A NAIL IN YOUR BRAIN
At first, Dante Autullo thought he’d merely cut himself while constructing a shed. But when he went to the hospital later, he discovered he had shot himself in the head with a nail gun. He stated, “When they brought in the picture, I said to the doctor, ‘Is this a joke? Did you get that out of the doctor’s joke file?’ The doctor said, ‘No man, that’s in your head.’” The X-ray revealed that the nail had come mere millimeters from a section of the brain controlling motor functions.
That got me thinking. In a sense, we’re all walking around with nails in our heads. Stuff we’re carrying through life we need to get rid of. Addictions, bad habits, sinful tendencies—call them what you will. Left unchecked, they can be as deadly as a three-inch-nail in your brain.
It’s easy to notice the “nails” in others. Yet we often minimize the flaws in our own lives— “small stuff” like gluttony, gossip, or greed. (Are these really small things?) We love to “put on a happy face,” pretending we’ve got it all together. But like Dante Autullo, we need help.
James 5:16 offers a solution. “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (NIV). Notice James doesn’t say confessing to others brings forgiveness. Only God can do that. But he does tell us “healing” occurs when we open up to others. It’s called “feedback.” We give others permission to speak into our lives.
Hebrews 3:13 adds, “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today,’ so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” We better pay attention when others warn us, “You have a nail in your head.”
Sometimes friends or family members need to sit us down and set us straight. Or maybe we need to join an accountability group with other believers who can point out when we’re getting dangerously close to a three-inch nail.
Of course, ultimate healing comes from Jesus, the Great Physician. But in our day-to-day struggles with sin, thankfully God provides healing for us through fellow believers. It’s vital that we assist each other in removing the “nails in our brains.”
Principle: Open ourselves up to feedback from others so we can be healed.
Ponder:
On a scale of one to ten, how open am I to receiving feedback from others?
What are some potential “nails” I might be carrying around in life?
Pursue: For a deeper dive, study James 5:13-20.
Prayer: “Lord, thank you for providing brothers and sisters who care enough to show me the spiritual nails in my life. Help me listen and respond.”
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