Back in January, I had a bit of a kerfuffle with my right hand.

I’m still not entirely sure what happened, but the end result was that it looked like a hole punch had been taken to the side of my hand which, while cool theoretically, was seriously un-fun experientially.

It took over two months to heal completely, and truly, the amount of money I spent on latex-free band-aids would make Warren Buffet blush.

It was ridiculous.

Not to mention that being right-handed while said hand was not at full capacity totally and completely stunk.

However!

The experience of being acutely conscious of my right hand for months, either thanks to the pain or out of worry that it would get infected, got me thinking about long-standing wound care in the abstract.

Particularly why one becomes derelict, allowing a wound–any kind of wound–to languish.

After some reflection, I’ve come up with three reasons why we tend to let wound care fall to the wayside.

So buckle in folks because I am about to puh-reach.

Wound Care Woe #1: Prideful Denial

If you’ve never seen Monty Python & The Holy Grail, what are you doing with yourself?

Seriously, fix that problem!

But if you’re pressed for time, at least watch the scene with the Black Knight!

I’ve included a brief gif synopsis of what occurs, but suffice to say, Mr. Black Knight ends up armless and legless in the dirt, all the while proclaiming that he isn’t even hurt!

I mean…

You gotta give him props for perseverance, but at a certain point, you have to start saying to yourself,

“Uh… maybe he should stop attacking the man lopping his body parts off?”

And you would be correct!

Because as admirable (?) as the Black Knight’s effort is, him denying his injuries only intensifies them in the end.

Instead of just an arm, he loses all his appendages just because he wouldn’t admit that there was something off to begin with.

Why?

Pride.

As evidenced by the fact that whilst hopping around on one foot without arms, he proclaims to King Arthur,

“I’m invincible!… The Black Knight always triumphs!”

To which Arthur replies,

“You’re a loony.”

Indeed.

We can see that quite clearly.

However!

I wonder whether or not a lot of us are more like the Black Knight than we’d like to think.

Too prideful to admit we’re hurt or accept defeat, not recognizing that we’ve got a wound that needs addressing.

Friend, that has totally been me.

In the past, pride has kept me from addressing some pretty big “wounds” in my life whether they be emotional or physical, and I can tell you for a fact that if I could go back in time and take care of them from the start, I would.

It would’ve saved both me and so many others a lot of pain and heartache.

So take it from me, if pride is what’s holding you back from addressing the wounds in your life (be they emotional or physical), give it no quarter because I speak from experience when I say, if you let pride determine the way you live your life, you are going to regret it.

But perhaps it isn’t pride that’s holding you back from healing your wounds.

Perhaps it’s pain, and if that’s the case, I can also fully relate.

Wound Care Woe #2: It’s Painful

Fun fact: when I’m in pain, I become Catholic.

“HOLY-MARY-MOTHER-OF-GOD!” were my exact words the first time I had to clean out my right hand hole punch with an alcohol wipe.

For reference, I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Evangelical, so invoking Mary is not a common occurrence.

Actually, it pretty much never happens.

Ever.

And yet, I was ready to call on all the saints I knew and probably some I just divined in my pain-filed rapture thanks to the burning in my hand.

It hurt, and coupled with the fact that I do not have a high pain tolerance, the sensation of FIRE IN THE HOLE was a pretty significant deterrence for pulling back the bandages and cleaning the wound.

And yet, if there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that healing can, and frequently does, hurt.

Whether it’s putting alcohol on an open wound, resetting a broken bone, taking a cocktail of medication that makes you want to simultaneously puke and go to the bathroom, swallowing your pride, or mending a relationship with someone who has hurt you deeply, the path to healing is almost always a bumpy and painful road.

But the old adage holds true,

“No pain–no gain.”

So while I did not want to clean the hole in my hand, I knew I needed to because not cleaning the wound would only make it worse.

And so I got after it, everyday, twice a day, for over two months.

It burned and stung, but as time went on, it started to hurt less and less, which was a great encouragement!

However, I am not naturally a patient person.

At all.

“Just heal already!” was the constant refrain in my head, and there were many days where I just didn’t want to mess with it.

Which brings me to the third cause of failed wound care.

Wound Care Woe #3: Impatience

Healing takes time.

For people like me who want to see results quickly, this is an enormously irritating truism, and the hole in my hand drove me absolutely bananas the longer it hung around.

Like, I don’t mean to be rude, Mr. Hole, but you have overstayed your welcome!

Time’s a ticking, and it is time for you to go now!

But he hung around…

And I’m not going to lie, it discouraged me because on top of being a nuisance physically, it was a reminder that my body has not functioned properly in almost two years.

Now, I know I’m not alone in hating to wait for healing.

Over 2000 years ago, King Solomon wrote,

“Hope delayed makes the heart sick.”

Doesn’t it?

It certainly has for me.

And yet, it is also the case that oftentimes there is no such thing as a “quick fix,” and trying to find one can actually be quite dangerous.

Not just physically but mentally as well because you start to think to yourself,

“If I can’t have healing quick, I don’t want it!”

From that you either give up, you cut corners, or go to extremes, and in the end, you find yourself worse off than you were to begin with.

*Sigh.

Is that ever me.

My poor body has taken a beating the last two years because of the “quick fix” attempts I hit it with, and what I’ve come to find is that as a general rule, the bigger the wound, the longer it takes to heal.

Which, I mean, is obvious, but I was a prideful, impatient idiot, so I wasn’t really interested in being attentive to that particularly annoying truth.

Is that you?

It’s been me, but I can honestly say this season of life with its ill-health and holey hands is teaching me patience.

It’s teaching me to let go of pridefulness.

It’s teaching me perseverance.

And while I wish I didn’t have to learn those things this way, I can’t deny that through these wound care woes, I’m learning how to be a better me.

How can I be mad at that?

So let me ask…

What are the “wounds” that need tending in your life?

Are you letting them fester out of pride?

Are you unwilling to treat them because it will hurt for a time?

Do you only want healing if it happens in your time?

Or can you swallow your pride, face the pain, and hope against all hope that some day your wounds will be the scarred marks of warrior who knew how to endure and how to wait?

I don’t know about you, but thinking of my “wounds” that way has brought me a lot of peace through the pain.