WOUNDS OF LIFE

 

At some point in life we have found ourselves in situations where we injured ourselves or we were involved in an accident, and as a result we sustained wounds, some deep and some not so deep. 

The duration of healing and care depends on the kind of wound you sustained. Some wounds just take a few days and some require medical assistance for a few months but some take years to heal, but eventually they do.

Again depending on the type of wound you sustained, the marks left also differ. These marks can be visible temporarily before they disappear while others may stay visible for a lifetime and act as a reminder of something we once survived.

The marks can also be a reminder of pain, betrayal by a loved one, a great loss and many often than not we wish to eradicate them or hide them because of the question we encounter by everyone who comes across us and remind us of what we wish not to remember. However, on the positive side, our wounds can be a celebratory mark of how far we have come and how strong we are. For example;

For a mom who gave birth through Caesarean section, that mark reminds her of her journey with her baby and when she sees that mark it brings joy to her that she was capable of hosting life, a whole human for that matter. 

A person who survived a fire tragedy and sustained marks on her/his body no matter which part, they see it as the salvation of God who saved them from a very dangerous situation and a possible death.

Someone who survived an accident, even if they lost their ability to walk, sees their wounds also as the saving grace of God, as they encountered death and defeated it and they live to tell the story, unlike many.

Someone who survived cancer, even though part of their body was removed to stop the cancerous cells from spreading and affecting other areas, counts the wounds and marks left as a victorious moment.

Someone who walked away from an abusive relationship/marriage, though it’s a great loss and accompanies shame, sees the wound as a medium to counsel young people who are looking forward to get married. [ as they say, prevention is better than cure.]

All the above examples, the individuals can choose to be sad, complain cause just like us, we would wish to have a different outcomes and better ones that involves no pain or loss, however, in the journey of life that is not guaranteed.

We encounter so many things, events and people that leave us with wounds and at times permanent marks that reminds us of them.

We speak so much of physical wound that we forget that there so many kinds of wounds, some that no painkillers or visits to the doctor’s office would heal, marks that are not visible with a naked eye but felt every waking moment. So what are they;

Physical wounds’

These are wounds that are sustained in a physical manner and also manifest physically.

More often than not, most of us have been in such a place where we either fell and fractured ourselves, got burnt, got a cut, hurt by others e.g. Robbers, got into a road accident or entered into a fight and we got hit a good one.

As we saw earlier these injuries can be cured by medical help or sometimes on their own or using home remedies, depending on the incident that precedent the injury. A mark can be left and some clear on their own and some stay with us for a life time.

Economic wounds’

This when an individual encounters a loss that was unexpected either by being laid off work, business goes down or goods were stolen or even fire tragedies like they happen in our Gikomba market or even closure of banks and Sacco’s leading to loss of money and property. No one anticipates to wake up one day and have all their investment out the door or up in flames, many people are not even able to recover from such losses and end up in depression and if not helped on time many end up committing suicide and homicide. 

We rarely talk about this wound but it has largely affected many especially the male species. Not being able to provide for yourself or even your family is a bitter pill, not everyone has the capacity to keep on asking or even borrowing and hence it’s a wound that has no really specific expression but it’s a tough one. Coming from a place of having to a place of not having or completely lack, can lead one into deep dark areas that only God can pull one out of them. Some have looked for jobs in all entirety, jobs that are even below their education level just for them to survive but no outcome, some start businesses with loans only to end up closed with huge losses.

 How do you even explain such pain to anyone without them thinking you are lazy or not doing enough! 

Spiritual wounds’

Many people suffer in the name of religion and its, to say the least extremely sad, especially when you know that God does not even advocate for such things or practices.

 We can call it ignorance or lack of education but I will tell you right here right now that, that is not the case actually its even far worse than that, it’s actually unexplainable! Human beings would do anything and everything to connect to the higher being and when they meet with one with ill intentions they suffer lot.

What can you say about the well-educated man who killed all his family member and later on took his life, a family that were envied by many as they were a loving couple with beautiful children just because a prophetess somewhere influenced him?

How about the lady who sold all her properties and took the money to church just because a prophet told her so?

How about the recent cases in shakahola? 

How many deaths were recorded? Were they all uneducated? Were they all ignorant of death? 

How about the lady that was raped by a pastor and was left pregnant and was even asked to abort the baby, the said pastor is so great with church branches all over and unmoved and neither does he take the responsibility now for the child no matter how many times he has been pursued? Was it a mistake or a character thing?

How about the men that are also molested in church by the priests and lady pastors? 

How about the lady ministers who went to seek God but ended up in the hands of lustful men of God who at times send them inappropriate messages, threaten them when they give in or even make others leave church and go back to the world because it is better that way.

Many serve and give their resources because they have been preached to that, that is the only way they will succeed and be prosperous but end up in losses, divorced, rejected and alone. The ones who give so much are more preferred and when they cannot give anymore that are sidelined. What a pity, all in God’s name!

But are these issues that the church is willing to talk about and solve? No! The church shames the victims and therefore these men and women of cloth continue exploiting and abusing the body of Christ because we should not TOUCH the anointed. 

Many individuals have suffered through these very painful experiences silently because of the shame, guilt, confusion and lack of support, hence, we find the many brethren who once believed, are the great sinners now and even condemn the very gospel they preached.

Selah.

Emotional wounds’/mental wounds’.

This is the mother of all wounds, its last because all the other wounds trickle down to this one and if no proper care and support is taken in the beginning, more often than not the individuals never remain the same. Its battle that I would never wish even for the devil himself. 

It is characterized by all type of emotions one could ever feel, and the negative emotions come into play especially in their extreme levels. 

It’s a place where individual question everything and everyone in their life. One can be laughing, joking, meeting with people but as they turn to head home it all starts again.

It’s a journey you cannot explain because even your brain leaves you, you move but you can’t tell the direction you moving to.

This is where people get into all manner of binge behaviors, like eating excessively or not at all, withdraw from people or go out so much, indulge into alcoholism and drug abuse, sleeping around with different partners and so on, all in such for something that will offer a relief from that which is painful but cannot be put to words or neither can it be explained even with actions.

It’s a place of total brokenness, hopelessness, a very dark area, a mental breakdown, total confusion, a place of nothingness with only a hope that it gets better tomorrow.

This is the place where many lose it and suicide becomes the solution because they seek to end it, not so their lives but the pain.

It’s a place you do not wish to get and it’s a place you pray to get out of it as quickly as you can.

As I said earlier no medicine can cure it, no doctor can perform surgery to remove it, no pastor can pray for it to disappear, it’s not a place where friends or a friend can get you out of it, it’s a place where ONLY GOD CAN HELP YOU. It’s a break or make moment in any individual life. It’s a place where one can be better than they were or worse and indifferent depending on how they choose to look at things and their dependency on the higher being, GOD.

Some wounds oozes blood, some puss and some can be very smelly. Depending on the wound you have, many times you will have to take care of it by yourself without external help as not everyone knows how to care for what they haven’t experienced yet, or have the capacity to stay in such an environment. It can be lonely but the right ones always show up and even if there are none, God stays and He is more than enough.

All wounds heal and TIME is the factor and the willingness to seek help where help is concerned, without losing hope and trusting that God will carry you through to a place where you can be a tool of encouragement to other people going through the same. Because in life, you are either getting wounded, nursing a wound or healed from a wound.

SELAH

BEENCOURAGED

DREAM AGAIN