wounded healer

There are times when everything lines up for me.  Good family time, good exercise, a good sleep, and I come skipping into the hospital ready to take on what ever is waiting.  Love those days, few as they may be. There are plenty of days where the last thing I feel like is a spiritual expert.  There are days when I just want to crawl into a hospital bed and have random medicines IV'd into my system.  There are days when I feel proud that I got dressed and made it to Spartanburg on time.


One of our assignments for next week is to read two chapters in the Images of Pastoral Care book.  The first image is Henri Nouwen's Wounded Healer.  It was a thought provoking and hopeful chapter.  Here are a few excerpts.


He is called to be the wounded healer, the one who must look after his own wounds but at the same time be prepared to heal the wounds of others.


This is not a form of spiritual exhabitionism but a constant willingness to see one's own pain and suffering as rising from the depth of the human condition which all men share.


A minister is not a doctor whose primary task is to take away pain.  Rather, he deepens the pain to a level where it can be shared.


The main task of the minister is to prevent people from suffering for the wrong reasons.

What a picture of God.  A God who redemptively employs wounded people, who brings good out of our pain, and who truely knows what wounds feel like.

So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.   Hebrews 4:14-16 (New Living Translation)