Healing

The world and the church altogether are suffering from “moral injury”. How do we address it? By the Spirit of the gospel. One injury at a time.

It was a real moral injury for Adam and Eve to even consider that “God would not allow them to ‘be’ like God.”

It was a moral injury that caused Peter to initially distance himself from the other disciples for failing to protect Jesus as he once thought he could. It was a moral injury that led Job to wish that the day he was born had never existed. It was a moral injury that caused Jesus to cry, “Father, why have you forsaken me?”

Betrayals are the fuel of moral injuries.

Betrayed by whom? Ultimately the devil.

“Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” (Luke 22:48)

Condemnation, whether to our own selves or to others, often comes as a result of moral injury. Our values, beliefs and hopes, stretched beyond our own imagination.

It is a moral injury to even consider the message of the gospel as righteous. If Christ had died, then we who found it immoral for a righteous to die for an unrighteous died along with him and was buried with him. If Christ is resurrected, then we who died along with him and was buried with him in our spirit, were resurrected as well in our spirit to live with him who died for us.

“For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.” (Romans 14:8)

None of us can claim abstinence from moral injuries caused by others to us. But we can do something to prevent exacerbating the moral injuries of others. We can love them as we love ourselves, and as Christ loves us. Self love and sacrificial love.

What can you do today to help another heal from his moral injuries? Start the conversation, listen, and help with carrying the burden, the thorns of others.

Be open to listen. Be open to share your inherited thorns as well. Healing starts with acknowledging the pain and the hurt.

“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)

When you learn that someone already paid the tab for you, that someone already suffered for you so that you wouldn’t have to suffer as much today, it makes you feel relieved to know that the suffering could have been greater.

Jesus suffered morally, mentally, physically, spiritually, all to show how deeply he and his Dad are deeply concerned about us.

Love prevails. Start the healing process by first acknowledging our pains, acknowledging the work of others to appease our pains, extending such work to those who are suffering and yet cannot put into words what is it that they’re suffering from.

By Christ’s stripes we are healed, since he suffered a lot more than any other man could have ever suffered. All such was to bring companionship to our suffering and thus peace where such is so needed.

You’re not alone in your sufferings.