A Wounded Healer

To my friend Earth-Alien:

Forgive my intrusion; it has been sometime since I have read the comments of a victim of a crime, in this case murder. I must say that I have a lump in my throat as I read your blog. Your friend is the survivor-victim upfront and personal and you are a victim because of your compassion for your friend, because you realize the senseless evil and you realize that “you get it”.

I have never talked with a crime victim or survivor who inwardly was not saying, “My life has been changed forever.” This I am sure is going on your friend’s life as well as yours. This senseless murder changed lives for ever and reaches out further than imagined.
It is not an easy task to minister to folks like your friend or any crime victim. I know what it is”to get it” and then deal with the “craziness” of the situation. I thought sometimes I would come out of my skin. “Even as a believer in the ultimate sovereignty of God, I sometimes get lost in the trappings of flesh.” Carrie Baird

There is no panacea that I might offer to comfort your feelings, thoughts and want to do’s. You and our God will work it out. Your advantage and mine is “we get it.” Ministering to others is the challenge.

There is an old story in the Talmud which suggests a beginning to this “craziness”.
“Rabbi Joshua ben Levi came upon Elijah the prophet while he was standing at the entrance Rabbi Simeron ben Yohai’s cave. He asked, “When will the Messiah come?” Elijah replied, “Go ask him yourself.” “Where is he and how shall I know him?” He is sitting with the poor covered with wounds. The others unbind all the wounds at the same time and then bind them up again. But he unbinds one at a time and binds it up again, saying to himself, “Perhaps I shall be needed: if so I must be ready so as not to delay for a moment.”

“As the Messiah, we are both the wounded minister and the wounded healer.” Henri Nouwen, The Wounded Healer.

“Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” Matthew 5:7

Your friend,
Eutychus