Just Get Over It!
If you have been through any past trauma, great loss, abuse or hurt, you have probably encountered someone who determined it was time for you to “just get over it”. It’s a miracle you didn’t punch them in the nose! Right? It makes us angry. “You have no idea what I have been through” which is to say, “My pain is worse than yours.” There are many, many people who have had the same kind of pain and loss, and even worse but it is not a comparison game. In a way there is some right in their fumbling advice. We do need to make progress and move forward and live life looking through the windshield and not the rear view mirror. To really “get over it” is not to act like it didn’t happen, to minimize it in any way or stuff it down inside of you and hope it doesn’t show back up. It will. It means to climb the mountain of grief, sorrow, bitterness and loss. It’s hard emotional work, but it is the only way: forgive the people who hurt you, forgive yourself for not doing all the things your mind tells you you should have done and forgive God for not doing it the way you expected and wanted Him to do it. To forgive the people around you who were clumsy and inadequate in their response to your hurt. Jesus wants to help us all get over it and be free from the pain of the past. We must be ever vigilant of an enemy of our souls who wants to hedge us in with hurts, fear and anxiety and for the boundaries of our lives to get smaller and smaller. God wants to enlarge you because He has big plans for you and they are all ahead not behind.
I love you, Pastor Randy