Sermon Illustrations on Trauma
Background
The Shattered Worldview
Karyn L. Freedman points out that one of the serious effects of trauma is “the shattered worldview.” After a traumatic experience, the survivor experiences cognitive dissonance as a whole new set of beliefs form – beliefs inconsistent with their earlier ones. The survivor asks:
Am I really not capable of protecting myself against serious harm? Is the world not a safe place, or was I somehow incautious? Am I somehow responsible for the attack? Is it indicative of an individual failing, or a social one? [1]
This new set of beliefs is a kind of alternative worldview from the one they held before. The world, they now believe, is not actually a safe place after all. Terrible things can happen to you, even if you take reasonable precautions. The problem is that these beliefs are often simply dismissed by others, compounding the trauma.
1. Karyn L. Freedman, “The Epistemological Significance of Psychic Trauma,” Hypatia 21.2, 2006.
William Rowley
Stories
I Know the Way Out
I can’t help but recall here a scene from The West Wing. White House chief of staff Leo McGarry reaches out to his deputy, Josh Lyman, who is struggling with PTSD. Leo tells him a parable:
This guy’s walking down the street when he falls down a hole. The walls are so steep he can’t get out. A doctor passes by, and the guy shouts up, “Hey, you! Can you help me out?” The doctor writes a prescription and throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a priest comes along, and the guy shouts, “Father, I’m down in this hole. Can you help me out?”
The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole, and moves on. Then a friend walks by. “Hey, Joe, it’s me! Can you help me out?” And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, “Are you stupid? Now we’re both down here.” The friend says, “Yeah, but I’ve been down here before, and I know the way out.”
James K.A. Smith, The Christian Century, “I’m a Philosopher. We Can’t Think Our Way Out Of This Mess,” February 25, 2021.
A Pastor’s Experience of Trauma
Pastor and leader of the 24/7 Prayer movement Pete Greig reflects on the initial moments of realizing his wife, only in her late twenties, needed to have surgery to repair a orange-sized tumor from her brain. This is what he says about the trauma that took place:
I have talked to others about their experiences of trauma, and it is remarkable how often the crisis throws us upon God—whether or not we had faith in Him before. Suddenly, we are jolted into a state of intense vulnerability, and instinctively reach for another hand. Trauma itself rarely creates a crisis of faith.
Hospital lights are just too bright to house the dark night of the soul. During the initial trauma of a car crash or a betrayal or a diagnosis like ours, we are simply too shocked and too scared to ask grave theological questions about unanswered prayer.
For me, at least, those questions would come in the weeks, months, and years of weary believing that lay ahead. But back then, at that terrifying moment, I simply sat by Sammy’s bed, waiting for her to wake, needing my best friend, watching her breathe, feeling lonely, frightened, and held.
Pete Greig, God on Mute: Engaging the Silence of Unanswered Prayer, Zondervan, 2020.
Rejection and Acceptance
In his book The Logic of the Spirit, James Loder talks about a woman with whom he had been in a therapeutic relationship for years. This woman’s underlying issue seemed to be a complete sense of rejection by her mother. She had never experienced her mother’s unconditional love.
This woman described an experience where she went back to the day she was born. The delivery room was cold. She saw her mother laying there looking at her with contempt. And suddenly, a warm light filled the room. Jesus picked her up moments after her birth and looked at her adoringly. Jesus kissed her and swung her around in delight. Jesus had replaced her mother at her birth. She saw his eyes looking at her as if she were his only child. Rejection had been replaced by sheer joy.
After this transforming experience, the hurt of being rejected by her mother did not magically go away, but it was no longer debilitating for her. The rejection had been redeemed. And she was able to live out of a place of knowing that even though her mother had failed her, her mother Jesus had given her new birth.
Scott Bowerman, Source material from James E. Loder, The Logic of the Spirit. Jossey- Bass, 1988.
The Value Remains the Same
Garry Smalley (1940-2016) was a Christian counselor and prolific author. He was known for one particular illustration about the intrinsic value each of us has as children of God. Speaking at a large event, he asked “Who would like this fifty-dollar bill?”
Unsurprisingly, hands went up across the auditorium. “I am going to give this fifty dollars to one of you,” he said, “but first let me do this.” Then he crumpled up the bill and asked, “Who still wants it?” Lots of hands remained in the air. “You have all learned a valuable lesson,” the counselor said. “No matter what I do to the money, you still want it because it doesn’t decrease in value. It is still worth fifty dollars.”
Sometimes we feel more like the crumpled-up bill than the crisp fifty Gary first pulled out, but no matter what we do and no matter what happens to us, we still have value because we are made in God’s image, and because the work of redeeming/sanctifying us is still in process.
Stuart Strachan Jr.
Analogies
I Know the Way Out
I can’t help but recall here a scene from The West Wing. White House chief of staff Leo McGarry reaches out to his deputy, Josh Lyman, who is struggling with PTSD. Leo tells him a parable:
This guy’s walking down the street when he falls down a hole. The walls are so steep he can’t get out. A doctor passes by, and the guy shouts up, “Hey, you! Can you help me out?” The doctor writes a prescription and throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a priest comes along, and the guy shouts, “Father, I’m down in this hole. Can you help me out?”
The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole, and moves on. Then a friend walks by. “Hey, Joe, it’s me! Can you help me out?” And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, “Are you stupid? Now we’re both down here.” The friend says, “Yeah, but I’ve been down here before, and I know the way out.”
James K.A. Smith, The Christian Century, “I’m a Philosopher. We Can’t Think Our Way Out Of This Mess,” February 25, 2021.
The Value Remains the Same
Garry Smalley (1940-2016) was a Christian counselor and prolific author. He was known for one particular illustration about the intrinsic value each of us has as children of God. Speaking at a large event, he asked “Who would like this fifty-dollar bill?”
Unsurprisingly, hands went up across the auditorium. “I am going to give this fifty dollars to one of you,” he said, “but first let me do this.” Then he crumpled up the bill and asked, “Who still wants it?” Lots of hands remained in the air. “You have all learned a valuable lesson,” the counselor said. “No matter what I do to the money, you still want it because it doesn’t decrease in value. It is still worth fifty dollars.”
Sometimes we feel more like the crumpled-up bill than the crisp fifty Gary first pulled out, but no matter what we do and no matter what happens to us, we still have value because we are made in God’s image, and because the work of redeeming/sanctifying us is still in process.
Stuart Strachan Jr.