What If We Got the Exact Wound We Needed?

My recent quarantine gave me time to reflect on how Dan and I arrived at this abundant place—this later-in-life marriage; this lovely, peace-filled home; this graced season.

We both arrived via woundedness.

This thought from Joie Foster:

What if you got exactly the wound you needed in order to become the person you have become, to fulfill the destiny you are called to create, that ‘sacred wound’ in which you were hurt in exactly the way life needed you to be?

The COVID diagnosis and quarantine meant long hours sitting and dozing on the couch and eventually in an Adirondack chair in the warm sunshine. It meant time to read and pray and think and write, sipping gallons of cinnamon spice tea and munching on saltine crackers, leaving crumbs everywhere.

At some point, in between reading books and trying to get creative in filling up those interminable sitting-still moments, I said to Dan, “Do you want to hear all the things I love about you?”

He rolled his eyes, but it didn’t deter me in the least. “I love how you run to help other people. I love your sense of humor. I love that you enjoy my cooking. I love that you love your family and mine. I love that you appreciate getting outdoors as much as I do.”

The list was actually quite long.

Yes, I arrived at this abundant place by way of deep loss and heartbreak, and at the time I didn’t consider it a sacred wound. But I see it now for what it is as it shaped me more into kindness, compassion, and empathy, as it brought me more into a desperate dependency upon my heavenly Father.

I became more weathered, in a good way. I learned more gratitude, more contentment. More releasing of things beyond my control.

More.

If you find yourself in an unplanned slowing-down place, could it be an unexpected gift with time to ponder and read and let the most important people in your life know how much they mean to you?

If you find yourself in a place of woundedness, could you come to think of it as a discovery of the destiny you were created for … even if the pain is hard and it doesn’t feel as if any good could ever, ever come from it?

The Apostle Paul wrote this in a letter to the ancient church at Philippi:

There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears. — Philippians 1:6, The Message

In love, God allowed our woundedness. It was part of the good work He started in Dan and me. And it sculpted us into who we are today. 

Our purpose in life isn’t just about us. It’s for the people God has placed in our path. Dan and I were created to be exactly where we find ourselves, surrounded by our people.

And it was sacred wounds that got us here.