Dealing with Hurt
How do you deal with someone who has hurt you? You didn’t do anything wrong and he still treated you that way. Whether it’s a colleague or a close relationship, you experience suffering when someone has hurt you.
Let’s say someone from your workplace said something to you that was hurtful and flat out wrong. You feel attacked. You’re not sure what to do. “Should I quit?!” Many different thoughts might cross your mind. In the midst of these thoughts, you start feeling anxious, potentially losing your appetite. When you’re back home you stop caring about things you used to care about. Now you feel depressed.
You respond to present (and future) suffering by self-protecting. “I just don’t want to go through this (again) with this person (or with anyone).” When there is suffering we tend to protect ourselves from potentially experiencing the same thing.
Being Like Jesus and Needing Jesus
Growth as a Christian, generally speaking, happens in a couple of ways: learning to be like Jesus and learning to need Jesus. Learning to be like Jesus is learning to love your neighbor and learning to love God. Sometimes (not all the time) when you self-protect, you also protect yourself from needing Jesus.
When you are suffering, because you have been wronged, you learn to need Jesus. Suffering has you in a place to grow, not by doing or being better, but by needing Jesus. Over time, the more you begin to function as needing Jesus, the less you self-protect. You can go into your workplace again. Learn more by getting help for anger.
Cowtown Christian Counseling serves Fort Worth with relationship counseling from a Christian perspective. Check out more of our relationship and family blogs.
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