Why is it that Christians Hurt Me the Most?

[Guest Post by Mary DeMuth – If you or anyone you know has been hurt by Christians, the church, or anyone who claims to love God–please forward this to them! Be encouraged.]

I wish it weren’t true. But I can honestly say being hurt by other Christians, particularly Christian leaders, has devastated me.

I don’t have a category for the grief because of all the shoulds. (Those leaders should know better than to act that way. They should not have said those hateful words.)

In the aftermath of the pain, I’ve not always processed it well.

I’ve been angry.

I’ve wanted vengeance.

The writer in me wanted to craft a piece that exposed all that awful stuff. (Truth be told, I was so hurt by one Christian woman, I made her a character in one of my novels…I won’t tell who…and actually found healing in writing her. I began to have empathy for her).

It took me a few years to get beyond the anger of one particular hairball of a ministry hurt. Eventually, Jesus helped me overcome my frustration and learn to live with grace and kick bitterness to the curb.

So I wrote a book (natch…isn’t that what authors do?).

I kept meeting people who had my experience—trying to process pain from others, particularly those closest to them. I’ve seen people leave the church because a Christian leader deeply wounded them. There had to be a way through.

The Wall Around Your Heart shows my way through.

I help readers walk the path of The Lord’s Prayer in an entirely new way—with an eye toward relationship. I’m honest about my own struggles. It’s not always pretty, but it’s real.

The truth is relational pain is probably our largest pain on this earth.

And Jesus gets it.

He experienced it.

Who better than Him to help us navigate the waters of betrayal?

My prayer is that book will set an entire generation of bitter Christians FREE from living constantly in reaction to the past. That they will find the joy of NOW, healed from injury, daring to forgive and move on.

That’s why I wrote the book—that we’ll all experience the abundant life Jesus promises, but feels so far from our everyday experience.

Mary DeMuth is the author of over a dozen books including her latest, The Wall Around Your Heart: How Jesus Heals You When Others Hurt You (http://amzn.to/15Q19xh) Find out more at MaryDeMuth.com.