It’s hard to heal without safety. Forgiving yields safety. But it’s hard to forgive when you keep taking hits. When you are in an unsafe environment, wounds do not have a chance to heal before they are hit again. Repeated hits to a fresh wound result in mutilation and disfigurement, even death. As a matter of fact, deformation is expected.
You cannot heal properly, if you keep getting reinjured before you recover. You need space and time to recuperate. You can expect to be warped by prolonged exposure to an unsafe setting.
- Transformation – a change for the better
- Deformation – a change for the worse
Healing leads to transformation, which means a change for the better. The inability to heal due to repeated injury can result in deformation, which means a change for the worse.
If you live in a cruel setting where nobody is safe, then everyone is merely trying to survive. Even if you value and understand the potential power that lies in the pages of Scripture, if you are not provided the space and time you need to recover, you will eventually take another hit to an already wounded heart and frustrated mind. Too many hits can eventually deform your personality and your faith. If you believe that living in a dysfunctional setting is normal, you are already changing for the worse or being deformed by your environment.
Scripture works, but even Jesus needed to take time away to recover from the ordinary stressors of life and ministry. (See Mark 6:31.) So you must also find ways to introduce breathing room into your life, so that you can recover from the injuries you have sustained at the hands of your offenders. Sometime biting your lip or leaving the room is all it takes to make the environment safe. Other times you must moving out all together to find safe space for your soul to recuperate.
I don’t pretend to know your situation. But I do know this: God puts a premium on safety. And if you’re not safe, you’re going to travel a long a difficult path to full recovery. Some never make the journey, simply because they did not prioritize safety.
What one or two steps can you take today to prioritize your safety?
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