By Fr Adolf Washington
A little boy was disturbing his dad while he was at his computer. The father immediately picked up an old magazine with a big picture of the world map, tore it into pieces and gave it to his son saying “Now, go into your room and let me see how you fix this map together again”. He took the pieces of paper and went into his room. The man felt greatly relieved he would get a lot of time to go on with his work undisturbed.
To his shock and surprise, the little boy returned within few minutes with a perfectly fixed map. “How did you manage to do that so fast?” the dad asked.
The boy replied “Dad it is very simple. I could see a torn-up face of a lady on the other side and so fixed up the face. The map got fixed too”.
When your world is breaking up by cares and worries reach out to someone else who is broken and help heal their brokenness and you will find your life coming together again.
The chorus of a popular hymn sung till this day in Churches titled ‘Make me a channel of your peace’ reads “Oh Master, grant that I may never seek, so much to be consoled as to console, to be understood, as to understand, to be loved, as to love with all my soul”.
Jesus was a wounded healer. All through his three year ministry, Jesus experienced false accusations, unjust criticism, character-assassination, rejection. “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him” (John 1:11). Some even called him demon-possessed. The people in the synagogue even “drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff” (Luke 4:28-29). He faced an unjust trial where no one spoke for him and was finally nailed to the cross.
But not for one moment, did He stop repairing broken lives, by preaching, comforting and healing people.
The messianic prophecy of prophet Isaiah about Christ tells us “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and by His wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:5).
Victor E Frankl, psychiatrist and Nazi holocaust survivor who endured the worst of suffering in a Jewish concentration camp writes in his book ‘Man’s search for Meaning’ “In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice. If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be meaning in suffering”.
Don’t let your brokenness weigh you down. Look to God, for God sees and heals our brokenness for “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit” (Psalms 34:18). But you can also make your time of brokenness a blessing to someone by becoming a wounded healer yourself.