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Conflict is like an unwelcome friend on life’s journey arriving uninvited; and it lingers if left unaddressed. How do we rid ourselves of this unwanted companion? Consider these three steps to choose healing as a better travel companion:
1. Be Intentional in the Process
While conflict is common, healing requires an invitation and proper tending. It’s an ongoing process that involves emotional, psychological, spiritual, and sometimes physical recovery. Healing brings moments of progress, setbacks, and gradual improvement. Imagine a sailor grasping onto a piece of lumber after a shipwreck, rising with the waves’ crests, and descending into their troughs. Healing becomes this back-and-forth dance—sometimes calm, sometimes rough.
2. Look for Lessons on the Journey
Healing is a personal journey of self-discovery, coping with pain, and moving forward. It results in personal growth, increased resilience, and a deeper understanding of strengths and vulnerabilities. Paul says (Romans 5:3-5) that conflict produces “tried-ness,” a kind of “been there, tried that” effect. This produces experience, whether through therapy sessions, praying, support group meetings, or personal reflections which produce character, and character produces hope. Seeing your growth through tear-filled eyes helps you say with David, “It was good for me to have been afflicted” (Ps 119:71).
3. Healing as Transformation and Collective Effort
Healing is transformative and often best achieved in community, just imagine the healing wonders in a community coming together, praying, sharing stories, and supporting each other.
Choose healing over the uninvited friend of conflict and be reminded of the daily practice of prayer and three words: time, talk, and tears. In time, God heals all wounds. Talking clarifies emotions, and tears express them. Choose healing.
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