“John, you jerk! I don’t need to read any further!! I can tell by the title you’re going to make fun of hurting people! I’ve been hurt! Mocking me makes you an obnoxious, unloving, UNCHRISTIAN JERK!!!”

Ouch! That hurts.

But it’s okay because you’re a hurt person. You’re allowed to hurt people. In fact, it’s kind of expected! You’ve been wounded so of course you cannot keep from wounding others. It is your destiny! It is your right! It is your privilege!

Go ahead and hurt me. Unload all that trauma! I won’t hurt anyone else. The cycle of abuse ends here.

I don’t subscribe to the idea that, “Hurt people, hurt people.” That’s a lame attempt to justify sinful behavior. Your horrific treatment of me does not excuse my horrific treatment of others. You aren’t abusing me because you’re ‘hurt.’ You’re abusing me because you’re ‘bad.’

“Bad people, hurt people.”

You think it helps me feel better to know that you’ve been hurt too but it doesn’t. Not even a little bit. When you’re hitting me with a hammer I truly do not care that somebody else hit you first. In fact, your personal pain ought to prevent you from hurting me. If you weren’t a bad person, you would show some empathy.

The main reason I’m not going to pass this pain along is because I know that wounding someone else won’t diminish the hurt you’ve caused me. It is absurd to use suffering as a license to increase suffering and I try hard not to be absurd.

(Psalm 38:5) My wounds fester and are loathsome because of my sinful folly.