Sin creates wounded people, and since we all have sinned and fallen far short of the glory and righteousness of God, we are all wounded to some degree. Not everyone has an (obvious) gaping hole in his or her soul, exposed by the battering of life or other wounded souls, but every one of us has been damaged by sin in one way or another. Often we respond to the trauma of life out of our woundedness, rather than the faith we may confess. …and when I say “we”, I mean me!

For instance, a divorcee’ (I know something about this) is wounded by rejection, often verbal or emotional abuse, sometimes physical abuse (I’m not saying that this has been my total experience) and is left feeling abandoned and overwhelmed with the reality of once it was “we” and now it is only “me” trying to get by in the world. There is also the feeling of “where was God when I needed Him?” …so the feelings of abandonment and rejection extend to the One who promises to never leave or forsake us. Oh, how misguided we are to attribute the qualities of God to a person or situation – and then end up alone and forsaken! We have been wounded by sin and by sinful human nature, how can we expect more than abandonment when our hope is in our marriage or our marriage partner?

So we are wounded, and often we make poor choices as a reaction to the pain we suffered. What pain did the woman caught in adultery suffer? …and how did religious people exacerbate it? What did life hold for the battered child, the one whose mother was never emotionally available, or the one whose father left at an early age? I’ve seen divorced people “come to the realization” (I have to put that in quotes to emphasize that it may be supposition rather than fact) that they were gay, or the divorcee’ reach out to multiple relationships in hope of finding love.

The fact is, we all have been wounded, we are all sinners, and we all want to be loved and accepted for who we are. Some of us have sacrificed our identity for so many years in our attempts to please others, to be loved, to be acknowledged, and to be heard, that insecurity becomes our security, where we test the waters before we jump in and adapt to all of the acceptable procedures for the current circumstances.

So where do we turn? Are we without hope in the world? –I don’t believe so. There comes a point in our lives where we have to make the hard decisions, the “choose ye this day whom ye will serve” decisions. And I think the only answer we can give to the tragedy of life is the grace of God and the knowledge that the work God has begun in us, He will bring to completion (Phil. 1:6).