Being the One We Needed (03/06/2024)

Years ago, when I first started working in the field of child abuse prevention, I met a woman whose work in the field I truly admired. I had the good fortune to share some time with her and learn her story. She herself was a victim of child abuse. She told me that, at first, she was so hurt and angry, even bitter, that no one noticed, no one cared, no one came to help. Then she told me that she realized that bitterness was hurting her and causing her to act in a hurtful way. She told me she felt she needed to shed some of the pain. So, she forgave the perpetrator as well as those whose inaction had hurt, and she started trying to act like the person she needed when she was so hurt.

That woman’s story and example kneaded my heart and mind. I realized how I myself often had acted poorly, unlovingly, because I’d been hurt. I realized in doing so, I was submitting to the initial hurt all over again. The LORD calls us to love and to forgive. And so, I’m trying to this day to live as this wise woman showed me.

What would our world look like if we all took Jesus’ words and tried to truly live them? What if we consciously chose to forgive the wrongs, set down the pain and bitterness, and in its place picked up loving kindness, the kind we ourselves needed most at the moment of injury, at the moment of being hurt by the other, at the moment our pain or need was dismissed by others?

This day, may all of us on our Lenten Journeys, seek to put down the pain we’re carrying in our hearts and minds, set them at the foot of the cross, and set down with them the emotions that sprang from the wounds. And let us ask the Spirit to help us pick up loving kindness in its stead, the kind of love we ourselves have needed along the way. Let us rely upon the Spirit to guide us and to make of us instruments of the LORD’s healing love wherever we go.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well,

Thoughts? Questions? – email katewiskus@gmail.com