The Seven Scars of a Wounded Life

THE SEVEN SCARS OF A WOUNDED LIFE

There are seven terrors that we carry with us rather casually and even with a mark of pride. Little do we know that these prizes we so deem to be righteous are in fact the scars of a wounded life. They are; cynicism, blame, unbelief, selfishness, entitlement, laziness and a hatred for those who would change our circumstances. This list is not conclusive, but it is clearly indicative of the ugliness of the challenge that an unfulfilled life loads upon us.

Take cynicism, nothing is more influential on our attitude than adoption of a cynical stance about on anything. Cynicism basically ensures that you will not lift a finger to bring about anything good because you have already decided that it will not work. Such an approach to life robs you of opportunity, health and wealth. Cynicism is a vice that colors your opinion and shades your contribution to team efforts with a veneer of disgust. Cynicism has the power to kill any idea. Cynicism is a jail cell where the jailer and the jailbird are one and the same. Cynicism is a scar, a permanent sneer on the face of its victim.

Blame pours forth furiously from the abscess of the wounded mouth oblivious of the pain it is willing to inflict on others. Blame absolves the blamer of any need or responsibility to act in any measure on anything good or bad. Blame is a vice that makes a viceroy of the angel of darkness. It makes the angel look good and everyone else look really bad. Its cutting edge is that it proclaims salvation without a solution.

Unbelief and cynicism may be considered twins, but while cynicism conducts the requiem mass, unbelief digs the grave. Unbelief does not care what is being buried. It is only concerned that there is something to be put away forever. Unbelief is so insolent it is determined to bury every vestige of hope and scars the carrier with a permanent stoop and a mindless bent.

Selfishness can do nothing for anyone. Indeed it is so selfish it cannot do anything for itself. It needs others to do everything. But the pain of the selfish one is not in the little it has but in the abundance of what it does not have. It is pained by the fact that there are so many things it cannot have because it will not share with any.

Entitlement sits and waits. Sits and waits for those who have to provide for it. Its scar is on its backside. Mainly from sitting too long in the expectation that someone else is supposed to provide all it needs for its existence. The scar of the lazy is obvious; There is nothing to show for its efforts. The lazy has a public scar; the scar they leave on the environment of what they could have done and the scar they leave because they could not be moved. The lazy has no love of life and wonders what there is in life to love.

The scar of hate it is the most compulsive and convoluting of all. Its passion drives the one with the scar tissue to rebel against others. It does not need reason in fact the absence of any reason is perfect reason to hate all the more. Those who carry this scar make it their duty to infect everyone else with the spirit of jealousy, envy and arrogance. However, while the effects of this scar are external it originates from within. The scar is not on the skin, but in the heart. This makes it a deep and difficult scar to heal. Before you determine to carry these seven scars with you for life take time to consider the seven signs of a victorious life; joy, work, courage, sacrifice, giving, and the advancement and welfare of others. The sum of these is love.  

Allan Bukusi

Training Leaders