“Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go.”
Exodus 7:14
For those who don’t know, shoulder surgery is a big part of my story — and three nights before my third shoulder surgery, the first on my left shoulder, I will say — a very redemptive one. When I told my PT that I had to have surgery again, he said, “You’re going to be coming every day. We are NOT going to let you grow scar tissue.” (We learned the first go-round how susceptible I am to scarring.) Today I am posting a piece I wrote about scar tissue. (Beginning in the middle of the story, leaving out the gory details of how they address scar tissue:).
There is a scar tissue even more fearful than that in my shoulder. We all struggle with scar tissue entangling our hearts, binding them so that they do not move in the freedom for which we were set free in Christ. Some of this scar tissue formed from deep wounds in our stories – when the kids on the playground made fun of us, or our mom left us for her lover, or our dad slapped our face to make us more of a man.
The tissue wrapped around our hearts when we turned to gods who were not God to rescue us or to medicate us. If it were left entirely up to me to move my shoulder to break up the scar tissue, I couldn’t subject myself to the agony. Many of us have learned ways not to feel the agony of our hearts — we say, “Oh, I don’t care if my Mom says I’m too fat,” or we drink one more glass of wine, or we work until we drop. We even go to church every time the doors open so we don’t have to face the pain in our hearts. And in our addictions and idolatry, the scar tissue binds us and our hearts freeze.
My PT’s at Select are skilled and undaunted. They pursue the entangling tissue despite my pain, and one day my arm will again swing a tennis racket freely, as it was designed to do. Yes, I must cooperate in the healing process. The toughest part for me is relying on someone else to save me, to believe that his plan for the healing process is the right one, even when it hurts like h-e-double-hockey-sticks! I have work to do too, exercises that will continue to retrain the muscles to move as they were made.
Our heart’s physical therapist, the Lord and Creator of our bodies and souls, similarly gives us what we need in the healing process, not necessarily what we want. Hearts encased in scar tissue become enslaved to gods that are not God. He lubricates our hearts with grace and forgiveness; at times He allows pain, and He never turns away from our agony, though He sends comfort in the moment.
God sent His own Son to bear our wounds so that we can be freed to move as we were created to do. It is God’s grace that softens our hearts hardened by sin, and in that grace we are empowered to retrain our hearts to move as they were meant to – to love and to serve Him as we love and serve others. Indeed, as Galatians 5:1-2 exhorts us, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” – let us surrender the scar tissue of our hearts to the One who sets us free.
