The Healing Turn

2 Corinthians 1:3-7

He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. (2 Corinthians 1:4)

“TO TAKE PITY ON PEOPLE IN distress is a human quality which every man and woman should possess, but it is especially requisite in those who have once needed comfort, and found it in others.” So begins the Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio, who addresses his own heartbreak but in the context of a much larger one: the Black Death that plagued Europe in the mid-1300s. In periods of tragic loss, words of mutual comfort are especially powerful to frightened survivors. But they are true at any time. Whatever compassion and comfort we have received from others and from God equips us to offer the same compassion and comfort to those around us.

This dynamic has been repeated often throughout the ages. Many have turned their traumas into ministries over time. Those who have been imprisoned find themselves stepping back into prisons to minister to others. Those who have experienced abuse are best able to help the abused heal. Victims of unfaithfulness provide support for those going through it now. War veterans talk with those returning from a battlefront. God has worked the “pay it forward” instinct into our psyches. We give out of our own experiences.

That means that you are somehow equipped by your own past to serve others going through similar experiences. For no other reason than that you have lived for a while and experienced pain, you have something the world needs. You may not think you navigated your traumas well the first time around, but you at least learned something from them. You can relate to those in need.

Your greatest effectiveness in this world will be in the place of your deepest wounds. Let God speak healing into your traumas; then turn his comfort outward as you speak healing into others’ lives. Wounded hearts will connect with God through the divine touch you have received and now give.

{Lord, connect me with those who need what I have to offer. Let my conversations lead to those who need your touch in the ways I have received it. May your ministry to me heal others too. Amen.