Wounded Healers

Suffering people have an uncanny knack for finding me. I must have some sort of scent. Almost daily, a desperate friend or family member of a person in crisis will track down an acquaintance who reaches out to a neighbor who knows my fourth cousin twice removed all in the hopes of getting in touch with me.

Every last one of my encounters with strangers experiencing pain claims a permanent place in my heart. I carry their stories somewhere deep in my soul. I will never stop hurting for the hurting.

I have learned that entering into other people’s suffering can actually be a part of my own healing. These invitations into the pain of others have become sacred. Having received the overwhelming comfort and generous empathy of so many friends and strangers, how can I withhold comfort from people who need it?

In a million creative ways, God has comforted you and me during our journeys into the darkness. He has given us His Spirit, His Word, and His people. But He never intended us to be reservoirs, damming all that goodness up. God comforts us so we can comfort others (2 Corinthians 1:4–5). He uses our suffering to give us the authority to show up for other people in their times of crisis. In return, their need for comfort redeems our own suffering in some small way. And one day, the recipients of our comfort will go and do likewise in a beautiful cycle of mutual ministry in which nothing is wasted.

Beloved, longing for redemption is a natural response to suffering. God tucked a need for restoration into our DNA. If you’re on the lookout for redemption in your story, seek out someone who is suffering today. Opt into God’s perfectly designed plan for healing. Show up and shed some tears. Convince those hurting people that they are not alone. Once you’re able to offer true-blue empathy, your pain is put to use. It’s redeemed, if only a little.

And you are healed, if only a little.

God, thank you for moving in and through my life, not in spite of my hurt but because of it. Comfort me in the ways you know are best, God, so that I can pass that comfort on. Focus my perspective past my own circumstances so I can see opportunities for compassion and shared healing. Thank you, God. May it be so.