Through the book of Acts in the bible, I have been learning a lot about the ministry and the life of Paul who was once called Saul. When he went by the name Saul, he was at a place in his life where he was persecuting and killing people for following Jesus. One of the 1st martyrs Stephen was getting executed by stoning and Saul was passing by. The book of Acts said he passed by with approval as he watched over the coats of the people stoning him to death.
Finally Saul began a relationship with Jesus and started on the hardest journey imaginable. Acts says the Paul was flogged, beaten, imprisoned, and stoned multiple times.
When one was flogged, they were hit up to 40 times with a whip that had pieces of broken bones, stones, and weighted balls. These things would tear into ones skin as well as break bones. Bleeding, hemorrhaging, and death would occur during this process.
The Stoning process wasn’t too pleasant either. Sometimes you would be buried waste deep or have to stand against a wall. Then, the community would throw all sizes of rocks at you until you were dead.
Knowing all of this, I think of Paul, at the end of the day, getting ready to sleep wherever he is sleeping and taking off his cloak. I imagine seeing his back, his ribs, his arms, and face and all of them riddled with scars. I would assume he had a crooked nose from multiple beatings.
Something accompanies every single one of those scars though, and that’s a story; a reminder of where he has been and why he has each scar. The amazing thing about Paul is that he didn’t let his scars and where he has been stop or even slow him down from talking about and following Jesus. He does the exact opposite and rejoices in his suffering for Jesus and continues on. He allows his scars to be a reminder like all scars already are, but he flips it on its head and lets his scars be a testament of how far God has taken him.
We all have scars; I have one on my finger from where I got it stuck in a coke can and had to pull it out. But we also have different types of scars, like emotional ones. Maybe you were abused, treated poorly, abandoned, lied to, or any other type of hurt. The question is, as someone who desires to follow Jesus and move forward, how do we look at our own scars, whether they are old ones from our childhood or still fresh.
How do we look at our scars? Do we look at them in a way that whenever it comes up, we retreat into our own personal dark hole and dwell there until someone pulls us out? Or do we act like Paul? Where we look at our scars and then look up. Look up to the Lord and see how he is using those scars to glorify him. Jesus wishes the scars weren’t there more than you wish they weren’t there. It breaks his heart more than it breaks yours.
He wants to walk with you through this pain that you are going through and he wants to heal you, he wants you to be able to look at your scars, whether physical or emotional and be able to say “this is where I have been, and this is who I was, and I thank Jesus for how far he has taken me.
Lets be like Paul, a person who others can look at and see that we are not only willing to die for Christ, but who are also willing to endure, and live everyday for Christ no matter the cost and no matter the scars.
My Scars Are My Motivation
