It still ain't right, but it is getting better

Some time ago I wrote about a situation that had me amped up, and quite honestly hurt more than anything. In the last few weeks we had the chance to address some of that. Truth be told there was more than one situation in a very short period of time that fit the description I wrote originally.

As we talked through, face to face, and brutally honestly at times, with the people who had hurt us, we were reminded once again of the fragility of human communication and relationship. It is amazing to me that any real, healthy relationships occur at all. Of course the theologian in me says this is a problem of our sinful nature. We are no longer exactly as God intended us to be, so how can we do things right. But still, God being who He is, made us in such a way that we have tremendous faculties about us that allow us to learn and grow and develop. So why have we not figured out this relational thing yet?

As we talked with our ‘offenders’ we found out what we suspected all along, and likely knew deep in our hearts. They had not tried to hurt us, nor were they aware of the hurts they had caused. But it still hurts. So then the question comes up about what to do about it. To what detail do we dive into this in terms of specifics. For some, simply knowing there were issues was enough to cause them to rethink how they do things and how they say things. For others, they wanted to know specific details so they could avoid those in the future. We all are wired differently.

In the end, all is not right, at least not yet. But there is hope. Relationships takes time to heal. On our part, we try to remain open, as vulnerable as we can reasonably be for now, and giving feedback as we are able to try to bring healing to the relationships affected. We also had to examine what our role is/was in these situations, and how not speaking up sooner allowed the hurt to compile. We will do better in the future.

So bring on the healing, and let healthy relationships abound.