Scars.

They’re a funny thing.  They cling to us, sometimes entirely forgotten but they all hold one thing in common.  They all have stories.  Each and every nick, scrape and cut leave tell a story of our past. 

So I guess my question is, what do we do with them?

If left unquestioned, these scars serve no purpose other than to remind us of prior abuses and mishandlings of our bodies.  Whether physical or emotional, displayed or hidden; these scars tell the stories of our lives.

I have quite a few scars.  Growing up with 3 brothers, adventures were always coming and going.  With my older two brothers, Jason and Jonathan, we always had a pep crew to cheer on the brother who climbed to the tallest tree or to jump off the highest roof or to become a member of S.N.A.K.E.  This was a secret society that was created in the early 1990’s with the Sheppard/L’Ecuyer boys as charter members. Also, it should be mentioned that S.N.A.K.E. isn’t an acronym but looks waaay cooler when spelled with periods between letters.

We had a name for ourselves, SCAR BROS.  We used to write it across our knuckles.

Here’s a short manifest of my scars to date:

1.    Right elbow: round, half-dollar sized scar from skidding across pavement during an unfortunate riding-a-wheelchair-down-a-huge-hill accident in my neighborhood circa 2002.

2.    Left middle finger: cut myself with a pocketknife within 24 hours of buying one.

a.    Left ring finger: after wrapping up my first finger, 24 hours later I decided to use my pocket knife to cut off the bandage on my middle finger, then cutting my ring finger much worse than the middle.

à48 hours of owning a knife = two cuts that should have required stitches.

3.    On my chest, left side.  About 3-4 inches long.

This one came from having a defibrillator implanted in May of 2008.  This scar is epic, it’s an incision so that’s awesome but it also was held together with staples! So it looks pretty sweet, straight Frankenstein-style.

--small aside, the staples were removed by Michelle Norton, not in the hospital but on the front porch of the Soup Bowl in the summer of 2008.

Scars aren’t just physical.  The adage “Sticks and stones will break your bones but words will never hurt you” is a lie.  The truth is that sticks and stones will break your bones but words will tear you apart and eat you alive.

I have two examples of emotional scars in my life:

1.    In 6^th grade, Mrs. Hardy who was my Language Arts teacher at Montevideo Middle School read a paper of mine aloud in front of the entire class in a snickering manner then looked at me and said “Jeremy, you wont ever be a ‘good’ writer”.

2.    At a national men’s choir in 9^th grade I was singing around a piano with some guys from my high school when one of the guys who was, in his eyes, “the best” of us stopped the music and looked at me then asked, “Jeremy, were you trying just then?”

For years I’ve believed both of those things about myself that I am never going to be a good writer and that I am a terrible singer.  Two of my favorite things for years have been writing and music but my insecurities and scars regarding these situations have robbed me of ever expressing my joy in those regards.

Here comes the turn:

Scars have to tell stories.

If they stay scars and never become stories then we will gain nothing from our lives and nothing from them.

Maybe we have scars that are so deep seeded, so shameful that if they were ever brought to light there would be nothing redeeming about them and nothing in them to redeem.

            -I believe that this is a lie.  Straight from the depths.

Please read James 1.

            Trials produce perseverance.  Perseverance produces maturity and maturity brings wisdom.

            When we face trials it is CRUCIAL that we come to see that they are not in our lives because God is angry, but instead, you have been chosen worthy! Also, in the end, God is going to grow you through perseverance, building maturity and instilling in you, wisdom which is from above.

All through scripture God brings shameful stories to light.  God continually turns these stories from shame and guilt to redemption and healing.

Scars have to become stories and in the same way our lives, and the scars in them, have to become stories of God’s redemption and joy.

I have a scar on my chest that every time I brush my teeth I think about that day having surgery.  I also am reminded daily of the reason why I need that scar, the heart beating inside my chest is not the way that it should be.  And when I look at that scar I am reminded of why I have the heart condition and defibrillator at all…my Mom, who died of the same heart condition as I did almost 3 years ago.

But when I see that scar, when I retell myself that story, I see where God has been chasing me throughout my life.  I am flooded with memories about His goodness through providing amazing doctors, unbelievably faithful friends and a family who would take a bullet for me.  When I see that scar I see a story that is worth telling.

I hope that as you begin to look at your scars you begin to see the stories behind them.  I hope that we begin to see our scars as stories worth telling.  I pray that God would continue to call things into the light and that his redemption would continue to make unbelievable stories of his goodness and renown.

Scars are so much more than decorations for our bodies; they are medals of Honor, points of reference, and a table of contents for the story of our life thus far.

I’m so excited for scars to come…I hope you are too.