The lyrics for Hurt a song written by Trent Reznor and first released on Nine Inch Nails in 1994, come with all of the hurt, pain, and crying-out-loud honesty of an Old Testament psalm. Sung also by Johnny Cash shortly before his death, these words hurt in the singing, in the reading and in the remembering. The hope of keeping oneself and finding another way if given more time, another chance, is gone. Oh, if only to have another shot at getting life right. Self-medication briefly hides the pain but does not heal.

All the many ways we hurt ourselves and others (reality check !! – all the many ways I hurt myself – and others), till there comes a time, an age when we are past feeling even our hurts.

Though Johnny Cash was a Christian – after many years of wandering and wondering and trying to find love (often, as do we all, in all the wrong places) the deep feelings and memories of past failures haunted him, as maybe they do us, too.

'Better a living dog than a dead lion,' says the proverb and one who is alive may yet hope again. But only, only through Him who is Hope and Life himself.Jesus of Nazareth is the Hope, the Healer.