Many of us carry emotional wounds in our bodies, minds, and spirits like shrapnel after a battle. Without treatment and healing, those wounds fester, causing continual pain and eventually producing emotional gangrene that slowly kills the spirit and weakens one physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Where did this pain come from? For some, it comes from growing up in a dysfunctional family that manifested itself in some form of physical, mental, or emotional abuse. For others, it comes from the church, which, sadly, can also be dysfunctional. Members may have been abused by a priest, pastor, or layperson, such as a Sunday School teacher, and their belief system has been shaken to the core, and they seriously question if there even is a God who could allow that to happen. Still, for others, their emotional wounding comes from spousal abuse or abandonment, a bitter betrayal by a family member, friend, or co-worker. There are unlimited ways in which we become emotionally wounded.

For many, they learn to “live with the pain” and find ways to cope with it: self-medicating, perfectionism, denial, suppression, keeping so busy that they don’t have time to deal with it. 

They don’t or won’t seek relief. Why? They fear facing it, fearing the onslaught of overwhelming emotions it will produce, or shame and guilt keep them from getting the help and healing they need. They may be too embarrassed or prideful to ask for help, or don’t know where to turn for it.

Can we ever be completely healed and whole this side of eternity? While we were created in holiness and wholeness in the beginning—Adam being “the perfect model or expression of health…before the Fall, a balanced, harmonious, human organism designed for immortality,” wrote John Wesley—sin took that away from us, and we understand that wholeness is not entirely possible. Wesley observed, “Since the Fall, the wholeness to be realized is wholeness within the limits of mortality.”

Sin brought brokenness to the body, the mind, and the soul. Once we understand that concept theologically and practically, we can arrive at some semblance of peace with our pain and even learn how to live in that brokenness with grace.

Complete healing and wholeness won’t be realized until we inhabit our glorified bodies in heaven (Philippians 3:21), when we will experience a state of perfect wholeness. Until then, we can still experience some semblance of healing and wholeness. Here’s how.

Photo Credit: © Pexels/Leah Kelley