We all have our scars, don’t we.

Some scars are kinda fun actually, like little badges of honor that prove we’ve played hard in life! Maybe you have a scar that acts as a teleport back into some adventure that you relive over and over again whenever somebody asks about it.

I have a scar on the lower right side of my face that for years I told people was the result of a basketball injury where I was viciously attacked by some six-foot tall girl when I risked my life driving in for a layup to score two points. This story was way cooler than telling the truth. My husband was familiar with my “basketball injury” story, from being in high school together. Then one night as we sat across the dinner table he slowly lifted a fork to my face. He gently matched the fork prongs up to my scar. It was time for the truth to be told. The real story behind this particular scar goes like this: I had been excitedly talking with friends at lunch time (as high school girls do), thus gesturing wildly with my hands while holding a plastic fork, and – you guessed it – scraped my face. That’s the truth. A simple scrape from a plastic fork left a scar that will forever remind me to have better table manners.

Still other scars are neither fun nor funny to think about. 

They have their own stories behind them – marked by fear, regret, shame, or contempt perhaps. 

These scars run deeper than our flesh because ultimately it was our heart, our mind, and our spirit that was wounded most.



 Birthmarks. 

They’re a peculiar thing aren’t they?

Maybe you have a birthmark somewhere on your body. 

I do… and I wish I could say it was one of those cute little heart-shaped ones hidden in a secret place so that if I were ever trapped in some real-life romantic action adventure and my husband had to prove his relationship to me he would softly confess, “She has a heart-shaped birthmark on her…” And suddenly all would be made right in the world.

 (swoon)

But, no, in-fact my birthmark is huge and more in the shape of the entire European & Asian Continents. Not nearly as cute. I have always viewed my birthmark as a huge, ugly flaw that was sure to repulse anyone that might see it. Therefore, I have done everything I could to hide it.



Maybe you don’t have a physical birthmark. But we all have temperamental birthmarks, personality traits that uniquely identify us. Sometimes these kind of birthmarks are more ugly than the physical ones. And we often work just as hard to keep them hidden for fear of being exposed as the imperfect individual we really are.



Far more difficult to bare are the deformities, birth defects, brain damage, and handicaps that some are forced to deal with in life, for no fault or choice of their own.

Yes, this is the broken world we live in. 



For now anyways.



We all have external and internal scars as evidence of painful experiences. We all have physical and temperamental birthmarks that remind us we’re not perfect. We all walk with a spiritual limp. We all suffer emotional handicaps. In one form or another, we all bear the evidence that this world is cursed by sin.

Sometimes we suffer the consequences of our own sin. Sometimes we suffer the consequences of others’ sin. And sometimes we’re suffering the consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin.



So what?
What’s the point in stating the obvious?



The point is this:

With every scar, birthmark, and handicap we have a choice in how we’re going to deal with it. 



We can try our best to hide our flaws and distract others from seeing them.

We can ignore the hurt and pretend our insecurities don’t exist.

We can strive to control and overcome all weakness.

We can become the Scar, the Birthmark, the Handicap as an identity.

I’ve used all of these coping skills at different times in my life. Maybe you can relate as well.

Achieving high goals, meeting certain standards, and excelling at this or that…

these are great ways to hide my inabilities and distract others from seeing my flaws.

Sadly, it’s my own insecurity that sometimes compels me to serve others – not out of love for God or people, but so I’ll feel good about myself.

Regretfully, I have turned my own scars and fears into an identity that was not mine to own.

  And, yes, sometimes I’m as guilty as the Pharisees… 

cleaning the outside of the cup rather than the inside. (Matt 23:26)


Hide, distract, ignore, pretend, strive, identify. 


Is this the way God wants us to deal with our brokenness? Our pain? Our imperfections?
Is this the abundant life He died to give us?
Is this the freedom He promised would come if we were filled with the Spirit?



NO.


Hiding, distracting, ignoring, pretending, striving, wrongly identifying… these are not of God, they are of the flesh. They oppose everything that Jesus died to give us.



Christ came, died, and rose again so that we could be brought out of hiding and stand unashamed.



“Those who look to Him are radiant with joy; their faces will never be ashamed.”

Psalm 34:5



Jesus came and exposed the controlling insecurities and pretense of the religious do-gooders of His time. Then he died and rose again to free us all from that same compulsion to strive for our own self-righteousness through good works and law-keeping.



“And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.”


Galatians 2:16b

This Savior came to grab us by the hand and bring us into the light of His glory and grace, where all of our scars and birthmarks, all of our imperfections, and all of our deformities are fully made known. The crazy thing – the part I struggle to wrap my mind around – is that in this place of absolute nakedness the Father doesn’t turn His face away in repulsion. No, somehow He gazes upon the ugliness of all that we are and says,



“But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God,  for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.”


1 Peter 2:9

How can this be?



Alas, there is a better option in dealing with our brokenness.
Allow God to redeem it.



What if instead of reliving our scars they began to fade through the healing power of grace and forgiveness? What if those birthmarks we try to hide became welcomed evidence that we’re not perfect, and we’re better off knowing that? What if we embraced our weaknesses and handicaps, knowing that they are a conduit for God’s strength to be shown? What if we stopped living as victims of this world and started walking victoriously over it? What if our cracks became the very places where the light we have inside was able to shine outside…

“We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like
fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear
that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.”