THE SCARS WE CARRY
Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
We hunters have such a strange fascination with antlers. I've often wondered why we really care about the mineral deposits that sit on the head of the different deer species. They are like a finger print... all different. I like all antlers; big, small, typical and non-typical. Linda thinks that I have a sickness, I can see a buck once and then weeks or even months later and tell you where I had seen it before. My mind has memorized the look of dozens and dozens of world class bucks by the looks of their antlers. They are amazing things to me and many other hunters.
A deer's body has a mechanism for the memory of growing the antlers... I've seen sets of shed antlers that remain nearly exactly the same for 3 or 4 years in a row. Some bucks may damage their antlers during the growing stage and they can become non-typical for that year and the next year they look the same as they had before the damage took place. Other bucks can damage the base of the antler, called the pedicle and that can damage the growth for the entire life of that deer. Those antlers will never recover from the damage done to them.
People are just like those antlers, some damage hurts for just a short time, with no long term effects. Other damage from a hurt can be carried all through life. Even after they've been dealt with, there are still effects that will show scar tissue on the heart, sometimes for many years, even an entire life.
The harsh names we're called on the schoolyard as a child can be heard in our ears for the rest of our lives. So many things can injure us, break our hearts, wound our spirits and change us forever, leaving our hearts covered in the scar tissues of mistrust, bitterness, self-condemnation, guilt, and fear; all the things that keep us from stepping out, risking, moving ahead. We want God to fix us and heal us quickly and without pain. But the healing of our hearts takes time, hard work, and a strong commitment, just as physical healing does.
Have you been wounded? Is your heart shattered and now covered with protective, tough scar tissue? Or maybe it has never even healed back together. God has a great plan for your future. Are you ready to deal with the wounds of your past so that you will be able to go where he is calling you to go?
Only through God can your scar tissue be softened and the flesh be renewed. Without Him the scar tissue with continue to grow thicker and harder until we can't feel anything anymore. Allow Him to work in the damaged parts of your life and restore what has been hurt.
They say that, "time heals all wounds". However when we are talking about the heart, that's not always true. The heart that has been wounded over and over again becomes callused and eventually becomes like stone. While it appears to be in one piece, it is really not healed but hardened.
In Ezekiel 36:26 God tells His people
"Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."
Only God can heal a broken heart or change a heart that has callused over so severely that it is like a heart of stone. Nothing else, no worldly counsels, no earthly therapy, nothing can do it, except God.
If you've been hurt so deeply that you are like the antler that carries the effects of that hurt for a lifetime, give it all over to God, only He can change it and restore it to a state of newness. Remove the scar tissue from your life.
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