Nasty Wounds Ahead

***Disclaimer: if you have a weak stomach, this blog may not be for you.***

I love doing wound care as part of being a physical therapist, especially sharp debridement. Basically, I get to be a surgeon and use a scalpel to remove nasty dead tissue without the patient going to the operating room. It's totally awesome! I got to start my morning with sharp debridement today, and it just put me in the best of moods!

Why does rotting, stinky, dead flesh make me so cheerful in the morning?

Because there is an element of instant gratification. Wounds take sooooo long to heal. Patients take sooo long to learn to walk, talk, and take care of themselves. I work with so many people of different specialities and knowledge backgrounds to help patients make small steps of progress. But after 30 minutes of debridement, I can tell I made a difference. I helped someone get better....that's why most healthcare workers got into their profession.

As part of my church's Bible reading plan, we just finished Jeremiah...tough book. But I loved how God spoke to me, through Jeremiah, relating the sin of Israel (and us) to wounds:

8:11 "They dress the wounds of my people as though it were not serious."

8:22 "Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?"

As a therapist, I know that unless we choose the proper dressing, the proper treatment modalities, the proper diet, the proper seating system....the wound will not heal. Even with good management, wounds take a long time to truly heal up. Any wound is serious and can be life threatening, and requires serious management.

Somedays I feel like, to God, I must look like one of the nasty, stinky, contaminated wounds I love to debride. Sure, I look great from the outside, when you look at the 'dressing' I put on to face the world. But underneath, I am as contaminated with sin and nasty bits as any old sinner. The good stuff, the healthy me, is suffocated by the sin and the trappings of this world. I wish He could take His heavenly scalpel to me and just cut out the bad bits and leave the good, the godly, the totally conformed me behind.

But He did. "...and by His wounds we are healed." Is 53:5.

Isn't that awesome, totally mind-boggling, that we have the opportunity to get one huge soul debridement through Jesus? That Jesus' wounds heal mine? Actually, I don't know about you, but I'm going to need some repeat follow-up procedures. (I'm still a work in progress.)

Sure, as long as I live in this world, I will sin. But the more I turn to Jesus, the smaller that portion of me becomes (at least I pray so). With more Jesus-like behavior and character, the more of my healthy, vibrant self will I expose to the world, use to change the world, and become more myself as God created and imagined me.

I think that kind of debridement we would all sign up for, even those with weak stomachs. :)