Christian Counseling - "Time Heals All Wounds"

Many people believe and live by well-known and popular sayings, such as "Time heals all wounds." Have you taken the time to think about the veracity of such commonly spoken words? How does an abstract thing like time heal? Can it heal?

No, it is a myth. If time could heal there wouldn't be any long-term consequences of pain or serious mental health disorders and you wouldn't be reading this counselor's blog because there would be little to no need for my profession. We wouldn't much need the hand of God to redeem and deliver us from our troubles because we could depend on time to rescue us in a little while. Perhaps all we would need is a few pills to help us through the temporary pain until time did it's thing.

What time does do is diminish the experience of pain by putting distance between the hard event and the present. Over time it's easier to cope with heart-felt grief or bitter loneliness because memories fade and feelings dull, but the damage is done. Tragic events, as well as small and repeated ones, change us, and we rarely forget them. For example, unattended to grief is buried within and causes people to fear future grief. Becoming self-protective is a common reaction to severe pain and can be seen in people's avoidance of intimacy, depression, anxiety, etc. Pain continues to negatively influence its victims over their lifetimes, unless they attend to them and work them out with the help of the God of possibilities.

What heals all wounds? Revelation 21:1-4 expresses that God only, not heaven, not angels, not people and not time can heal our wounds. Although all of these things and beings can ease pain, it will take an act of God to "wipe away every tear" and put an end to death, mourning, crying and pain. His supreme act will take place at the very end of time--after the great tribulation, Christ's thousand year reign, Satan's temporary release on the earth again and the final judgment of every person or spirit. It will happen when the new heaven and earth are birthed by God.

How very difficult it is to image a world without any pain and the fear of it, but it's coming, promise.