Taking Hold of Trauma — Our Bible App

Day 1 of 5: When Everything Hurts

“Why is light given to one in misery,
and life to the bitter in soul,
who long for death, but it does not come,
and dig for it more than for hidden treasures;
who rejoice exceedingly,
and are glad when they find the grave?
Why is light given to one who cannot see the way,
whom God has fenced in?
For my sighing comes like my bread,
and my groanings are poured out like water.
Truly the thing that I fear comes upon me,
and what I dread befalls me.
I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;
I have no rest; but trouble comes.”
-Job 3:20-26 (NRSV)

Trauma is one of those things that is full of contradiction. It can be pervasive and intrusive – it can feel like a tidal wave, washing over everything. Or it can feel like a tiny pin, pressing persistently against the smallest piece of you, a small reminder that lingers throughout your waking and sleeping moments.

Job’s words come to us in the midst of his own devastation and loss. I love the book of Job; in one part, because of its beautiful poetry and dialogical nature. But I also love Job because of his honesty. Job has faced traumatic event after traumatic event. And in this speech, where he questions the very nature of his own existence, we witness Job’s anger, resentment, pain, and fear. We are witnesses to a very real and authentic human experience – the embodied moment of Job’s reach into the fabric of the world as he recognizes the pain and reality of recent events.

“I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest; but trouble comes.” (v. 26).

Job is comforting to me because my own experiences with trauma have left me with these same questions – these same mournful cries offered up to God. I am intimately aware of how deeply the wounds are cut as the pervasive nature of trauma takes ahold of life.

It is important that we recognize trauma as real – in whatever form it may take. There is no hierarchy of which some trauma “hurts more” than others, and there is no competition between “real trauma” versus “fake trauma.” Trauma is just real. However you feel it and however you experience it, whatever its cause and whatever its manifestation, your trauma is real.

I want to encourage you to take some time today to simply name whatever it is that is manifesting itself as trauma. What is the event or experience (however simple, complex, many or few they might be) that you know to be a source of trauma in your life? Take some time today to simply name those things and offer them in prayer, trusting that the Triune God is large enough to handle anything you can throw at Them.

Kevin Tracey

Day 1 of 5: When Everything Hurts

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