The Healing Process

The process of healing from wounds can be painful, but after the healing process, you can help someone else. Physicians describe the wound healing process as a complex series of events that begins at the moment of injury and can continue for months to years.  

According to medical research, there are three phases - the inflammatory phase, proliferative phase and the remodeling phase. Each of these phases has a specific purpose and is important to the overall recovery.  Often in our lives, we are wounded spiritually but we have not gone through the full healing process.

As a young man, I remember getting a deep cut on my leg. It occurred while playing outside with friends.  I was running and fell on a sharp piece of glass that made a gash on my leg. At first, it bleed than it swelled. This was the inflammatory phase. My body was reacting to the foreign object that had intruded and was using both the blood and the swelling to reject the glass and debris. This is much similar to our spiritual life, we are going along through life, and suddenly we are attacked or cut. Sometimes we get inflamed or swell, but depending on the attack, we may become inflamed with pride or swell with unforgiveness. The natural process is to recognize whether the wound is self-inflicted or caused my someone else. We must allow the Spirit to remind us of what is needed. Sometimes we need to inflame with repentance or swell with mercy and grace to allow us to forgive the one who may have caused the wound.

After about a week, new tissue started to form over the cut on my leg. This is the proliferative phase. Sometimes, I would pick at the skin and cause the wound to open and delay the healing process. Again, very much like our spiritual life, we can start to heal from the wound but instead of moving on and allowing our spiritual skin to repair the wound; we allow our carnal mind to pick away at our peace. We harbor hatred and guilt, which delays the healing process longer.

After about three weeks, when I left the wound alone and forgot about it, scar tissue formed and the wounded healed. Although, there was a scar - the pain, swelling, and discomfort was no longer there. There was a discoloration of the skin and according the process this was the remodeling phase. Medically, the tissue over the wounded was only 80% as strong as the original but the wound was healed. In our spiritual life, we often do not get to the remodeling phase because we are stuck in the first two phases. Either we continue in the sin that caused the wound or we keep reopening the wound. If we truly want to heal, we must allow for a remodeling.  Our life will not be exactly as it was before the wound. We will have scars, but we are healed. The other 20% spiritually will be the grace that allows us to live with the wound and live a productive life. 

Today, I still have that scar on my leg. It is a reminder of the cut from the glass. I am a bit more cautious about running around areas where there is glass and I warn my children to do the same. I point to the scar on my leg and tell them the story. We can point to the spiritual scar in our life and warn others or help other heal, but we must go through the wound healing process correctly.  

God grant those who read this blog today your healing power.  Allow them to recognize where they are wounded today and help them to go through the healing process. Amen