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My purpose in writing Scars and Stripes is to raise awareness
of the importance of working through one's pains. I have waited for over a half of a century to tell my story. I needed this
time to work through the process of making peace with my own painful past so that I can guide others down the path of healing.
I realize there is a danger in looking back to the past. Paul says in Philippians 3:13-14, " ... this one thing I
do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus:'
On the other hand, I believe there is value in seeing
your life in retrospect. It can help, and many time force, you to move beyond the bondage and codependency of those past years
and bring you to the place where you are able to give God the glory. A glance backward should only be a temporary phase in
the process of healing so that you are then able to press onward toward the future.
Years ago I heard a story that
has stuck with me through its analogy. There was a little boy with a bad temper who flew off in a rage at the slightest provocation.
His father wanted to help him learn the danger of his actions. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him to hammer a
nail in the barn every time he lost his temper.
The very first day the boy drove 37 nails into the boards of the
barn. With each passing day, the number grew less and less. Finally, the day came when the boy did not lose his temper at
all. No nails had to be driven into the barn's walls. He was very excited and ran to tell his father of his progress.
His father instructed him that since he had reached this point, he could now pull the nails out one by one for each day he
was able to control his temper. The days passed, and finally the young boy was able to report that the nails were gone.
The father took him by the hand and led him to the barn. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the
barn. The barn will never be the same. When you say things in anger, those words leave a scar, just as the nails have in the
barn. You can say 'I'm sorry' but the wounds will still be there. A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one".
As
I remember this story, I think of the carpenter who lived 2000 years ago in a little town called Nazareth who could plane
the soul smooth, fill up the emotional holes of unmet needs, unhealed hurts and unresolved issues with the cement of His grace,
and so paint us with the Crimson Blood of Calvary, that someone meeting us in heaven would never know that we had any scars
at all. His name is Jesus.
He was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement
of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)
Praise the Lord!
Roy H. Cantrell,
Ph.D.
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