Scarred For Life!

A

 hospital is no place to rest.  Nurses, doctors, orderlies, dieticians, lab workers, and a whole host of other employees always seem to be in your room asking questions, running tests, or taking you somewhere.  I distinctly remember being awakened at 2:00 in the morning to be weighed.  I wanted to tell the nurse I weighed the same thing I did at 6:00 in the evening but it wouldn’t have done any good.  The rules said I had to be weighed, they just never said at what time.

Earlier that same evening, I was preparing for bed.  The next day would bring about a great change in my life.  A surgeon would repair a hole between the upper chambers of my heart, correcting a condition I had had since birth.  I remember looking at my chest in the mirror, knowing that the next time I saw it, it would have a scar showing exactly where the surgeon had entered and worked his magic.

The surgery was successful and after a couple of days, I was able to move about, ever so slowly mind you, but I could walk down the hall and take a walk outside.  The nurses, the doctors, and everyone else still continued to come into my room but they didn’t stay long. They did their jobs quickly and they let me rest.  When I saw my chest for the first time, it was a little shocking!  The scar was longer than I had anticipated and there many more stitches than I originally thought.

As I looked at that scar, I realized I would carry its mark for the rest of my life.  It was the symbol that something had happened to change my heart, to make me better, and to give me a new and better lease on life.  It still reminds me of that fact every time I see my self in the mirror.  After 40 years it still reminds me of the great change that took place so long ago.

The Apostle Paul also understood what it meant to be scarred for life.  During his ministry, Paul was beaten several times and bore on his body the marks of those scourges.  What is interesting is that, before his conversion, Paul inflicted beatings and was instrumental in stoning Christians.  After his encounter with Jesus, however, everything changed. Now it was Paul’s turn to experience this for himself.  In his writings, Paul refers to the fact that his walk on the Christian road was not easy.

In Galatians 6:17, Paul writes, “Finally, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.” As he closes his letter to the Galatians, Paul wants his readers to understand that he knows the cost of following Jesus.  Paul was a marked man.  He was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, even when that gospel led to him being beaten and stoned.  

In the world today, there are people who are suffering in a physical sense for the cause of Christ. They are tortured, beaten, and killed, yet the cause of Christ moves forward.  Jesus promised us there would be persecution and that we would be hated because of him.  This is not a popular or a particularly happy point of view but it is an accurate one.

Not all of us will have to endure such trying hardships, but all of us will be scarred!  When Jesus comes into our lives, he makes a change, a visible one, in the way we live our lives.  This change, this way of life, should be evident like the scar from surgery.  Jesus has opened our hearts, corrected, and cured our sin problem.  We gain a new and a better lease on life and our duty now is to live in a manner that is consistent with the work Christ did for us. 

D

o you bear in your body the mark of Christ? Is there evidence that you belong to him?  Do those around you see the Spirit of God living in you and working through you in everything you do?  Does your way of life signal a break with the world and an acceptance of God?  Are you scarred for life?