Episode Summary:  In this episode, I wanted to share with you what brought me to the place where I knew this book was needed, where I knew God was calling me to share my own sacred scars, why I’ve written the book Sacred Scars for you, and what I hope you’ll get out of it.  Quotables from the episode: Sometimes our wounds come at the hands or wounds of others; sometimes we behave in a way that causes or contributes to our wounds; and sometimes there is no obvious explanation for them. But the hope that we have in Jesus is that when we will take our painful wounds and surrender them to the creator of the universe, the very One who knit us in our mother’s womb, we can experience a redemptive scar, a beautiful sacred scar in place of our wounds when we allow God to heal what has hurt us. The Hem of His Garment: Reaching Out to God When Pain Overwhelms is about how we hold onto our faith while we are waiting on God for our healing. Sacred Scars picks up where The Hem of His Garment left off. Sacred Scars is for those who think, I’ve gone through something so bad that it disqualifies me from living the abundant life that Christ came to give; I’ve gone through something so bad or I’ve done something so bad that it disqualifies me from being loved and valued; or I’ve gone through something so bad that it disqualifies me from service to God. Sacred Scars was written for that reader, to assure them that there is nothing they have gone through that is beyond the hands of a redemptive God. Jesus never gave up, so as a child of God, it’s not in my DNA to give up. The thing that drives me the most is that I’m just not going to let the enemy have that much satisfaction. The lies of the enemy is what produces guilt, shame, regret, remorse, isolation, fear. As long as he can take us there because of the wounds that we’ve gone through, as long as we listen to those lies, we will live a defeated life, but Jesus came so we can have victory. The only way to experience that victory is to recognize the lies of the enemy and to determine that I’m willing enough to feel the pain to get healing.  In over 30 years in private practice, I’ve had thousands of people come into my private practice ashamed to share their deep, dark secret because they feared I would reject them or abandon them or give them a strange look like, “I can’t believe what you just said.” But nothing surprises me anymore. What I found, is that when people will share that secret that they are so embarrassed and ashamed of, it doesn’t hold power anymore. Once they bring it out into the light, the enemy loses. Wounds are open assaults either on the body or the mind. They are those things that have been injured, abraded, or infected and leave us in a state of pain. When we are wounded, we need healing. I love what God does: in the physical body, when you get a scratch or a burn, or an infection, your body automatically sends cells to try to produce collagen to produce a scar. This book is focusing on scars, because once we have a scar, that wound, that painful experience (whether it’s physical, emotional, relational, spiritual) doesn’t hold the same pain that it did when it was an open wound. When we will take our wounds to God and let Him heal the wounds, because He’s such a good and redemptive God, He will bring beautiful sacred scars as a reminder not just of the pain we’ve gone through, but of the healing that’s taken place if we’re willing to go on that healing journey. God never pries our heart or our hands open. He’s always waiting for us to say, “Okay, Lord, I’m ready.” Too often, we’re afraid of the pain of the unknown more than we are the pain of the current discomfort of our injured situation. If you will step out and entrust your pain to God, He can bring a beautiful sacred scar. We’re all familiar with physical scars but I think it’s also important to recognize that we all carry invisible scars from emoti