Tragic wounds

Most of us are aware of the tragedy that struck Haiti a few weeks ago. There have been many miracle stories of how people have been pulled alive from the rubble days or even weeks after the destructive earthquake. As i've been watching these reports, one account given by a Compassion International worker spoke deeply to me about the wounds we encounter in life..

As he described being pinned under the rubble of a hotel, with his leg was severely gashed, he said to himself "I could die of my wounds,.. I don't want to die from my wounds." Then to prevent infection, he attended to his wound as best as he could.

Our lives are full of hazards, and we do get wounded along our journey. Some wounds are physical, some are deep and need time to heal, others are light and heal easily, but some wounds are deeply emotional which also need care and attention.

Where is our attention focused when we are wounded? Are we focused on the wound or the one who wounded us? Do we seek help and healing, or do we guard and ignore the wound as if it did not exist? Be warned, denying our pain and focusing on the cause can bring tragic consequences...

I admit some wounds need little attention and heal on their own, but what I'm talking about are the severe gashes in life, events that leave us reeling inside. How do we deal with these wounds?

If we realized the fact "I could die from my wounds" we might respond differently, and be more inclined to seek help and healing. Yet we so often focus on the cause and who's to blame, ignore the pain and inevitably allow bitterness to infest us.

Bitterness never eases the pain. It does however cause us to develop mechanisms to guard and protect our infested wound. Bitterness can be subtle, slowly poisoning our spirit, eventually sapping all Life from us.

True healing begins with forgiveness, focusing on the wound and not the one who wounded us. True, we must guard ourselves from the potential sources of further injury, but there's a much greater risk from a potential infection from within.

So next time you're wounded, tell yourself: "I could die from my wounds... I don't want to die from my wounds..." Attend to the wound, don't let a bitter infection set in.

Dying from an infected wound would be the greatest tragedy.