Endurance: The Encourager Magazine

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Encourager: Walking Weak and Wounded

Articles

Walking Weak and Wounded
The Rocky Mountains were blanketed by their first snowfall and the sky was a brilliant blue. It was a picture-perfect day, unless you were anywhere near the four weary travelers trudging through the economy parking lot at Denver International Airport.

My son led the charge, towing a carry-on with wheels. He, we thought, remembered where our car was parked. I trudged some distance behind with an overstuffed "wheel-less" suitcase, a purse that could be mistaken for a second suitcase, and a... (continued)

Face-to Face With Who We Are
We each have an image of who we want to be, of what we want other people to see in us. We want to look good. We want people to like us and respect us. We can paint a pretty rosy picture of what we want people to see and may be able to live that life fairly successfully. But when adversity and suffering come along, the image changes. Like nothing else can, the environment created by suffering exposes our weaknesses, spotlights our failures, and bares our wounds.

No matter how flawless a p... (continued)

Weakness - The Gateway to Strength
We humans loathe weakness. We like to think of ourselves as strong, secure, and capable of managing our lives on our own. Yet when we look at ourselves honestly and objectively, our weaknesses glare back at us. Although that appears from our perspective to be a dismal state of affairs, 2 Corinthians 12 paints quite a different picture. It says that when we are weak, we actually have the potential to be strong.
How is it possible to be strong when we are weak? How does our weakness display Go... (continued)

Wounds and Weakness - Under Pressure
Suffering has a way of bringing our weaknesses, failures, and unhealed wounds to light. Whatever wounds we may have been able to ignore or cover up seem to come to the surface and demand attention at the very moment we feel least able to deal with them. That's what happened to me when Dave was battling cancer. Since then, I've learned that it's perfectly normal to have to deal with difficult emotional and character issues when we're going through a time of suffering or adversity.

Just as... (continued)

Not-So-Great Escape
I hate pain!" We've all expressed this all-too-human sentiment. Unfortunately, that loathing can lead us to deny our pain or devise elaborate coping mechanisms to avoid our hurts and wounds. Sometimes our coping mechanisms are so effective that we don't recognize them for what they are-a not-so-great escape.

Before we can begin to respond to our wounds and weaknesses in healthier ways, we have to recognize and deal with our unhealthy responses. So we asked a number of self-confessed esca... (continued)

Walking Beside the Weak and Wounded
People in pain often live a roller-coaster existence. They may appear fine one day and be totally withdrawn the next. So walking beside a family member or friend who is weak or wounded is a challenge. Identifying a suffering person's greatest needs can seem almost impossible because so many clamor for their attention. To make things more difficult, hurting people sometimes attempt to quiet their inner turmoil by shifting into autopilot. With a seemingly impenetrable focus, they deal primarily wi... (continued)

When Wounds and Weakness Overwhelm Us

When we have to deal with a serious illness, trauma, or loss most of us feel weak or wounded to some degree. But sometimes, despite our best efforts, the emotional pain refuses to go away. If you are experiencing the following symptoms on a consistent basis, your emotional health may be at risk.

- People who know you express their concern and notice that you have changed or are behaving differently.
- Your close relationships-family, God, friends-have changed, and not in a positive ... (continued)

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