Burned

About a week ago I took a last-minute vacation with my sister and a close family friend to Galveston for a few days. The morning we were leaving, we ate at IHop for breakfast before we headed out. As we were sitting at our table talking and waiting for our food, I couldn’t help but be distracted for a sec when a young girl walked in with her family and sat down at the table next to us. She had her entire left arm wrapped in gauze and half of her left leg. I turned and asked my friend what he thought had happened to her and his response was that she must have been burned. That thought was confirmed when another table nearby asked the girl what had happened. What we gathered from the little we could hear from eavesdropping out of curiosity was that she was cooking something in a pan and some sort of “explosion” happened causing her arm to be burnt so badly. Seeing this girl wrapped up and hearing what had happened struck up an interesting conversation at our table. My friend stated that in his mind, being burned would be the worst thing ever because when you get burned they have to scrub the wound to get it clean. My sister then said that it’s the same for road rash. The thought of not only getting burned so badly, but then having to sit through the pain of someone vigorously scrubbing away at my wound to get all the dirt and other stuff that doesn’t belong there out made me cringe. I can’t even imagine that kind of pain. Of course with my brain and the way it thinks, I couldn’t just let it go…I pondered on it for days, getting chills every time. I began thinking of all the times that I have felt “burned” in my life. Whether it be from a friend, family member, or someone else that I trusted…whether I allowed myself to be close enough to the burning flame or scolding hot water out of my own stupidity or just didn’t realize that where I was standing was so dangerous…it hurt all the same. So many times in my life I have put my trust in people who have only let me down, and every time something like that happens, the pain seems to be worse. But as I was thinking back on certain situations, I began to factor in the process in which healing can occur from such a “burn”. As if the pain from just being burned wasn’t enough, I then had to allow God to vigorously scrub my open wound if I wanted to heal properly with no lingering infections that could hinder me from faithfully walking with Him in the future. And not just once, but I had to sit still and endure it time and time again….get cleaned up and wrapped up and a bit later, go back for more cleansing. What I couldn’t see in the midst of all the pain was that God was getting rid of all the things that didn’t belong in me at that time so that I could properly heal. He removed all of the pain, bitterness, mistrust, anger and heartache that didn’t belong there. Letting go of all of those things is not always a fun process…it requires obedience and faith in God to do what He needs to do and trust that He knows what He is doing. If I had refused to let God “doctor” me during those times, I would most likely still be holding on to all of those things from all my past hurt…walking around carrying it in what would still be an open wound or worse because I would have let it infect my life and walk with the Lord. I think God for giving me the strength to endure the proper cleansing needed so that I can continue to hold strong to Him. The process itself may be painful, but in the end…if I get to be cleansed from head to toe with God’s unfailing love and mercy, it’s all worth it.

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