Megaphone

Scars are scars even when they come from self-inflicted wounds. 

They power that many times they have upon us is amazing and sometimes indescribable. Every one of those scars carry a meaning, they carry a story, they carry with each of them pain. Each scar has the power to freeze you in your tracks. Each scar has the power to make you doubt and second-guess. But that power that scars have is all a memory of the pain once felt. We become conditioned to believe that risks and challenges we face will cause pain and hurt again.

It is that pain that scares us.

It is the pain that stops us in our tracks.

It is the pain that makes us doubt.

It is the pain that makes us think that we are nothing.

It is the pain that changes us.

There once was a very successful and powerful king. His kingdom flourished under his rule. One day, this king, instead of going to war decided to stay home and relax while his army fought in his name.

The king went out on a walk and as he was on the roof of his palace, he saw a beautiful woman bathing.

He saw her.

He desired her.

He made her his own.

He sinned.

She was pregnant.

He killed the woman’s husband, who also happened to be a close friend.

He tried to hide the wounds he had cause to others and himself.

A prophet then approached the king with a story;

“So the Lord sent Nathan the prophet to tell David this story: “There were two men in a certain town. One was rich, and one was poor. The rich man owned a great many sheep and cattle. The poor man owned nothing but one little lamb he had bought. He raised that little lamb, and it grew up with his children. It ate from the man’s own plate and drank from his cup. He cuddled it in his arms like a baby daughter. One day a guest arrived at the home of the rich man. But instead of killing an animal from his own flock or herd, he took the poor man’s lamb and killed it and prepared it for his guest.” 

(2 Samuel 12:1-4)

David was mad. Furious. Enraged.

Yet, as Nathan revealed that he was that rich man who took from the poor man his only lamb, David recognized his sin.

David was broken. Shattered.

Scarred by his own doing.

And in the midst of all that pain, David cried out to God. He understood his sin. He understood that now he was wounded and scarred. Yet, his cry reveals to us what we must do as we stare at our own wounds and scar.

“Create in me a clean heart, O God,

And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from Your presence,

And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,

And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.”

(Psalm 51:10-12)

David understood that his wounded and scarred heart needed to be made anew. He understood that his brokenness was not an excuse to cry out to God. And in the midst of that pain he turned to God. His sought out his joy in the joy-Giver. He knew that his salvation did not depend on him but on the one that the sanctuary service pointed to.

Because of his sin, David lost a son. David wept for his lost son. Yet, after that pain and suffering he put his trust in God and went to Bathsheba, now his wife, and God gave them another child, Solomon.

Scars are very real. The wounds that caused them were very painful. The memory of that pain can feel all too real.

Scars are scars even when they come from self-inflicted wounds.

So the question I ask is, who is your megaphone?

Yes, you read right, megaphone.

A megaphone is an amplifier. It makes sound louder, it this case your voice.

So, who is your megaphone?

Who do you amplify when you are suffering? Who do you amplify when the scars are all too real? When you’re frozen in fear, who do you call?

Jesus himself suffered wounds. He was scarred. Yet it is those scars that give us freedom; freedom from our fear, pain, suffering, bad memories. "By his wounds we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5)

So, in the midst of everything, call on Christ as David did!

“For ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” 

(Romans 10:13)

"Courage is about doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared"
-Eddie Rickenbacker-