Broken Bones

Fortunately, I have never broken a single bone in my life. Except for this one time where someone much larger than I shoved me down under the water in the pool and I'm pretty sure my big toe was at least fractured because it hurt for at least a year afterwards.  I've had friends that have broken bones and from what I've seen and been told, it's very painful.

Being the nerd I am, I did a little research.  Apparently, the moment you "break" a bone it begins healing.  First, inflammation occurs where blood rushes to the fracture site and begins clotting.  Where the blood clots, your body turns the clotted blood into fibrous tissue and cartilage, which eventually is replaced with hard bone.  Even though this part of the healing process takes place rather quickly, the completion of the "healing" takes several more weeks as the new bone will continue to compact and return to its' original form and shape, it becomes harder, and the circulation to the area will gradually improve.

In a nutshell, healing is a process.  A painful one.  Just as the healing of a broken bone takes time, appropriate medical care, rest, and sometimes physical therapy... our emotional healing also is a process.

1.  Realize and admit that something has been broken. 

When we are hurt, we feel pain.  But the pain we experience can be different for every person.  I've read that some people who break bones feel nauseous, throw up, or pass out, while others will go for days before even realizing they've broken a bone.  We all "hurt" in different ways.  Some of us get angry, some of us cry, some of us retreat to a place of isolation, others of us lash and out and try and payback the person or thing that hurt us.  However we manifest our pain, the important part is, we recognize we were/are hurt and we begin to deal with it.

2.  Allow God to minister to your breaks (hurts) and show you how to manage them.

For christians, this part is crucial.  Just as we go to a doctor when we break our bones, when we've been hurt we need to go to God and allow Him to begin to show us how we must heal.  Often times a broken bone must be "set" in order to begin healing properly.  We've all seen the movies where they snap someone's bone back into place.  The person is biting on a piece of leather or they scream and pass out.  It's gross and always makes me feel a little queasy, but that "setting" is important.  It aligns the bone back up the way it should be and allows the bone to heal properly.

 Just like that, sometimes our hurts need to "set".  We need to be led in the right direction in regards to knowing how to proceed and in how to manage our hurts.  What kind of care do we need?  What steps should we take to heal correctly?  What kinds of things should we avoid?  If we don't heal or don't heal correctly, we can and will become permanently damaged.  We will become full of hatred, resentment, bitterness, rage.  Sometimes, it's not that we don't want to heal, it's that we are afraid of the pain that will surely come whenever God "sets" our breaks.  It is crucial that we know that God is on our side and wants to see us truly and totally healed.

3.  Give yourself time to heal.

As we've mentioned before, healing is a process.  For a broken bone, complete healing can take anywhere from 6 to 8 weeks to an entire year!  The healing time differs for every person.  It depends on the type of break you endured, where you broke your bone, how old you are, your current health, etc.  The same is true for our hurts.  There is no magic time frame.  It is different for every person.  Some hurts take a day or two, some takes months or years.  It's a process that cannot be rushed.

4.  Realize the strength that will come from your brokenness.  

Apparently, it is extremely unlikely for a bone to be broken in the same place again, because when the bone heals it is usually stronger than it was before.  Have hope knowing that your breaks don't make you weak, they make you stronger.   They are scars and battle wounds that show where you've been and what accomplished in life.  You've survived life's hurts and you're stronger for it!

Psalms 34:17-20 says, "When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.  The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.  Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.  He keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken."  He will deliver us.  He hears our hearts, sees our pain, and acknowledges where we are broken.  Although we may feel alone, He is always with us.  He is willing and always available to help heal our breaks if we'll let him.  Psalms 147:3 tells us, "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds."  

Friend, are you broken?  Are you dealing with a hurt you don't know how to heal?  You're not alone.  We all are dealing with hurts.  Give it to Him, it's not easy, sometimes it takes us giving Him our hearts every day, every hour, every minute.  But we must.  We must so that we can heal and thrive and become stronger in our brokenness.