When Handing Over the Hurt Is Worth It
In this life, our purpose is to spread the good news of Jesus, and sometimes that is massively uncomfortable. Maybe you’re like us, choosing to revisit a season from the past, hoping the pain you experienced and lessons you learned are just what someone else needs to read to remember they’re not alone. Deep down you want to allow God to use your mess for His message, but if we’re being honest, it is so hard to go back.
In our case, ten years ago, we were best friends who became seemingly enemies when the foothold of infidelity took root in our lives, destroying our friendship and our marriages.
We are the betrayed and the betrayer, and we are choosing to return back to the mess together to testify how God has worked in our hearts and done what we thought was impossible. Although our wounds have healed and we have moved on, there are scars present as proof that at one point, pain cut deep. Going back and revisiting those hurts in order to write from a place of raw emotion sometimes feels like ripping open a scar that has already healed. Um, no thank you!
We wrestle with the idea that it would be easier and more comfortable to stay in our current season of freedom, ignoring our scars. Not to mention, it would hurt way less. Yet we are all here. And with pain in our pasts and purpose in our lives, we write. Not because it’s comfortable, but because we know what God can do with it.
Why does going back have to be so uncomfortable? Why does it have to hurt so bad? It’s tough to take yourself back to a place of discomfort for the sake of letting God use our pain for a purpose. Consider a boat, a rubber band or a balloon. These things were created with specific purposes, but in order to fulfill them, they have to be stretched, expanded, and set free in deep, sometimes scary, water.
A boat in a harbor is safe, but that is not what boats were intended for. A rubber band would be insignificant unless it was stretched to hold things together. What would be the point of a balloon if it were not filled with air and expanded? It would just be a piece of floppy plastic on a string.
In the same way, our scars are full of purpose, but it requires some discomfort to expose them. Our experiences and our pain hold value, but in order for God to use them, we have to talk about them. We have to be willing to proudly display our scars, and boldly tell our testimony of what God has brought us through. Fulfilling our purpose by sharing our testimonies not only requires trust in a mighty God, but it also requires our cooperation, even when it’s uncomfortable.
It takes courage and bravery, surrender and obedience to live out your purpose and be stretched in ways only God is able to sustain you in. It hurts to revisit a place of pain and open up a healed scar, but we promise, for the sake of Jesus, it is absolutely worth it.
Someone needs to hear how Jesus held you through the hardest season of your life in order to know they can make it through theirs. And although you may find yourself wondering if re-visiting a season of hurt is worth it, also remember there is someone out there who desperately needs to hear exactly what you have to say. And perhaps they are the very reason God has you on this journey to share through the words He calls you to write.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” (NIV)
So keep going. Keep writing. Keep pressing into Jesus as He breaches your comfort to expose your weakness, requiring you to seek and rely on Him. He’ll use it, sister. Let Him. Someone is waiting. To God be the glory!
Krystal and Tamara
Recommended Posts
6 Gift Ideas for the Writer in Your Life
December 5, 2023
Mind Over Matter: Starting off the New Year Right!
January 3, 2023
What Is a Drip Campaign and How Do I Create One?
November 22, 2022