Healing Together

Successful companies, churches, sports teams, and marriages have more good than bad happening, but they get better because they are willing to address the issues that are not quite right. Yes, 98% of things may be going well, but that 2% needs to be addressed or it could jeopardize the other 98%.

The percentages I used are hypothetical, but I want to make a point. If you love something – a relationship, a person, your community, your country, or your local church – then you must deal with the areas of tension to find healing and deeper connection. If people can’t speak on the things that hurt or seem wrong, then the reality of the good will also be questioned. Silencing people when they are trying to address their pain really only serves to exacerbate their sorrow. It tells them they are alone in their suffering.

You are actually inflicting another wound when you show you can’t be with others in their pain. In 1 Corinthians 13:6 (NLT), Paul stated this about love, "It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out." As the church, we are commanded to love one another by calling out evil wherever it resides and celebrating God’s truth when it wins out.

If we lament together as the family of God, we can experience healing together as the family of God. But for that healing to happen, we have to be able endure the tension of addressing evil while at the same time rejoicing in truth. It’s not an either/or – it’s a both/and.