Dare to Pursue
“Every Scar Tells a Story”
October 22, 2006
ME: Pain is a part of life. In fact, it is one of the very first parts of life. In childbirth, there is pain and it is a difficult experience. Unfortunately, that is not where the pain ends in our lives. We deal with pain everyday in some form or another. Some of the pain is the result of our own poor choices. However, pain in our lives is sometimes the result of others poor choices.
It is in the journey through the pain that we begin to define ourselves. The journies of our lives make up the experiences that shape who we are.
“Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you”
Aldous Huxley
It is through pain that we have incredible stories and we have amazing images of the context and content of our lives. We need to understand that God does not hold our past against us, but the pain we endured during that time has incredible ability to mold us and define us.
I have some great stories that in many ways are the result of pain in my life. One day I was sitting with my kids when one of them asked about a set of scars on my legs. Right around my right kneecap there is this interesting series of little scars that form a triangle. My kids wanted to know what they were from. So I was able to tell them how I played third base in a baseball game instead of catching. There was a play at the base where a runner slid into my leg as I tried to apply the tag. The scars on my knee form the exact imprint of where the spikes from his cleats went into my leg.
As I told that story one of the kids noticed that I have a scar on my foot between two of my toes. They wanted to know where that was from. So I got to explain tot hem how I was chopping wood for the fireplace when the axe bounced off the woodpile and hit my foot. At first I didn’t think it hurt me because I didn’t feel any pain. It was only when I noticed that my shoe was filled with blood that I also noticed this stinging sensation every time I took a step.
WE: Like me, many of you have some outward signs of pain. You have scars and wounds that tell a story. You have events or people that you remember every time you see those scars. For many of us, the scars that cause the most pain are unseen. They are the results of poor choices and desperate actions that have led us away from what we dreamed or intended for our lives. I want to help you understand today that every scar tells a story.
God: Today I want to show you a passage from the bible that helps us to understand how the apostle Paul dealt with the pain in our lives. It shows us his real self, his real hurt and his real need to depend on God.
“We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us. And you are helping us by praying for us. Then many people will give thanks because God has graciously answered so many prayers for our safety.” 2 Corinthians 1:8-11 (New Living Translation)
There are three basic principles we need to learn from this passage.
1) Life can become overwhelming.
Now I know what you are thinking. You came today to expect some great truth from scripture to be taught and to learn some new insight into God, and I give you something you already know. Hey, I live to point out the obvious.
Is there anyone here who has never at some point been completely overwhelmed with life? We can all relate to that. We all connect with the concept that life is tough sometimes and we are not sure we are going to survive.
“We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die.” 2 Corinthians 1:8-9a (NLT)
Notice that Paul not only feels like he is going to die, he expects to die. Life turns out to not be a grand adventure for Paul of changing the world, but it is at times a great struggle simply to survive.
What were some of the things that Paul dealt with?
“Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I know I sound like a madman, but I have served him far more! I have worked harder, been put in prison more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again. Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. I have traveled on many long journeys. I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not. I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm.” 2 Corinthians 11:22-28 (NLT)
Paul dealt with all these issues in life. He was constantly being arrested, beaten, thrown out of town, and shipwrecked. No wonder Paul had such a hard time finding people to go on trips with him.
Many commentators believe that Paul not only suffered physical affliction, but that he suffered a mental or emotional affliction as well. I believe that may be a very real possibility. Paul seems to have gone through periods in his life of major depression and anxiety. On several occasions in scripture Paul uses the term or idea that he feels overwhelmed. Paul may have suffered from some type of emotional distress that plagued him throughout his life.
We all look to escape the pain in our lives. Paul was no different. We do not know exactly what his affliction was, but we know that god never took it away from him.
“To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:6-9 (NIV)
Paul wanted desperately to be finished with eth torment he was going through. But he learned that God’s grace was powerful enough to sustain him.
We all face incredible hurts and pains in life and they are never easy to deal with.
For many of you, there are pains of childhood tragedy, of poor choices and sin that have plagued you forever and you would love simply to forget they ever occurred. You will never be able to forget the pain that comes into your life. It will always be apart of you because it shaped who you are.
God never wastes a hurt.
What you need to understand is that although you may wish it had never happened and you may wish circumstances of your life were different, God has allowed you to go through them so that he may show up in your life. So many people go through life mad at God and hurt that God allowed them to experience pain. But God’s desire is that we take the pain in our lives and we learn to grow from it.
2) God is faithful.
This may be one of the hardest things for people going through pain or living with pain to understand. But God is faithful to be a source of power and strength in our weakness.
“In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us.” 2 Corinthians 1:9-10 (NLT)
Paul lets us know that even when he thought he was going to die, he relied on the power of God to sustain him.
The very pain in your life is what you think may kill you. And in reality, maybe it will. There are things in our lives that will kill us. But God is able to deliver us from the death. The worst thing that can happen to us is the pain and suffering that goes on through the process of our life; but when we die, if we have a relationship with Jesus, that all comes to an end. Jesus Christ died so that we would not have to pay the penalty of death.
The God who was faithful to deliver us in the past, can be trusted in our future.
Paul says that what he learned through the process of all the pain he endured was that God is able to be trusted to deliver us from the pain in our lives today.
The way to understand Gods faithfulness is to see as God sees.
One of the problems we have in our lives is that we have such a limited scope of what is taking place. We see only our perspective and not Gods perspective.
Maybe God’s design for your life is not to take away your pain but to use what you have learned to minister into the lives of others.
3) God desires your scars to tell a story to others.
“And you are helping us by praying for us. Then many people will give thanks because God has graciously answered so many prayers for our safety.” 2 Corinthians 1:11 (NLT)
We often think that the way that God can really be honored and glorified is if we are healed or if we simply learn to bury our scars and never allow anyone to see our weakness. Paul tells the Corinthians that not only do their prayers encourage him, but they allow others to hear his story.
God is not only a God of healing; he is a God of supporting.
God is honored when our lives are lived out in daily recognition that he is the only one that enables us to get through our day. When our lives are devoted to a need to rely on God, we realize that what is out of our control is under his control.
God uses our scars to tell a story of his love and faithfulness to others.
Scars are not finish lines of death, they are checkpoints of life.
One of the problems we have in the Christian community is that we are afraid to talk about our scars. We feel like we are past the point of help, we feel like failures and we feel like we have let God down because our lives are marked with scars.
Scars are not a sign of weakness; they are signs of survival.
Most of you have heard about the scars that I face everyday. I have for years struggled with anxiety and panic. I get overwhelmed with life very easily. For about ten years now I have been waging this battle with emotions and depression that cloud my brain. I don’t hide it like I used to. I have had people tell me that because I deal with this junk I am not spiritual or if I just read the bible more it would go away. I have even had people tell me that I can’t really be a follower of Christ because of this area of weakness in my life.
However, I have seen God do amazing things in my life. He has softened my heart towards hurting people. He has given me new insights into questions that I had long ago answered. He has brought people into my life who were on the edge of despair so that by sharing my story with them they could find at least one person who fully understood.
Now, I want you to understand that I wish I had never experienced any of this. I wish I would never have any fear or panic or anxiety. However, I understand today that God allows it in my life to remind me of his faithfulness and security, even when I don’t feel very secure.
You: So, what about you? You have scars in your life. You have pains and hurts and feelings that you don’t’ understand or like. What are you going to do about them? How are you going to allow them to shape you?
There are three things your scars can do:
1) Your scars can paralyze you.
2) Your scars can make you bitter.
3) Your scars can strengthen you.
Scars strengthen you when you embrace them.
“That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 6:10 (NLT)
Are you willing to let God take your scars and use them to bring honor and gory to himself? Are you wiling to allow him control of the areas of your life that are out of control?
Maybe today you need someone to pray for you. Maybe you simply need someone to listen to you and help you to embrace your scars. If that is the case, I want to invite you to see one of our pastoral team members after the service. We will be glad to pray with you and talk with you about the hurts and the pains of the scars in your life.
We: To help you remember to embrace your scars, we are going to pass out band-aids for you. I encourage you to take this home and place it somewhere you will see it everyday this week. Let it be a reminder to you that God is faithful, God never wastes a hurt, and every scar tells a story.
