Day 3: The Wound

Now it’s time to get to the deeper issue… the healing of your wounded heart.

Every boy, in his journey to become a man, takes an arrow in the center of his heart, in the place of his strength. We receive these from brothers, mothers, coaches, girlfriends, etc. But the deepest wounds almost always come from our fathers. Did you know your dad adored you? Did he tell you a thousand times you have what it takes?

We are wounded, and with that wound comes a message—a lie about us, about the world, and often about God too. The wound and the lie then typically lead to a vow, a resolution to never, ever do again whatever it was that might have brought the wound. This shapes us into the men we are—and are not—today as it plays out in a variety of ways, from anger and perfectionism to hiding and our addictions.

We tend to mishandle our woundedness by minimizing it, denying it, or embracing the wound as what’s most true about us. Yet the mission of Jesus is all about restoration. When asked about why He came, He quoted from Isaiah 61: "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives."

The truest thing about you is never your wound. Jesus came to heal your brokenness and restore you as a son, and as a man.