Psalm 139:14

The thing about healing is that it hurts, sometimes even worse than the original wound. Most people think healing is just a “matter of time” or “don’t bring it up,” and while that’s partially true, it also involves an active confrontation with yourself to get where you want to be. When a bone breaks, you set it. When you get scraped, you use peroxide or alcohol. When you get bruised, you endure an ice pack. I don’t mean to take this metaphor too far, but if you only allow “time to heal,” then you could end up with a mangled bone or an infection.

For many people, the most prominent motivating force in life is fear. Many of us feel it daily. It may manifest in small increments in our everyday lives: we feel afraid of failing at our job or being abandoned in a relationship. Or overwhelming anxiety may immobilize us as we realize our mortality or fear the potential harm that might come to us through violence; we may feel a free-floating terror that emanates from an unknown source. Just as shame engenders our mistrust of ourselves, fear feeds our mistrust of other people, the life process, even God.