When I was young, I played Little League Baseball. I was decent at some things, but by no means was I an all-star. My favorite thing was stealing bases…now that I was good at! But more than any stolen bases, there’s one defining event that marks my memory of Little League.
It was a sunny afternoon at the ball field. I was playing center field that day. I don’t remember anything before or after one particular play. The guy up to bat hit a pop-fly into my area. It went straight up, right into the sun. Now, if you’re not familiar with baseball, there’s a decent way to deal with this. You simply put your glove between your eyes and the sun, then make the catch. But something about how perfectly the ball was between my and the blinding orb in the sky prevented me from being able to find it. After searching for a while, I made a decision. I thought I was probably a little too close and needed to scoot back, so that’s exactly what I did.
One giant step backward, and…BAM! The ball that had moments earlier left the pitcher’s hand, made contact with the bat, and hurtled towards space had now come crashing back down, directly onto the bridge of my nose. I dropped.
Eventually, I was picked up and taken to the local emergency room. The blow had fractured my nose, and the doctor said he needed to put it back into place.
Pause.
Now, if you’ve ever broken a bone and had to have it reset, you already know what’s coming. If you haven’t, let me explain. Broken bones begin to heal remarkably fast. The problem is that our bodies don’t really care if the bones are in the correct spot when they start to heal. When a bone breaks, you have to make sure it is in the right place, otherwise it will heal in the wrong spot, and you’ll actually have to re-break it to get it corrected.
Unpause.
So, the doctor proceeded to place two metal rods -one in each nostril- in my nose. And with one swift, crunching movement, he put my fractured nose back to where it had been when I woke up that day. Now the proper healing process could begin.
Resetting Your Nose
Many of us need our fractured noses reset. Of course, I don’t mean literally. I mean that many of us have had some relational encounter where we got hit hard, and something fractured. For us to properly heal from those relational wounds, we often have to reset what was broken. This process can be painful, to be sure, but healing is found on the other side.
Too many people today walk through life with relational wounds that have never properly healed. And just like a wound on our physical bodies, when someone -intentionally or not- rubs up against a relational wound we carry, the pain causes us to react differently than we would if the wounds weren’t there at all.
But again, just like in real life, when wounds are bad enough we can’t treat them ourselves. We need someone else, with a different perspective, to come in, uncover the wounds and help us find a path towards healing.
So What, Who Cares?
We all carry relational wounds. You do. I do. Your spouse and kids and parents do. Your team at work does too. And the more wounded people you get together on a team, the more chance you each have of accidentally poking those wounds and causing friction, frustration, and communication breakdowns.
Your team can thrive in every season. I believe that. One of the best things you can do for your team is to help them begin to heal relational wounds. You’ll see tangible results and your team will love you for leading them towards relational health.
Time to reset some bones.
If you want your team to understand themselves and each other, have better communication, and actually enjoy working together, Evrgrn can help. Enneagram training is one of the best ways for a team to learn and grow together. Schedule a Team Enneagram Training today!