The Stories that Scars Tell

I busted my shin open as a young teenager.

Yes, you read that right.

How does one even do that?

Well…

Running through a slippery locker room with no shoes on will do it.

I sprinted from practice to the shower in order to make a volleyball game that night.

Why was I going to the volleyball game, you ask?

To support a girl, of course

But instead of supporting said girl, I spent the night in an emergency room.

There went my chance for an epic “and that’s how I met your mother” story.

All because of AXE body wash on that cursed locker room floor.

Womp, womp…

In the days and weeks that followed, my shin throbbed constantly. It was so sensitive that I avoided any and all contact.

The pain was unbearable.

But gradually, the pain began to fade. The wound started to heal. I became less cautious. My body returned to normal…

until all that was left from that dreaded night was a scar.

A scar that tells a story.

The end.

I use the my-high-hopes-to-swoon-my-crush-turned-busted-shin story as near satire, but I do think there are lessons to be learned there.

Lessons I feel I have to constantly re-learn.

Lessons being that…

1. Scars tell stories.

Stories of pain and how we overcame them.

They are reminders that point to Something bigger than us.

“These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” – 1 Peter 1:7

(read 1 Peter 1 for context on what “these” means)

2. Scars have purpose.

The modern poet Kelly Clarkson once wrote, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

That’s a bar, Kelly! There is purpose in pain. It makes us stronger!

A wise man named James said, “consider it pure joy… when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perserverance.” (James 1:2-3)

Good stuff. There is purpose in scars. Scars build perserverance which builds maturity (James 1:4).

Just like a football player grows muscle from lifting heavy weights, a human becomes more mature through trials.

Pain and scars make us stronger because of the fruit it produces in us.

3. Scars build empathy.

Have I ever run into someone who busted their shin open on the way to a game?

No!

Will I ever?

Probably not.

But I would like to think that if I did, I’d have compassion for the pain they endured…

because I endured it too!

Scars allow us to relate.

And from relating comes opportunities for relationship, service, positive influence, and livin’.

So, with that…

This was a silly shin story, I know.

But maybe it can act as a satirical reminder of the immense value in scars – the stories they tell, the purpose they bestow, and the empathy they create.

What stories do your scars tell?