Settling Soul Wounds: Looking from the Temporal to the Eternal

Soul wounds suck. I wish there was another way to put it, but softening the blow does not seem appropriate. I despise them, yet they are mine to deal with. And I suspect I am not the only one suffering with soul wounds.

Soul Wounds

In a previous blog, I defined soul wounds and cravings and explored how they develop. Simply, soul wounds are deep lacerations in the most sacred parts of ourselves. Like any deep wound, they must heal from the inside out. Also, some of our deepest wounds may never stop pulsing no matter the healing they have received. They are our thorns to bear.

Paul speaks to his own thorn in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. He refers to it quite strongly as “a messenger of Satan, to torment me.” Many theories exist as to what this thorn was, but no religious scholar to date has won the debate. However, what we can know about this thorn is that Paul left it vague. Maybe the thorn was a medical condition. Maybe it was a battle against worldly desires. Maybe it was soul wounds.

                  No matter what the thorn was, Paul’s vagueness allows us all an opportunity to relate to the struggle of thorns. For me, the thorns are soul wounds: the need to prove myself, to matter/belong. Essential, I long to receive validation. Like Paul, I feel that thorn and how it taunts and tortures me. Yet, even amid the pain of that thorn, I recognize its purpose.

Soul Wound Strategy

                  Paul asked for his thorn to be removed three times; yet it remained. Paul acknowledges that while he would like this thorn to be removed, it has a purpose. I have asked for my soul wounds to be whisked away, only for them to remain. And I have accepted that they remain because they have purpose, a strategy for me. This may be true for us all.

                  The soul wounds I mentioned previously, are deep, deep soul wounds. These soul wounds began at age nine and became deeper as experiences appeared to prove them true. While years of therapy has helped these wounds to heal, these soul wounds still pulse at times. They still have the power to bring me to a place of disappointment and despair. They even did so this week.

Settling Soul Wounds

                  I long to write, to share the power of Jesus’ love, power, and might. Yet submissions of my work have been rejected. This felt like another stab in the soul wound of needing to prove myself and that I don’t belong. Disappointment and sadness set in with negative thoughts echoing my soul wounds. And then the purpose dropped.

                  God reminded me gently as he did Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). God reminded me that he did not call me to win contests or get book deals. He called me to proclaim his name. Matthew 6:25-33 is clear that worrying about the temporal is not going to add value to my life. Rather, the eternal he has called me to does: to seek first his kingdom (Matthew 6:33).

                  With those truths in hand, my soul wounds became a distant reverberation. The strategy set in: I shifted my focus from the temporal to the eternal. I allowed God (eternal) to soothe my soul wounds rather than seek out temporal ways to spike validation. I focused on what will build his kingdom rather than what will make me feel good for a moment.

We will have heartache and emotions that accompany soul wounds. And none of this is inappropriate. We are allowed to be human. We are allowed to experience disappointment, sadness, frustration, grief, and any other emotions that accompany soul wounds. However, when our focus becomes the temporal, this leaves room for soul wounds to intensify, for the thorn to bury deeper into our souls and for us to lose sight of the eternal.

Final thoughts

When we shift our focus back to Christ, we settle our soul wounds when we recognize that God’s power is made perfect in and through us. We experience the peace of surrendering our worries and resting in the eternal rather than the temporal. We can bear the thorn more because we know God is using it strategically. With confidence, we can know that, “When I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).