Disclaimer: This season is about trauma, and it might be difficult at times for some listeners. It’s not graphic, but each episode does cover sensitive topics.
In our suffering stories, we often struggle to understand God and His sovereignty. If He is everywhere, why didn’t He protect? If He is loving, why did He allow something so painful and devastating?
We wrestle with the questions trauma brings to mind in this episode, but we also turn our attention to the character and promises of God. While we may never learn the answers to these questions in the now and not yet, we can explore His character and His truth.
We serve a God who not only sent His only Son to take on our sin and sympathize with our temptations but One who also meets us in our pain. As Isaiah proclaims, He is a God who does not forsake His children and draws near to the broken-hearted. Many psalms of lament show that pain and suffering may last for a time, but these psalms also remind us that the Lord is still present and walking with us in this suffering.
In this episode, we offer tools to help all of us process our pain and share the messiest parts of our thoughts and our wrestling with God. He is not afraid of our questions or our doubts, but He meets us in this place with grace and kindness. Even in the darkest parts of our stories, He will not forsake us.
Resources:
“How God Begins to Describe Himself in the Bible” by BibleProject
Real Life Discipleship Counseling Class: Lament
S5 Ep. 3 / Carol Collier on Lament: How to Cry Out to God in Suffering
S5 Ep. 4 / How to Write a Lament
Joyful Journey: Listening to Immanuel by E. James Wilder, Anna Kang, and John Loppnow
Dr. Lisa Miller / Spirituality Mind Body Institute
“Where is God When There’s Abuse?” with Diane Langberg
“What We Find ‘Beneath Old Grey Olive Trees’” by Eric G. Evans
Season 9 of Conversational Counseling on “Trauma.”
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Our theme music is by As Isaac.
This podcast is made possible by engineer and producer Shane Selby, executive producer Meleah Smith, and generous donors.
Known Ministries is Alex Kocher and Brenda Payne.