Categories
Life

Wounds

Featured song: Friend Of A Wounded Heart, by Wayne Watson, from his 1987 album Watercolour Ponies.

The pain of aloneness can be unbearable. And anyone who feels truly alone knows the truth of the phrase, “alone in a crowd”. It is more than being apart from people; it is being apart from people even when they are in the same room with you. That feeling of isolation, when you don’t have the connection with others that you need.

It doesn’t matter how or why it happens. It might be your fault, it might be the fault of your friends, it may have no clear cause. But the reality is that you do not know how to fix things, and you do know that the loneliness is so hard to go through.

You try to put a good face on it. You put up walls to make it appear that you don’t care, when inside you feel like you are dying. And the longer you live with it, the more hard your heart becomes, scar tissue that you try to build on to make it hurt less.

Sometimes you know of things you can or should do to fix it, but you feel unable. Sometimes you have tried and tried to fix things, but your efforts failed, or were rejected. And still you are alone.

The presence of a friend who cares for you is what you want, but even in the best of circumstances, this is not guaranteed. That friend is just as flawed as you yourself are, and the failure of a friend may be worse than the lack of a friend in the first place.

How can there be a solution to this problem? The place to start is by not depending on other people. Instead, you need to turn to that friend who truly will never leave you. In Hebrews 13:5b, we are promised by God, “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.” This is a promise that you can be sure of. Jesus will always be there for you, even when every other friend has turned away.

Wayne Watson tells this so well in the song featured today. Listen to it, feel the words, hear the truth of what is said. Ask Him to reach into that wounded heart you carry within you, and touch it with His healing and His love. Ask to have your heart made new.

Smile
Make ’em think you’re happy
Lie
And say that things are fine
And hide
That empty longing that you feel
Don’t ever show it
Just keep your heart
Concealed

Why
Are the days so lonely?
I wonder where
Where can a heart go free?
And who will dry the tears that no one sees?
There must be someone
To share your silent dreams

Caught like a leaf in the wind
Looking for a friend
Where can you turn?
Whisper the words of a prayer
And you’ll find Him there,
Arms open wide
Love in His eyes

Jesus!
He meets you where you are
Oh, Jesus!
He heals your secret scars
All the love you’re longing for
Is Jesus
The friend of a wounded heart

Joy
Comes like the the morning
Hope
Deepens as you grow
And peace,
beyond the reaches of your soul,
Comes blowing through you,
For love has made you whole

Once like a leaf in the wind
Looking for a friend
Where could you turn?
Oh, you spoke the words of a prayer
And you found Him there
Arms open wide
Love in His eyes

Jesus!
He meets you where you are
Oh, Jesus!
He heals your secret scars
All the love you’re longing for
Is Jesus
The friend of a wounded heart…

He meets you where you are
Oh, Jesus!
He heals your secret scars
All the love you’re longing for
All the love that you need
Is Jesus
The friend of a wounded heart

Oh, the friend of a wounded heart
Oh, the friend of a wounded heart
Oh, the friend of a wounded heart
Oh, the friend of a wounded heart

Categories
Life

Scars

A life can be full of joy, of happiness, of love, and so much more. But so many lives have only a pittance of these qualities, and too much of the qualities of sorrow, sadness, regret, and pain. All too often these are present because of our own actions and choices. But sometimes these things enter our lives from people or events over which we have no control.

The tragedies of life ultimately affect each of us. You lose a parent, a child, a friend, or a spouse, to death through injury or illness. Or perhaps the loss is a separation due to distance or disagreement. Maybe the tragedy is personal, a disease or accident that leaves you with a permanent reminder – pain, dizziness or nausea that is always with you. Or it may be a mark left behind by that accident or by the surgeon’s knife.

Regardless of the specific disaster that you’ve been through, the common sequela is the scar. This mark could be one that is visible to the eye, or hidden beneath your skin, or a wound to your soul and spirit that is no less painful just because it is intangible.

Scars tell a story. They are a reminder of the events that brought you to the place in life where you are. Sometimes the scar is a sign of defeat. Sometimes it is a sign of something much greater.

Jesus changed in a strange and subtle way after he suffered beatings, crucifixion, and death at the hands of his Roman executioners. When he rose from the dead and appeared to his friends, they didn’t recognize him right away. We don’t know exactly what had changed, his face or his height or his build, or just a blindness in the eyes of those who should know his appearance better than any alive at that time. But in most cases it was his scars that got their attention, and made them realize that they were again in the presence of the One they loved. And even in heaven, we are told that it is what happened to Jesus that makes him recognizeable for who he is (Revelation 5:6).

Michael Card, on the title track of his 1984 album Known By The Scars, sings about the significance of the scars of Jesus. God considered those scars important enough to leave them where they are. Know for certain, that if the Son of God himself endured suffering and wears his scars proudly through all time, that this same Jesus can somehow take your scars and make them into a story of victory for your life!


Mother Mary cried as she held heaven in her arms
For the shadow of the scar she saw was clear
As her own bewildered baby lay weeping for the world
Whose frightened tears would free us all from fear

The marks of death that God chose never to erase
The wounds of love’s eternal mark
When the kingdom comes, with its perfected sons
He will be known by the scars

For a time he sought to tell the world he was the way
That God the Father had a human heart
With his own holy hands he sought to touch and heal their scars
But they chose to tear those gentle hands apart

No one was there to wipe away the tears
That burned the holy eyes of God
As he looked upon his one and only son
Who’d never sinned or lied
Yet was crucified

The marks of death that God chose never to erase
The wounds of love’s eternal mark
When the kingdom comes, with its perfected sons
He will be known by the scars

And after they had slain him and laid him in the grave
And the ones he loved had fled into the dark
Then his love and power raised him
And God won the victory
But they only recognized him by the scars

The marks of death that God chose never to erase
The wounds of love’s eternal mark
When the kingdom comes, with its perfected sons
He will be known by the
Marks of death that God chose never to erase
The wounds of love’s eternal mark
When the kingdom comes, with its perfected sons
He will be known by the scars