Facing the Truth That Hurts
“Sometimes the truth hurts before it heals.”
Have you ever had someone massage your back? You may know that the points of tension and pain are the very points that need to be pushed on in order to release the toxins in your body for your muscles to relax. When these pain points are pushed on, they make way for oxygen to get in and increase blood flow.
It’s the same process with soul pain. We may feel a knot in our stomach or feel a wave of sadness come over us - our body triggers us to know that something is wrong. But we must begin with pushing on those pain points in order to work out the toxins and expose our souls to healing oxygen.
But here’s the thing - sometimes the toxins don’t want to go. They don’t want to be exposed or pushed on, because it causes us to feel shame or fear or pain. And so our fight or flight comes back online to self protect.
This is where we need an internal strength to persist when it hurts and a deep trust in our Healer. I think those pain points the Lord pushes on is truth. Sometimes the truth hurts before it heals.
Exposure to the Truth
God won’t heal what you choose to ignore and fail to bring into His light.
Healing begins when we come face to face with the truth. The truth that’s behind all the pain. The truth of what happened to cause the pain in the first place.
The truth about what really happened to you when you were a child.
The truth about how Coronavirus has impacted your family and took the lives of thousands.
The truth about the number of losses you have endured over the last few months.
The truth about the way you are handling them.
The truth of the unjust losses like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery.
The truth about where that pain really began and how it happened.
The truth about what happened to the Native peoples of this land when our ancestors arrived.
The truth about what’s still happening to them.
The truth about unborn children and the millions we have lost carelessly.
The truth about all the sin, death, and evil in the world and where it all came from.
The truth that there’s still sin, death, and evil within us.
Telling the Truth About How We Have Been Wounded:
Facing the truth means we must get honest about what happened to us. To our families. To our communities. Opening to this kind of truth allows us to encounter God’s compassion and care. It allows us to see things we may have missed - His perspective, how He feels about what happened. It allows us to receive His healing touch as He steps in to grieve with us.
I love inner healing ministry for this. Learn more about it here. For additonal resources on healing care - visit Terry Wardle’s website here. Terry is the founder and director of Healing Care Ministry.
Deeper trauma and ongoing pain may need counseling or therapy. This shouldn’t be something to be ashamed of, but pursued!
We all have experienced pain in some way in our life, but few of us have actually dealt with it and allowed God to heal us through it. Maybe we need to take some of those intentional steps today.
Telling the Truth About the Wounds We Have Caused:
Other times, we must expose the truth about what we have done to others, or what our ancestors and communities have done to cause these wounds.
We are going through an incredible reckoning with the truth right now as a country because the wounds and roots of racism are beginning to be exposed. But Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil said it best,
“We can’t have restoration and reconciliation without first telling the truth”
Can I tell you that I’ve had a reckoning with the truth recently?
I've been listening to a lot of podcasts, reading a lot of books, watching videos, and engaging in this conversation pretty significantly. And my insides are being ripped up by the truth.
What I may share may cause a negative reaction. While I don’t intend to cause harm, if something is being provoked within you, can I ask you to linger with Jesus in it for a while?
Ok breathe. Here we go. As I learn and grow, I'm ripped up by:
The truth that the shoes on my feet, the clothes on my back, the electronics I use, and the chocolate I crave were mostly produced on the backs of slaves.
The truth in the history of what Christians (mostly white Christians) have done in the name of Jesus to oppress others throughout the centuries. The list is long, friends.
The truth that I have often been complicit in the suffering of the marginalized - intentionally or unintentionally.
The truth that I often unknowingly participate in systems that allow me to feel comfortable and safe at the expense of the comfort and safety of those not like me.
Ok reading that list, ask yourself: what do I feel right now? Anger? Shame? Sadness? Relief? Were you holding your breath?
Where do those feelings come from? Could it be that this tension may be a pain point the Lord wants to press on with the truth?
The more I read about our history, the more I listen to brothers and sisters of color, the more I feel like I’m being exposed. The more I feel ripped up inside by the truth. Like my insides are shifting. My pride, my security, my comfort - is threatened. And I don’t like it.
I feel it so deeply in my bones. Do you? Whenever I’m exposed to new information about my own sin or the communal sin of Christians and white people, the more I am unsettled. I feel shame. I feel loss. I feel anger and sadness and all the feels.
It’s easy to let those feelings cause me to get stuck and do nothing. It’s easy to fight or flee from the pain of it. But Jesus says,
“Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free”
So what do we do with the truth when we face it? We let it lead us to lament.
Lament
Lament is where we come face to face with the pain of what has happened to us, the pain we have caused, and the pain we see in the world.
Lament is God’s gift to us when we encounter loss, disappointment, or any experience of unpleasant emotions like shame or fear. It is the antidote to fight or flight reactivity, because it forces us to not run from or fight the pain, but to enter into it. To face the truth and allow God to transform us through it. And I believe as we do, Jesus the Emmanuel meets us there, heals us, and transforms us into the people we were created to be.
In the next few posts, we will unpack lament - what it is, how you do it, and examples in Scripture for how God transforms His people through it. Stay tuned.
Reflect
What is the truth God is pressing on that hurts? Is there something from your past you have chosen to ignore because it’s too painful? What might it look like to allow God into that place right now?
What is the truth God may be pressing on regarding the pain in the world? How have those in our community been wounded? What are the symptoms we are seeing now? Seek out better understanding through reading, listening, and educating yourself on our history of the pain points. For a list of resources I’ve been reading on the truth of racism, go here.
A Prayer
Lord Jesus,
Help me to come to you with my pain and the pain of the world and expose it to your truth that hurts, but heals. Give me courage to face what is within me, what is in the world, and what is in my past that I would often rather not face.
Amen
