I am excited to share this new post with you!
Can you believe we are halfway through the year 2024. What a feat!
I originally started drafting this post in March, but could not get around to wrapping it up.
I am looking forward to celebrating all the beautiful milestones and bountiful harvests that the rest of 2024 will still bring. I am in awe of the goodness of God. Thank You Lord! Amen!
Things are not like they used to be, and I can honestly say I don’t want them to be as they once were, but I do miss some aspects of the past. Nevertheless, I have learned to mourn the losses and keep looking forward, trusting God to paint a beautiful picture in the years, months, weeks, days, minutes, and seconds ahead.
This past year, I have studied skin wounds as part of a project. Our skin is an essential organ, and the process of managing skin wounds involves interactions within a complex system.
Wound management depends on the extent of the injury. Sometimes, a wound requires debridement, where damaged or dead tissues, and possibly foreign objects, are removed. In more complex cases, skin grafting may be necessary to promote proper healing and prevent severe deformity. Skin grafting involves taking skin from another location to cover the wounded area. Alternatively, cells from the same patient can be expanded in the lab and used for grafts, and animal skins can also be used for this purpose. In other cases, the wound may need only a simple stitch after being cleaned and disinfected. For less complex wounds, minimal intervention is needed as long as they are kept clean to avoid an infection.
Just like with physical wounds, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to healing emotional hurt. Sometimes, ignoring a minor scrape is okay. But for deeper wounds, we might need to remove the “dead tissue” – the negativity, unaddressed emotions, poor perspectives or unhealthy ways of coping.
God created us with emotions for a purpose. Yet, we treat it like a defect. Many of us struggle to acknowledge our emotions. We might ignore them, push them down, or try to fix them quickly. But emotions, like the ones Dr. Anita Baker discusses in her book “The Garden Within,” are a vital part of who we are.
The Bible teaches us that each part of our body has a purpose (Ephesians 1:22-23). Our emotions are no different. Ephesians 4:26 encourages us to feel anger, but in a healthy way: “In your anger do not sin.”
We have not been created to be uptight, emotion-less, good-doers. How can you truly love (especially those who are different from us) without a soft heart?
Remember, God is with you through every step. As Psalm 23:4 says: “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Let’s be honest with ourselves and with God.
And finally, remember that there may be residual changes to the skin after deep injury, don’t despise this. That makes your skin stronger and also teaches your body how to manage future wounds. Maybe we can chat more about the contribution of cellular memory in these contexts in the future. ❤
I love you and pray that God may keep you in the months ahead. I pray His favor over you. I pray His peace and comfort over you. I pray that He may continue to teach us all how to navigate our emotions. I pray that His peace, grace and love may abound in our lives and that we may share this with those He sends our way. May we not have tunnel vision to our own mission that we miss His intentions for our lives on this earth, no matter how well meaning it is. May we be aligned with the Holy Spirit of God that we flow and ebb with Him. For the Glory of His Name alone, I pray, Amen!
Love,
Uju
Citation: Image created with BioRender.com
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