After reading "The Shack," I began to realize I had a pocket of hurt inside me that has never been dealt with appropriately. I learned that hurt when not forgiven can grow into bitterness. Bitterness will show up as an anger that lies just beneath the surface waiting for opportunity to show itself. So, I found myself sometimes in that state of mind that any slight, any driver being inconsiderate had me feeling like I wanted to flip them the bird, in a Christian sort of way of course! I hadn’t connected that anger to some unresolved hurt before. I shared this with my men’s group and each man said that anger was right there under the surface as well. I’m coming to see that as humans we are more wounded than wicked. We act in ways that appear wicked at times but it comes out of a core of hurt that led to bitterness that leads to angry outbursts and sometimes wicked behaviors. If my theory is right and I believe it is, nothing will remove the angry outburts until the hurt is revisitied and resolved. The only remedy I know to resolving those deep hurts is to forgive who hurt you, releasing them to a higher authority. When the wound heals, the angry outburts will disappear too.

 

Scott