We will have a new start, an Easter start. Prayer Jesus kept his crucifixion scars, and we keep our scars, but we should not let the scars disfigure our lives. Rather we should know that God can create a life in which our wound is transformed into something good, and we are propelled toward new and abundant life. In his classic book The Wounded Healer, Henri Nouwen reflects on what it means to minister in a hurting and alienated society. A Christian community is a healing community, says Nouwen, not because wounds are cured and pains are alleviated, but because wounds and pains become openings or occasions for a new vision, a vision derived from prayer, real prayer.
Real prayer is more being than doing.
It is not words but the beyond-words experience of coming into the presence of something much greater than oneself. Prayer is a certain quality of attention that often comes upon a person when they are busy doing something else. I know a pastor who use his daily jogging run in order to pray for all the members of his churches, lingering over each name. Ministry Scars can also be God's way of leading us to do his will. Joseph looked at the scar of his sale into slavery, and saw that God had a saving plan for his life.