The Hurt And The Healing

This evening I have been to watch a contemporary dance performance which considered the themes of loss and reconstruction following loss.

 

It was a fascinating portrayal of how loneliness can feel and how other people are essential in carrying us through times of bereavement and in helping us to restructure our lives.

 

There were six dancers in the piece and each one of them, at one point in the performance, was the 'odd one out' - the one by themselves.  The one dancing alone.  The one who was experiencing loss of some kind.

 

They each had a moment of dancing solo.

 

But then the other five would come and gather around them and physically support and strengthen them.  They would dance alongside them and lift and carry them.

 

It was a beautiful image.

 

And it was another wonderful picture of what God imagines the church to be like.

 

Paul writes,

 

"The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t.  If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing.  If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance."

 

[1 Corinthians 12:25-26 MSG]

 

I love that line: every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. 

 

In the same way that the dancers in tonight's performance were all involved in each other's hurt and healing, this is what God envisions and longs for in His church.

 

 

 

 

Oil

I dye my hair a lot.

 

I get bored of having the same colour after too long and enjoy a change.  However, whilst I enjoy changing my hair colour regularly, I know that it's not good for the condition of my hair.  I often have dry, split ends and am often in need of a deep conditioning mask.

 

One of the best things for over-dyed hair is olive oil.  A good few spoonfuls warmed up and rubbed into the ends of my hair and left for a few hours, or even overnight.

 

When it's washed out, it leaves my hair feeling really soft and silky.  The split ends are flattened down and sealed - if only for a short while - and my hair feels smooth again.

 

In Psalm 23, David likens us to sheep and describes God as our shepherd.  One of the things that shepherds would do for their sheep was to rub oil into the wool on their heads.  Oil helped to ease out any thorns or brambles that were caught in the wool and caused pain.  It also helped to soothe any wounds, and it cleaned any dirt from the sheep's wool.

 

       "You anoint my head with oil;
       my cup overflows."

 

       [Psalm 23:5 NIV]

 

Whilst God doesn't literally anoint our heads with oil, He anoints our hearts and our lives with His love.

 

He eases 'thorns' and 'brambles' out of our hearts - those things that are causing us pain.  He heals our wounds so that they don't fester and become infected.  And He cleans us up and gives us a fresh start.

 

But in order for us to do all of these things, we need to do two things.  Firstly, we have to come to Him.  And secondly, we have to stay still whilst He works on our hearts.  Sometimes it feels as though it would be much more comfortable to live with the thorns in our hearts and the wounds that have been inflicted, rather than going through the process of letting God ease them out and heal them.

 

But if we will stay still and let our Shepherd God work on our hearts, we will find ourselves healed from  our deep wounds.  We will find the painful thorns we have carried around with us eased out.  And we will find we are cleaned up and given a fresh, new start.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ombre

Ombre. 

 

It's French for 'shade' or 'shades' and is a much nicer-sounding word for the current trend in dip-dyeing hair [where the ends of the hair are dyed, usually much lighter, than the rest of the hair].

 

Done properly, the aim is to for the different shades to be indistinguishable and for the lines between them to be blurred.

 

I have had a go at it this weekend.

 

The ends are not as blonde as I would have liked, but are definitely much lighter than the roots.  And I am very pleased with how well I have managed to blend the shades: it is almost impossible to see where the lighter shade begins.* 

 

The light and darkness blend together.

 

Symbolically, darkness and light are important in the Bible: darkness signifies our attempts to live independently - apart from God - and to sort out our own issues, and light represents a life lived in the loving presence of God, made possible through Jesus Christ.

 

Isaiah, prophesying Jesus' birth writes,

"That time of darkness and despair will not go on forever [...] The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine."

[Isaiah 9:1-2 NLT]

 

It is through Jesus that we can leave our lives of directionless, disorientating darkness and walk in the light:

“I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

 

[John 8:12 NIV, emphasis mine] 

 

And it is in this "light of life" - the light of God's glory and love and forgiveness and grace and mercy - that we begin to find healing for our souls and direction for our lives.

 

This is the chorus of one of my favourite songs - 'Healing Begins' by Tenth Avenue North:

 

"This is where the healing begins, oh
This is where the healing starts
When you come to where you're broken within
The light meets the dark
The light meets the dark."

 

 

It is when the light meets the dark that healing begins.

 

 

 

 

* The trick, I have discovered, is to use an old toothbrush to apply the dye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scars

Scars.

We all have them.

I have several on my wrists from baking-related incidents and a jelly-fish scar on my upper arm. 

Some people are proud of their scars and love showing them off and recounting how they got them.  Some people will do anything to remove them - there are oils and creams and operations to get rid of them, so that we appear flawless.

And sometimes we have scars on the inside too.

But rather than trying to hide our scars, sometimes they are useful.  As Dumbledore says,

"Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground."

Scars can be useful.

They don't have to define us, but they show us what has happened in our lives and, more importantly, what God has done in our lives.  When Jesus was resurrected, He still had scars and it was because of these that the disciples (and Thomas in particular), believed:

"He [Thomas] said, 'Unless I see the nail holes in his hands, put my finger in the nail holes, and stick my hand in his side, I won't believe it.'  Eight days later, his disciples were again in the room.  This time Thomas was with them.  Jesus came through the locked doors, stood among them, and said, 'Peace to you.'  Then he focused his attention on Thomas.  'Take your hand and stick it in my side.  Don't be unbelieving.  Believe.'  Thomas said, 'My master!  My God!'"

[John 20:25-28 MSG]

Scars show our injuries and our pain, but they also show God's healing and His power.  And they can help other people to believe when we aren't afraid to share them.

        "So praise God we don't have to hide scars

        They just strengthen our wounds, and they soften our hearts.

        They remind us of where we have been, but not who we are

        So praise God, praise God we don't have to hide scars

 

        There once was a King who so burdened with grief

        Walked into death so that we could find peace

        He rose up with scars on his hands and his feet

        By them we are healed, by them we are healed.

        So praise God we don't have to hide scars

        Yeah we know His are covering ours."

 

        [Johnny Diaz 'Scars']

 

We can't get rid of the scars on the inside, but we can use them to point people to the one who knows our pain and who can heal us.

 

 

 

When Life Hurts

As R.E.M sang, "Everybody cries and everybody hurts sometimes."

We live in an imperfect world with imperfect people who make imperfect choices.  And the result is that we get hurt.

Pain, in this life, is unavoidable.

Pain is a sign that there is something wrong: it points to the fact that things are not as they should be.  Pain prompts us to put things right.

It shouldn't be ignored.

As Taylor says in Gilmore Girls,

"Pain is your body's way of saying 'I'm not alright now, but I will be soon.  You've got to listen to your body.  You don't want to shut it up too soon ... that's called death.'"

We can ignore pain, we can dull the ache with pills and medicines, we can distract ourselves and bury the hurt.  But it never really goes away.

In order to heal, we need to let the wounds breathe.  We need to bring them out into the open and bring them before God.

"If your heart is broken,
You'll find God right there;
if you're kicked in the gut,
He'll help you catch your breath."

[Psalm 34:18 MSG]

"He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds."

[Psalm 147:3 NIV]

These are some of the words from 'The Hurt and The Healer" by MercyMe (full lyrics at
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/mercyme/thehurtthehealer.html) 

"You take my heart and breathe it back to life
I’ve fallen into Your arms open wide
When the hurt and the healer collide."

Whilst being hurt may be unavoidable, staying hurt isn't.