Wounded by God's People Read Online Free PDF Page B

What must have amazed Hagar and provoked her grudging admiration was that rather than being bitter, Abraham seemed content. Unlike the Canaanites and the Egyptians, he did not insist on his rights, or flaunt his position, or fight to acquire more possessions, or wield his power to force others to comply with what he wanted. He seemed to let go of everything and trust that God would give him what was bestin the long run. Abraham seemed to be living for something bigger … more … greater than the here and now. It was intriguing. Hagar must have slowly come to realize that it wasn’t
something
bigger. It was
Someone
. Hagar must have increasingly come to realize that the difference in Abraham’s life was his God.
    As the years passed, I wonder if Hagar began to care about Abraham and his family. Did she begin to desire that their prayers would be answered? Did Abraham’s confidence in God’s promise spill over to Hagar so that she anticipated the day he and Sarah would have a son? Over the ten-year period she served them after leaving Egypt, she must have settled down and begun to respect them as well as to care about them and trust them.
    Hagar’s lengthy relationship with Abraham and Sarah must have made her wounding even more agonizing. Because while all of us experience bumps and bruises along life’s journey … injustice … unfairness … unkindness … meanness … Hagar’s story is not about those kinds of hurts. Her story is about wounds that were inflicted by those with whom she once felt safe and least expected to be wounders. Wounds inflicted by those she loved, respected, and trusted. Hagar was wounded by God’s people.
    If you have been wounded by God’s people too … wounded by those with whom you had once felt safe and least expected to be wounders … wounded by those who you have loved, respected, and trusted … then you understand the pain is not something you can easily or quickly overcome. In fact, you and I can carry those wounds around with us until they begin to revolve in a cycle of pain, and we, in turn, become wounders ourselves.

THREE
The Cycle of Pain
The Wounded Become Wounders
    Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; so she said to Abram, “The L ORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.”
    Abram agreed to what Sarai said. So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived
.
    When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the L ORD judge between you and me.”
    â€œYour servant is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar …
    Genesis 16:1–6
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    T he summer I was seventeen, our beloved family pastor strongly encouraged my parents to send me to a two-week Christian leadership-training institute. It was located in the mountains of a spectacularly beautiful Western state. When they took his advice and sent me, I was eager to go. I found myself plunging into all of the workshops, electives, and main sessions. After years in a public school, I looked forward to the training and the like-minded friends I would make. Friends who also wanted to grow in their relationship with God and who had a passion to make Him known to others. As the days unfolded, I became increasingly skeptical of what I was being exposed to — not because there was anything unbiblical about it, but because of the disconnect between what the staff taught and what I observed in their behavior.
    One of the sessions