The Trauma-Informed Gospel, Pt 3

boiling it down.

So what actually is the trauma-informed Gospel?

Firstly, it’s Christ’s declaration of our identity of wholeness despite all the work of the enemy to keep us in pieces.

Secondly, it’s that Love = Safety.

Traumas of every kind cause us to believe certain things about what love is and how we attain it that are completely skewed, like:

• love is something I have to work for or earn

• I have to become somebody other than who I am in order to be acceptable and worthy of love

• love might hurt, or shame, or leave me

But the truth is that even when life is difficult, even when it’s terrifying, and even especially when we feel completely alone, we are safe because we are inside of Love, and Love is present with us through every single thing. There is nowhere we can end up that Love can’t go, or won’t go, or isn’t already waiting.

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Colossians 1:15-17

“Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.”
Psalm 139:7-10

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”
Psalm 23:4

“But Faith! How can you claim that we’re safe when SO MANY people are literally in danger every day??”

Here’s the thing, and it’s not an easy thing: the dangers we experience in this world at the hands of other people, or ourselves, or because of nature or natural causes, are not ultimate dangers, even if they kill us. The ultimate danger is utter separation from Love, our Creator, and that separation began to manifest after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. That separation is what results in all the other dangers and sufferings that we experience, but that separation is the one Jesus put the kibosh on when he was resurrected.

The safety Christ instated at the time of his resurrection is a safety so immense and absolute that it cannot be affected by the mere circumstances of our lives. That’s not me downplaying the pain and loss and terror we experience, that’s just how massive the safety is. It cannot be crushed or nullified or disempowered by any of the monsters that we face.

The safety of Love is not a circumstantial safety, it is an existential safety, and it lies not in what’s happening around us, but in the truth inside us: the truth of Love, and who we are created to be.

Jesus, the only perfect man to walk the earth, was lied about, tortured, and brutally killed. He suffered horribly. He was not safe, and yet, ultimately, he was. And ultimately, so are we.

Psalm 22

“For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.”
Psalm 16:10

“I have said these things to you that you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33

“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed…”
2 Corinthians 4:8-9

Now to repudiate some of the inaccurate, harmful ways we view love:

We don’t ever have to work to earn love. Love works to meet us everywhere we are and bring us to Itself.

“for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”
Luke 19:10

“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?… I say unto you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.”
Luke 15:4, 7

“And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your servant–just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
Matthew 20:27-28“

“Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.’”
John4:34

We don’t have to be someone else in order to be lovable.

“But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob*, he who formed you, O Israel*: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.’”
Isaiah 43:1 *your name here

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”
Psalm 139:13-14

Love does not put us to shame.

“O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me.”
Psalm 25:2

“They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces will never be ashamed.”Psalm 34:5

“The Lord your God is here with you, a victorious warrior who will save you;
he will rejoice over you with delight, he will gaze quietly at you in adoration;
he will exult over you with loud singing. 
‘I will gather those of you in the congregation who are grieving, so you no longer suffer from shame and reproach. Look! I will put pressure on those who have oppressed you. I will save the hurting, and gather the outcasts, I will transform their shame into glory and adoration and world renown. I will always, ALWAYS welcome you and be with you, and lavish praise and adoration on you in front of the whole world, especially the ones who were against you, when I rescue you from their prisons and restore you to your rightful place, much to their displeasure.’”
Zephaniah 3:17-20 (the Faith version, based on the Hebrew)

Love does not abandon us.

“Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”
Deuteronomy 31:6

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”
Isaiah 43:2

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?? Tribulation? Distress? Persecution? Famine? Nakedness? Danger? Sword?
(As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’)
No! In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am SURE that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor ANYTHING ELSE in ALL CREATION, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:35-39 (extra incredulity and emphasis mine)

Love does not hurt us.

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”
1 Corinthians 4:8

And most of all, Love does not exploit our fear and pain in order to stroke Its own ego. Love doesn’t back us into a corner and force us into making declarations of belief we aren’t actually comfortable with – but will acquiesce to as another desperate act of self-preservation – because we’re terrified about what It’ll do to us if we don’t. That system isn’t Gospel. It’s abuse.

Love is not in a rush. Love is in it for the long haul, and will do everything it takes to earn our trust and heal our hurts; and little by little we’ll learn to tolerate and accept the truth of Love toward ourselves and within ourselves, until one day we are flourishing, convinced that Love is with us – that Love is for us.

“Thus says the Lord: ‘The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness; when Israel sought for rest, the Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.’”
Jeremiah 31:2-3

“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”
Psalm 34:18

“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”
Psalm 147:3

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the suffering, he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance for our God, to comfort those who mourn…”
Isaiah 61:1