Post-Trauma Stress and the Firestorm of 2007 | Nov 08th 2007
by Stephen Trout
“You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good, for the saving of many lives.” (Joseph, in Gen.50:19)
“If your heart is broken, you’ll find God right there; if you’re kicked in the gut, he’ll help you catch your breath.” (Psalm 34:18, The Message)
The continuous news coverage is mostly over, and the horrific scenes of flames and burning houses in what seemed like most of Southern California have become only a picture-file on a desktop or photo album. Feelings of “fight or flight” are fresh, but melt quickly into a morass of a new day’s details and busyness. But for those who experienced significant loss (a “broken heart,” see above), “recovery” may not be so automatic. The coming days will reveal where they will find hope. Some will continue to burn with anger, raging against God and whoever may have (intentionally or unwittingly) set the fires. Others will mourn and grieve their losses. If so, an important question will be, “who will enter with them into their “house of mourning” (Eccl. 7:2) - if such a house even exists? Here is the unique opportunity of the Christian, for the love of Christ calls us to walk into such burned-out houses and lives (see Seeing Jesus in the Firestorm)
A recent article notes that over 80% of Americans will be exposed to some kind of trauma-event in their lifetime. Intense suffering from victimization, accidents, serious injuries, and even the death of our loved ones and acquaintances are all traumatic realities of life in a fallen world. (To be sure, the evil-one has come “to steal, and kill, and destroy,” and he will attempt to deface God’s beauty and creation at every turn, and in a myriad of ways.) If this is so, what are some important things to bear in mind as we counsel out of the Gospel in such moments as these? Here are a few thoughts…
1.) Recognize Changes Over Time. As with all psychiatric labels, Post-Trauma Stress (or PTS) is descriptive rather than prescriptive. Symptoms may appear initially as recurring headaches, “anxiety attacks,” and even nausea and vomiting. Continuous obsessing over the traumatic event, even to the point of nightmares affecting sleep, may also mark the responses of many as time goes on, along with an inability to concentrate on daily tasks. As a quantitative marker, thirty days of persistent symptoms, including a generally deteriorating level of functioning, characterizes PTS. On varying levels, traumatic events may also trigger painful memories from the past, reminding one of loved ones who have died (and who aren’t there to lean on in this present difficulty) or past feelings of being “out of control” and vulnerable.
2.) Offer your Ear, not Clichés. Ministry and counsel to a hurting person begins, as all counseling should, with being quick to listen and slow to speak (95% listening and 5% talking as one writer suggests, see Jas.1:19), and slow to become angry - in short, loving as we have been loved by Christ – in our extreme poverty. Our own heart needs a strong Gospel-reminder first. We deserve nothing but judgment every day, but in Christ we are shown mercy, compassion, forgiveness, great patience, and adoption to an eternal family. And, there is One who can identify with loss, a perfect High Priest named Jesus who meets the deepest needs of our hearts. How will we flesh out and share these characteristics of Christ? Will we resist the urge to compose a sermonette of “feel good” quotes or verses (or worse, verses implying that the trauma comes as judgment, which is not our call to make) to drop on them to “make them all better?” (This, by the way, is usually intended to make us feel better, removing the pain quickly with gospel-free answers, and avoiding deeper questions and concerns). Or will we begin by first asking how a person is doing and feeling - rather than presuming or assuming how they should respond - recognizing that this is the doorway of entry to their heart? Most likely if you will listen, you will hear them asking their own questions, “Why?” (You may even get a whole lot of anger.) And one answer we can certainly give is, “so that I can love you right now with the love of Christ.” Seeing Christ in us – the Christ of compassion- is the great need of their moment.
3.) Bring all the resources of the church, Christ’s body, to bear. You’re not a lone-ranger. You’re part of a body, meant to act in a community of helpers. Since physical needs are often paramount in a tragedy like fire, the holistic (and ultimately practical) resources of the church will be greater than yours as an individual. For example, incarnating the love of Christ as a body means we will pay attention to the hurting person’s basic need for physical rest and refreshment. Nourishing meals provided by “creative cookers” in the church, relaxing outings, and even opportunities to serve others in particular ways in which the sufferer can participate can encourage, bring perspective, and help to avoid self-preoccupation or pity.
4.) Don’t minimize the persistent effects of trauma. Proverbs tells us that every person knows their own pain. The truth is, you don’t know exactly how they feel or what precisely their experience is, so don’t say you do. Let them tell you. Recurring flashbacks and memories are common. Time and care may help them diminish, and talking with fellow-victims of trauma helps encourage the bearing of one another’s burdens.
5.) Be sensitive to the responses of the heart. Finally, remember that all of us, no matter what we are going through, are still worshippers and responders who will somehow try to make sense of the tangled ends under the tapestry. If it is not the true God (revealed in Christ) that is in our sights, it will be a functional replacement or idol. This important dynamic and reality is missing in Gospel-free counseling. Guilt and sorrow related to trauma (”I should have done more,” or “it should have been me” etc.) and the need for answers can turn us back onto self, and we continually need the compassionate touch of the Savior and the truth of His Gospel to “pull us out” of self to a big (and yes, sovereign) God who is always good, yet often mysterious. Idols give easy “answers,” or seem to anyway, but end up as empty wells of hope. Anger reveals the chief idol of “self,” and yet God gives promises, Good News, and tangible love through His Gospel and His people that we can drink and find refreshment in the pain. Through patient gospeling, we come to see the traumas of our lives as more than accidents or cosmic conspiracies; they are actually a significant part of God’s plan to save the world. (See the Joseph quote above, whose betrayal and suffering, leading to the feeding of the nations, is a picture of Christ. All events for the believer, as Jonathan Edwards writes, are graciously ordered by His love and wisdom. This is so even if their immediate source is the malice of our fellow man, see also Acts 4:27,28 concerning the cross of Christ). Seen through this lens, our struggles, sufferings, and losses are invested with great significance and hope.
Many of the thoughts and statistics on PTS presented here can be found in a fine article by Paul Randolph on Post-Traumatic Stress in the Summer 2007 edition of The Journal of Biblical Counseling.