Excerpt from Ann Voskamp over @ A HOLY EXPERIENCE blog post about Frank Peretti’s book A wounded spirit:

The depth of a person’s character is not measured by his or her physical strength, but by the depth of his or her nobility.

How do we treat those who are weaker?

We look in to each other’s eyes.

How do we treat those who are weaker?

And then I read it out loud, the words of Jesus:

“The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’ Mt. 25:40

“… and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
Acts 9:4

I have a few of those days in my past that I remember when I was made to be the weaker for someone’s ego…Made to be their scapegoat – their less than.

I was in 7th grade, returning for the 2nd time to a school full of people who remembered me from 4th grade

…we moved way to many times.

I was nervous….and it was the first day of school …again.

I don’t remember his name because I refused to turn around and look in his ugly, hateful face.

I spent many hours frantically scratching his face and name off my memory paper

…like pencil lead digging through a notebook.

the haunting

the anger

the pain

And I remember his words….Oh how I remember those words.

How much is that doggy in the window

..woof woof ..as he kicked my chair.

While a few others looked on, ignored or laughed.

I remember feeling unwanted….

He had this sneer in his voice, as if saying to my soul deep, deep down :

“your so unwanted, no one would pay to keep you”

 “sticks and stones may brake my bones but words will never hurt me”

The little rhyme had it all wrong…

WORDS WOUND THE SOUL AND SPIRIT

….deeply!!

Years later I would grow and marry and have a daughter of my own.

My motto statement to her from the time she would enter school where she may be subjected

to the arrows from others was this:

 

“Be kind to everyone, even if they aren’t nice to you.

What you do matters more than what they do.”

And as Ann’s post goes on to say:

How we treat the weaker

is our treating of Jesus.

 

Jesus was a friend to the hurt, the broken, the angry, the sin filled…

I’m sure that boy was a wounded soul himself seeking some kind of relief by inflicting his pain on others.

That is what happens…

“ HURTING PEOPLE, HURT PEOPLE”

May we run to Jesus…

fall into His loving arms and find help for our helplessness

rest when we are weary

and hope for our broken hearts.

So that we can stand when the arrows come and be able to Point them up and Love them anyway.

I know now that it was the enemy of my soul that tried to make me feel

so unwanted that no one would pay to keep me….but

Jesus Did!!

and

He Paid It All!!!

 

Starla