Real talk guys. Cupcakes and rainbows are how we like to portray faith filled life. Today, let’s have a real discussion about what that life looks like, the good and the bad.

What Kind of Faith?

The whole point of this is talking about faith and what we walk through. So before we can dive head long into this life, let’s talk faith.

An amazing but quick way to some up the kind of faith we’re going to talk about is Brandon Lake’s song That’s Who I Praise. 

But let’s establish a little different viewpoint to consider along with that. 

I want a faith like Mary’s; one that leads me to say ‘I am your servant’ when God brings His greatest honors and trails to me; one that makes God willing to do just that; one that is ready to blindly trust despite age; one that will trust God even when what He entrusts you with is so socially unacceptable that it not only affects you, but could ruin your family and those that care about you. 

A faith like that of Joseph; a faith that is so ready to surrender to God that it requires no understanding, just a message or direction. 

A faith that wants the good with the bad. One that doesn’t just want cupcakes and rainbows. 

I may sound crazy and that’s okay. But in my mind those are faith goals. 

The Early Wounds

We as a church often sell the darkness as something that happens apart from Christ. 

Somehow we choose to leave out a few details and manage to celebrate other– equally dark things while only grazing over them. 

Jesus suffered. I’m gonna say it again. Jesus suffered. 

I don’t mean that lightly. 

Think for a moment about a Razor scooter hitting your shin.That sharp piercing pain barely touches the pain a man skilled with a whip can inflict. These men weren’t just skilled with whips, they were experts.

Think for a moment about a rose or berry bush covered in thorns, think about how it feels picking from that plant or crawling through it. Those two plants are considered to have prickles not thorns. Now think about a cactus spine. While technically considered a modified leaf they come closer to the size of the thorns believed to have been used in the construction of the Crown of Thorns. 

That was just some of what Jesus went through, how could we ever think it would be easy and painless following God?

Consider for a moment the Disciples and early Christians. They were imprisoned, hated, fined, and hunted. Many were stoned, think about that for a moment, they had rocks thrown at them in order to beat them to death. Many more were flogged and took beatings in manners similar to that of Jesus. 

Faith with Wounds

How often do we want that unshakeable faith but we don’t want the wounds it means?

I don’t want to sell it short or make it sound miserable. As Christians we have an opportunity to have unbounding joy. The thing is we tend to focus on that. But that’s not all that we experience.

It’s easy to want the joy that Paul felt praising from a prison cell, it’s easy to want the kind of faith Daniel had praising from the lion’s den. 

But it’s also easy to forget that those men had wounds and scars they carried into those situations. They praised God anyway! 

It’s easy to blame ourselves for the bad. It’s easy to struggle to see how good will come out of things. But like many things, doing the easy thing isn’t better. Yes, even when we have to do the hard thing over and over again.

God doesn’t erase our scars and wounds. He helps us carry them. He turns them into points in our stories, regardless of what side of our salvation they are on. 

God has carried many men and women through the hardest times of their lives. He’s also not the kind to quit on anyone. He’s not going to give up on you as you struggle, you’re not going to be the exception.

Wounded Warrior for Christ

In a writing program I was a part of, (author) Kara Swanson taught a lesson about writing with wounds and emotions. Her words, and I’m paraphrasing here, were something along the lines of, ‘Don’t write from a wound, write from a scar’. That has stuck with me. 

For a year now I have frequently found myself trying to write from a wound. I even wrote an article from a wound. Rather than having the effect I had hoped for, to make people feel seen and understand that the struggles it was about were just a valley, it was actually poorly written. Looking at it now all it seems to relay is pain.

For several months I have had inklings of ideas riding the puffy red part around the edge of a healing wound. Everytime I think it has healed into a scar and try to write from it I can’t. Those inklings bring up another thing she said in that lesson, again paraphrasing, ‘It’s not worth reopening a scar. Don’t be in a hurry to work from it, give it more time than you think it needs, and when you do try it, be willing to put it down and give it space’. 

Someday I believe I will be healed enough to write quality work from them outside of poetry. Someday I believe God will use those scars in writing projects, but those days aren’t here yet. 

Life isn’t just cupcakes and rainbows. We walk through valleys, we climb hills, we fight battles that make us choose Jesus over and over again. We take blows, we get wounds, some heal and some leave scars. But God is with us if we just look- we can see Him. Yes, I am fully aware that looking is often the hard part.

Sometimes God gives us challenges that create wounds. Often the scars those wounds leave will be a part of something God calls us to. We rarely see that in the moment, though. In the end every one of them leads to a testimony, one that is never pointless, one that can help someone else if we are just brave enough to let God use it.

Like everything it takes time, and God is very good at not sharing His timeline with us. But that’s where faith comes in.

Why is it so Hard?

Free will is an amazing thing. 

Since we have free will we get to make our own choices, both in obedience and disobedience. 

I want to remind you that the devil doesn’t go after what is already his. He wouldn’t waste his energy on that. 

When things are hard it’s not because you aren’t doing a good enough job. They are often a sign that you’re a threat to him. 

Final Words

Rise up warrior. Today may be a battle leaving you with wounds, but they will heal even if they leave a scar. Your wounds don’t define your fight, they train you for the next war. God heals wounds and uses scars.