Acute Stress and Trauma
Readiness never takes a day off. You have to be settled in your faith.
Combat trauma (shell shock) is what most original trauma studies were based on. Combat trauma has been a reality since the beginning of time. David killed his 10’s of thousands and he had combat trauma. You can see it in the Psalms and how he worked through it as he gave his heart to the Lord.
4 great analogies of the Bible:
Farming
Fishing
Athletics
Military
How we deal with military trauma, extends across the whole group of trauma sufferers. And the principles will apply broadly.
A lot of suffering and trauma in our church is hidden. We should be ready at a split second in the church to help our people. Too many are suffering in darkness. We need to literally be first responders to trauma and pain.
Job 5:7, Job 14:1 – Life is full of troubles and we shouldn’t be surprised by this.
John 16:33 – what’s inside when one is squeezed by trouble and tribulation is what will come out. This deals w/reality of trouble but also w/the answer to reality and the world which is Jesus Christ.
1 John 519-20 – We know the whole world lies in the power of the evil one, be we also know that the Son of God has come.
People can be so absorbed by the evil that they don’t have hope or they cling to the hope and want to pretend that the evil isn’t there. Both are there and we have to walk in the truth that both are there.
Crisis: An event in life which is predictable or anticipated. A stressful life experience affecting our stability. A hazardous situation. A temporary state of upset or disequilibrium.
Life has its ups and downs and we eventually will hit a wall. Our ability to break through that wall is everything. A crisis occurs when we can’t navigate our way through the problem (wall) and it throws us into a state of disequilibrium or chaos.
The Chinese symbol for crisis is twofold. One is the symbol for danger, the other