue for over 20 years.  Before I started to gain real freedom from my addiction I was trying to cut off the struggle its self.  I read book after book trying to find some secret formula to rid myself of my struggle.  It wasn’t until I started to learn that my struggle with purity came out of emotional wounds that the Lord had to heal.

Emotional wounds I have discovered are similar to chronic physical wounds. I was talking to a friend recently who works at a wound care center. She mentioned that often patients with chronic wounds come into the center with a wound that has nearly closed and is covered over with a scab on the outside but there is still a deep, unhealed wound beneath the surface. When this happens with a physical wound, the doctor must take a scalpel (a sharp blade) and re-open the wound on the outside so that it can actually heal….from the inside out.

The same is true with our emotional wounds….if we have tried to close them on the outside without properly addressing the need for wound healing on the inside, we have left ourselves open to a festering chronic wound….that is likely causing us internal pain and becoming infectious.

And just like the chronic physical wounds, it is painful to re-open these emotional wounds and cut away the outside layer of “protection” we have constructed to protect ourselves from further pain and injury. However, if we refuse to go through this painful healing process, we are allowing anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, and resentment to fester and develop a foothold in our souls. When this happens we will continue to go to our “symptom” to numb our pain.

So just like with the chronic physical wounds, although a painful process it is so worth it to work through the emotions and get to the root of the emotional wound so that real healing can occur.

My friend was sharing that often this physical process takes several weeks with the patient having to return to the wound care clinic every week so the doctor can cut away the callus or scab that keeps trying to grow back preventing the wound from healing on the inside. Also, she mentioned that the once the wound finally heals completely from the inside out, the new scar tissue is only 80% of the original uninjured tissue’s strength. Patients are taught to protect the fragile, newly healed tissue to prevent re-injury. We have to allow the Lord to heal our deep emotional wounds. This also reminded me of the importance of knowing our weak spots….being aware of where the enemy has wounded us in the past so that we can be alert and on our guard against getting wounded in the same area again.