Our response when someone doesn’t show up for an appointment can reveal healing or a need for healing. This morning, waiting, I found myself first assuming he’d gotten held up in traffic. Then I figured maybe he’d forgotten, even though we’d confirmed it recently. Then, after half an hour, I was afraid he’d had an accident. He’d always been prompt before.
While I waited, I reviewed a strategy for writing speeches I’d learned yesterday from Ken Davis’s good book, Secrets of Dynamic Communication. I drank the herbal tea I’d ordered. I prayed for the person I was waiting for.
Unlike my earlier years when I would have felt rejected, I did not take it personally; I assumed an explanation that didn’t reflect on my worth. It’s easy to feel unwanted when someone stands us up. But, if we feel that, we probably are tapping into a reservoir of old pain–times, as children, when we felt rejected–pain that needs healing. Most people wouldn’t make the appointment if they didn’t want to spend time with us. But if the earlier rejection still hurts, that pain may distort the truth.
Jesus, please help us think clearly when we feel hurt. Show us, wonderful counselor, where old pain still affects us and set us free.