Covering Up The Pain

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all. He protects all of his bones, not one of them will be broken. - Psalm 34:17-20

One of the most underrated kinds of pain you can feel is the pain that comes from stubbing your toe inside your shoe. If this has never happened to you, congratulations. But if you have ever accidentally slid your toes into the end of your shoe, you know exactly what kind of pain I’m talking about.

This happened to me last year when I was playing basketball. A few minutes after it happened, I took my shoe off to assess the damage, convinced my toe was bleeding because it was throbbing so bad. But once I took off my sock, I was surprised to see that everything looked just fine. You would have never known by observing my foot that anything had happened.

Fast forward a couple weeks and I was getting ready for work. As I sat on my bed to strap on a pair of wedged sandals, I noticed something about my toe. Under the pale pink nail polish, the toenail on my big toe (the same one I had stubbed weeks earlier) was black. Yes, you read that right: black. Talk about gross. And because I didn’t want anyone to see how gross it was, I went and changed into some closed-toed booties and headed off to work. 

As I put on those booties, though, it got me thinking. Why are we so quick to cover up our pain and our wounds instead of trying to uncover them so we can heal? Why do we feel this overwhelming pressure for everyone around us to think we have it all together and that we’re always “fine”? 

Would it be so bad if we chose to be vulnerable instead? Would it be a terrible idea if we exposed our wounds in order to get the counsel, the help, and the encouragement we need to get better? At first glance, that might seem like a really scary path to take. But if we’re going to heal from our hurts and progress from our pain, then we’re going to have open up. 

Now, I’m not saying you have to share your deepest secrets and struggles with every single person you talk to this week. It’s not like I should have stuck my bruised toenail in everyone’s face and showed off the grossness. But I could have taken off my shoe, removed the toenail polish, and asked someone I trust to assess the damage with me and help me figure out the best way to get my toe to heal correctly.

And that’s all I’m suggesting we do with our own personal pain. Talk to someone we trust, someone who is wise and will point us to Jesus and His Word, and ask them for help. Let’s not be so afraid to be honest in sharing our hurts that we unnecessarily prolong the healing process. The Lord is in the business of binding up our wounds. So let’s do our part in opening up so He can do His miraculous healing work.