Wounded Healer

In the book Country of my skull which is about the formation of the truth and reconciliation commission in post apartheid South Africa. Nelson Mandela asks the Commission to try and heal the country and handed the chair to Bishop Desmond Tutu. Tutu was asked in an interview, ‘What sort of person do you want to serve on the truth and reconciliation commission? What sort of person can heal this country? Tutu replied ‘I want victims, victims will serve on the commission, those who have been raped, those who have watched their parents killed, these are the people I want. However they can not have stayed victims they must have forgiven their oppressors. Then he named them and said ‘These will be the wounded healers of our country.’I want you to think about some of the hardest things that have happened to you, think about them think about the temptation is to let those hard things take you down and drown you in a sea of sorrow and then I want you to imagine the hand of Jesus picking you up, holding you and saying this is what the evil one did but look what I will do. This is the identity that Jesus wants us to have to take our pain and wear it as a badge. What a beautiful thing it is that God can take our wound and make something beautiful with it, something that gives you the authority to speak into a broken world. Invite someone to take a closer look at Christ and his church.

Wounded-hand-holding-another-hand