(T)issue

You have an issue. It is going to require boxes of tissue to clean up.

Teaching combat trauma in Iraq in 2006. At the time, it was the most violent place on earth.

The Scar and the Scab Is Not the Healing

When you get shot, the bullet is only the beginning.

A high-velocity round tears tissue, cavitates, shreds muscle, fractures bone and leaves behind debris – – – fabric, dirt, metal fragments. The visible wound is just the entry and exit. The real damage is inside. Green Beret medics know this. They don’t just close holes. They explore. They irrigate. They debride. They cut away dead tissue because dead tissue becomes a breeding ground for infection.

A man can survive the gunshot and still die from what follows.

Sepsis doesn’t care that you were tough enough to take the hit. Infection doesn’t salute your courage. If the wound is not properly cleaned – – – deeply, thoroughly, painfully cleaned – – – the bacteria multiply in the darkness. The tissue begins to necrotize. What looks stable on the surface is rotting underneath.

There is a phrase in combat trauma: premature closure. It looks healed. It is not healed.

A scab forms. The skin tightens. From the outside, it appears that the body has done its job. But beneath the scab, devitalized tissue remains. The wound bed is contaminated. The infection is spreading quietly. Slowly. Systemically.

That is how men die who thought they were fine.

There are only two options at that point.

Option one: leave it alone. Protect the scab. Let it scar. Don’t touch it. Tell everyone you’re good. Wear the scar like a badge. Let the world see strength. Meanwhile the tissue underneath deteriorates.

Option two: tear the scab off.

Reopen the wound. Cause a bigger scar. Pain. %^&*ing pain.

Irrigate. Debride. Cut away what is dead. Clean it again. And again. And again. It hurts. There is no anesthesia for the soul. There is blood. There is exposure. There is the humiliation of admitting, “I am not healed.”

But that is the only path to life.

This is not about ballistics. This is about you.

What wounds do you have that look healed?

Combat wounds. Marriage wounds. Betrayal wounds. Leadership failures. Moral failures. The loss of a childlike faith. The loss of innocence. The loss of safety. The loss of respect. The loss of identity.

From the outside, there is a scar. People see the scar and say, “She survived.” They respect it. They admire it. They might even envy it.

But you know the truth.

You are dealing with a (T)issue.

Tissue damage. Soul tissue. Trust tissue. Hope tissue. Intimacy tissue. Fear tissue.

And if it is not cleaned, it will kill something in you. Maybe not your body. But your marriage. Your calling. Your ability to love. Your ability to rest. Your ability to be tender. Your ability to lead.

Dead tissue must be removed.

Here is the part no one likes: debridement requires exposure. You cannot clean what you refuse to uncover. You cannot heal what you will not name. You cannot restore tissue that you insist is alive when it is already dead.

This is hard. So damn hard.

Why? Because the scab gives you control. The scab lets you move on. The scab protects your image. The scab allows you to function.

But it does not heal you.

Healing requires: Radical honesty. Confession. Conversation. Prayer that goes past performance. Silence long enough to hear what is actually rotting. Courage to let someone qualified look inside. Brave enough to let someone build into you and for you, in turn, to build into another.

In surgery, the goal is simple: viable tissue bleeds. Dead tissue does not.

Some of us have areas that no longer bleed. No tears. No empathy. No softness. No vulnerability.

That is necrosis.

The world sees the scar. It does not see the infection.

And here is the brutal truth: infection spreads. Unaddressed wounds metastasize into anger. Into isolation. Into addiction. Into control. Into spiritual numbness. Into cynicism disguised as wisdom.

You survived the gunshot.

But are you dying from infection?

The tearing off of the scab is not weakness. It is leadership. It is discipleship. It is adulthood. It is warfare at the deepest level.

Because when you allow the wound to be properly cleaned, something else happens.

Healthy tissue begins to granulate. New blood vessels form. Strength returns – – – not the brittle strength of scar tissue but the resilient strength of restored flesh.

There is a difference between scarred AND healed.

Scarred is what people see.

Healed is what God sees.

So I ask you – – – directly:

Where are you pretending to be healed? Where is the scab protecting a lie?

What (T)issue are you refusing to address?

If you are brave enough to tear it open, to clean it deeply, to remove what is dead, you will not die from the wound. You will live because of the cleaning.

It hurts.

But untreated infection hurts far worse.

And it kills slowly.

Get out the damn tissue and get to the issue.

Together We Transform – – – always, ALWAYS TOGETHER