Bruised Souls

A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out" 
(Isaiah 42:3)

Doesn't it hurt so much when you have an accident which leaves you with a nasty bruise that seems to change colours over the course of a couple of weeks.  Great sympathy catcher but very painful!  Can you recall one of those emotional or spiritual bruises that you've had and how it left you hurting and aching for weeks?

I remember one of those painful times during November 2007.  I had a miscarriage at 11 weeks of pregnancy.  One day I was fine and the next my life was hurled upside down.   I previously had a little girl without any trouble so I was completely rattled and shaken when I realized I was miscarring this baby.  I couldn't believe it, it felt like a very bad dream.    I longed for the baby I had lost and for the expectations I had  already had of this little one in our family.  I struggled to comprehend the life of our baby having finished. For weeks I grieved, it was a time of "bruising" on my soul. But a  friend who had been through several miscarriages lent me her book "The Deep Place where Nobody Goes" by Jill Briscoe.  Through reading Jill's honest conversations with God,  I noticed the Lord was gently and tenderly mending my bruises.  As I read Jill's book, there was a poem she had written inspired by the verse from Isaiah 42:3 that moved me.

Bruised but never broken,
Down but not destroyed,
Battered by life's problems,
Sick or unemployed:
Struggling with a marriage -
Rejected we might be -
Bruised but never broken,
His promise is for me.

Darkness all around:
Faith with doubt is drowned.
May nail-pierced hands surround me,
The breath of God breathe low -
My little light flare upwards
And set my life aglow!

He heals the broken-hearted,
He sets the prisoner free,
Those desperate for forgiveness,
For hope and empathy.
He touches strengthens, comforts,
And turns their lives about,
Bruised but never broken,
Dim but never out!

As Jill puts it, sitting on the steps of my soul in the deep place where nobody goes, was where God held me as I cried and grieved but through that time He gently healed the deep bruising on my soul.

Life is not easy and we sometimes are left feeling bruised from it.  But the Lord doesn't abandon us, he suffers with us and is here waiting to comfort and tend to the hurting of our souls.  Jesus understands, he endured and suffered the cross.   I encourage you if you are feeling spiritual "bruised" to take time out and spend it sitting with the Lord.  Speak in open honesty in your conversations with Him, trusting your heart and soul in his gentle hand.  He will mend your heart and bring you back to fullness.

"You hem me in - behind and before;
 You have laid your hand upon me."
 (Psalm 139:5)

Quotes (pages 69-70) taken from The Deep Place Where Nobody Goes.  Conversations with God on the steps of my soul. Author: Jill Briscoe.  Copyright 2005.