Jesus Christ Crucifix (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Discussion/Devotion in Life

⁴  May you always be joyful in your union with the Lord. I say it again: rejoice! ⁵  Show a gentle attitude toward everyone. The Lord is coming soon. ⁶  Don’t worry about anything, but in all your prayers ask God for what you need, always asking him with a thankful heart. ⁷  And God’s peace, which is far beyond human understanding, will keep your hearts and minds safe in union with Christ Jesus. ⁸  In conclusion, my friends, fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honorable. ⁹  Put into practice what you learned and received from me, both from my words and from my actions. And the God who gives us peace will be with you.  Philippians 4:4-9 (TEV)

I’m going to tell you which are man’s treasures on earth so you won’t slight them: hunger, thirst, heat, cold, pain, dishonor, poverty, loneliness, betrayal, slander, prison …  (1)

As I write this blog about trauma, I am not writing about the things in the quote from St. Josemaria Escriva above, for as he says, they are treasures, and therefore, not necessarily trauma.  Even as I wrote on Monday – there is trauma that so engages us in serving God, in seeing His love, that it rarely seems traumatic, or sacrificial.

There are different types of trauma can different,    Some thrusts itself in, and those things – including the list above are traumatic – but can be blessings because in overwhelming us, they drive us into our Father in Heaven’s presence….. we have no choice, we simply must turn to God to be able to cope, to be able to breath… the be able to survive.

But invited trauma is when we ignore the Bible passage’s admonition and encouragement.  When we look for division, when we spend less time looking to God and choose to embrace things that make us anxious, worrying about things far out of our control.  When we look away from peace,.  When we don’t fill our mind with those things that are good and deserve praise, but focus on that which are evil and need to be avoided.  This  the type of trauma we willingly give a place in our lives.

I see to much of this, these days…..

I see it way to much among those who follow Christ.

We invite trauma in when worry too much about how the world is changing – to the extent that we spend so much time fighting it, or worrying about how to fight it, that we forget we’ve been sent here so the world can know Jesus love, to know Him, to know the power of His resurrection… to know His peace.  We spend more time learning strategies to convince them about Christ that we pray for them, or love them.  We forget it is the gates of hell than cannot restrain God’s invasion, cannot withstand His church, and the Rock on which it stands.

We invite trauma in when get to aggressive towards other believers, debating with them, rather than loving and serving them, and praying for them.  As if somehow we aren’t the family of God, working in His harvest, working together, working as one.

We invite in trauma when we lack of looking to God, trusting Him, relating to Him,  when we  walk away from Him….to fight that which He has defeated, walking away from the peace He gives…

In choosing these things that are not Godly,  we invite that trauma into our lives.  We choose the discord, we choose the power plays, we choose the war…. we choose the stress…. and we don’t choose Him….

We don’t have to invite that trauma… we can look to Christ, we can see His love poured out on us, His grace, His mercy… and we can love and serve as He did….learning how much He is with us…

Lord, please have mercy on us, and draw our attention to You!

(1)  Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 567-568). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.

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