I work with a lot of trauma. The impact in men and women whose lives and hearts were ripped apart by pain and brokenness. One definition of trauma I use is "being negatively overwhelmed.” There are so many things in this broken world that can simply overwhelm our person- war, abuse, assault, death, abandonment, a diagnosis, an affair…so many things we really weren’t created for.
We were created for The Garden.
Shalom.
Peace with God and each other, everything as it should be. But from the moment sin entered, we began living in a world where sometimes, it’s just too much of what we weren’t made for, and in those moments we experience trauma.
Perhaps because I work with trauma, or maybe we all feel this way, I am drawn to moments that are corrective to the injury of souls. Moments where some kind of healing or repair or blessing shows up and changes the hurting person involved for the better. I love to hear the stories about those moments. And do you know what I find as a common denominator in all of them- connection.
Confess your faults (weaknesses, mistakes, wounds) to one another and pray for each other THAT YOU MAY BE HEALED. -James 5:16
Above all love each other deeply, for love covers a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:8
There is a healing power that comes from taking off the mask and sharing honestly what is happening and then being loved deeply in return. Love from others has the power to heal us, just like God’s love is the power that saves us.
Our world celebrates openness while simultaneously creates a ton of obstacles to getting there. We applaud people who have the courage to “speak their truth” but we so often feel alone and isolated. Because connection doesn’t come from proclaiming your ideas on a platform- it comes from sharing your heart with a person. It’s so easy to lose the healing power of connection in a world that is obsessively focused on crafting an image and curating a life. Connection is about being deeply known and deeply loved. I can’t be deeply known unless I allow you to see the real me- with all my mess and strength and sin and victory. And platforms are simply not safe places to do that. If the primary place we try to connect is a dead end avenue, we will always feel alone.
One of the most beautiful things God gave us to get through this life is each other. We have the ability to sit- face to face and talk.
And cry.
And pray.
We can live in connection with people around us in a way that brings life and hope and healing into our lives. We can choose to climb down from our crafted platforms and be regular, fragile people who share the hurts and receive grace and love from each other. It’s one of the most powerful things we can experience- being known and loved- so much so that it has the power to drive out the darkness around us and heal the injuries within us. It takes great courage to seek out deep connection in a world that lives in the shallow waters of screen connections. Yet, when we do what God tells us we were created to do- stop hiding, confess, be vulnerable, open up- then we are able to be “positively overwhelmed” by love.