The Holy Spirit's Role in Trauma and Healing
I'm suffering from pandemic brain.
Are you wondering what that is? Pandemic brain describes the change in our cognitive function due to the prolonged stress and anxiety of the pandemic. When the brain spends an extended amount of time under stress, it adjusts to protect itself. What a clever organ.
With pandemic brain, we may find it harder to focus or concentrate. Due to mental fatigue, problem solving, reorganizing, and even the completion of simple tasks can seem challenging. Research says to treat pandemic brain like any stress in our lives. Exercising, watching our diet, lifting our mood with music, and/or practicing mindfulness through meditation are a few suggestions for helping to reduce stress.
This got me thinking about the trauma of childhood sexual abuse survivors, like myself, and the different levels of healing. Survivors are managing the impact of their childhood experience in addition to the fear, anxiety, isolation, depression, and brain fog of a pandemic. It seems like too much.
While I have practiced some of the stress-reducing suggestions listed above, I had to stop and remind myself of the tools I had as a Christian.
The Role of the Holy Spirit in Trauma
I first had to remind myself we are not the first people in human history to deal with trauma. We have better language to describe what's happening to us, along with better tools to address it, but how did people handle trauma in Biblical times? What did the Israelites do when they were sentenced to a nomad's life for 40 years? What did David do when Saul, someone he respected, kept attacking him? What did the disciples do when Jesus left them? What did Paul do after being shipwrecked?
Many trauma related stories exist in the Bible. For those with the presence of the Lord, the answer to these questions is the same: they held onto their source.
All of the tools we have for dealing with the impact of trauma today require us to be our own source. We live in a "self help" world, with an emphasis on self. While I agree we are each the most important person in our healing journey, we cannot be our source. We were not made to be. God designed us so He would be our source. The more we focus on the world, others, and even our local church as our source, the less we think of God this way.
Unconsciously, we place God in one location, Jesus in another, and the Holy Spirit elsewhere. In doing so, we forget the Holy Spirit is referred to as part of the Godhead and is equipped with the power to help us. We reduce the Holy Spirit's role in our lives to an emotional experience, or someone we call on for direction. We have forgotten him as Comforter.
By definition of the word, the Holy Spirit was sent to the believer to comfort them, especially through trauma. The Holy Spirit is how we actively engage with our source for healing. As a Christ believer and follower, you have the power within you to deal with the impact of your trauma. While you don’t need to avoid the abundance of tools, information, and resources available in today’s society, we must remember these are not our source. These tools work best when added to your source, the Holy Spirit. Let’s work to keep the best source, the Holy Spirit, as our first source.
An Invitation to the Workshop “The Jesus in MeToo”
Are you a Christian who wants to kickstart your healing from childhood sexual abuse? This workshop is an opportunity to open the door.
The MeToo Movement opens the locked door for many victims of childhood and adult trauma. It provides a platform for many to tell what happened to them and to seek justice. It also provides an opportunity to seek healing.
For those of the Christian faith, MeToo may have opened door between what you know about God and what you experienced. This important session provides space for you to explore how to initiate healing for you or someone you love and how to put your faith into action as part of a healing plan. Register here.