Wounded by God's People by Anne Graham Lotz Page B

to blind us. That’s the most striking characteristic of a blind spot — it can be easily seen by everyone … except ourselves.
    Sarah must have thought she could easily get rid of her problem with just a sharp word and the slap of her hand. But when Hagar returned, Sarah no doubt had to do some serious soul-searching and heart-cleansing and sin-repenting of her own. For the next fifteen years or so, we don’t hear anything about her or from her. She slips into the background of Abraham’s life and appears to live quietly with the consequences of her choices. And this would not have been easy for her because, several months after her servant returned, “Hagar bore Abram a son.” 9
    Could it be that you, like Sarah, are also missing the obvious? Have you lashed out and wounded someone who wounded you? It may be something that seems much less than what the other person did to you. And maybe it actually is. But don’t overlook it. Maybe that’s why God has allowed the consequences to come back into your life.
    If you and I really want the wounds within to heal, then we need to be brutally honest with ourselves. We need to stop focusing on
them
and ask God to open our eyes to our own faults. We need to have the courage to truly look at ourselves, as painful as it may be. Then
turn around
. Leave behind any pride … rebellion … rationalization … excuses … self-defense … and self-pity. Turning around is a courageous choice —it’s hard to do! It can hurt to take the plank out of your own eye, confront the past, change your focus, die to yourpride, admit your wrong, deny your vengeance, face the person, risk another wound. And it takes courage to say you’re sorry — sorry for your own planks and pride, shortcomings and sin, faults and failures — while leaving the other person to God. Yet, I can almost hear the applause in heaven as those who have gone before encourage and challenge you and me: “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.” 10
    The time for refreshing has come, but you and I must be willing to open our eyes. Then turn around.
Turn around!

SEVEN
Wounding Hurts
Doing the Right Thing Can Be Painful to the Wounder
    Now the L ORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the L ORD did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him
.
    Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
    The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”
    The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”
    Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy
.
    Genesis 21:1–14
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    A s I was driving down the road one day recently, I noticed a gardener pruning a tree. I knew that the type of tree he was pruning required