Turning Wounds into Gifts

I've kind of come to like this blogging stuff, but I find that I am running out of time to do it!

A while back, I told you that I was reading this book:

I don't usually take so long to get through books, but this one is, well, ordinary (no pun intended).

Just like the title says.

It seems like it is taking forever, but I am learning some valuable lessons!

I was trying to get through a chapter today, and came across a brief section that I want to share with you.

"According to yoga teacher and writer Stephen Cope, every human being is born with a unique gift, a gift that, once discovered, is the doorway to a fulfilled life, to our particular path or calling.  Not surprisingly, the gift requires practice, an enormous investment of time and energy and faith.  But what is surprising, according to Cope, is that our gift is often paired with a wound.  In other words, our strength seems to be born of our suffering, growing and flowering out of our limitations."

I'll wait patiently while you take a minute to read that one more time. . .

After taking some time to think that through, I have come to this conclusion:

That is an honest-to-goodness-profound-truth.

Let me give you some examples, without using names.

Friend #1:  Spent years upon years and who knows how many thousands of dollars trying to have a child.  Waiting and watching.  Desperate and feeling broken, I'm sure.  Wondering why God would allow her to be in this situation.  Yet, with time and energy, and out of a tremendous amount of wounds and suffering, is one of the most dedicated moms that I know.

Friend #2:  Was in a relationship that was slowly destroying her.  And, having come from a rather dysfunctional family anyway, this was just more that she could endure.  The relationship ended, not easily, and the woman was very unsure of what to do with her life.  But God.  In walked the man of her dreams--a Godly man who would love her and together they would move forward in a ministry for others that could only be ordained by God Himself. 

Friend #3:  Got married young in life.  To a man who was abusive to her in many ways.  And she felt she had no way out.  But eventually, she swallowed her pride and left.  And found God along the way.  Of course, nothing is ever that simple, but I don't want to include too many details. . .those things are quite private after all.  But, after finding a Godly man and starting their own family, she is one of the Godliest women I am privileged to know.  Her wounds are her testimony.  And her healing helps to heal others.

Christ tells us in 2 Corinthians 12:10

"Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: 

for when I am weak, then am I strong."

I don't usually do this, but I am asking for anyone who is willing to share, please give an abbreviated version of your testimony in the comments section below. 

How has God taken a weakness or a wound in your life and used it to make you stronger?

I will be sharing my own testimony in my next blog.