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Showing posts from August, 2017

Is Not Life a Series of Waits? Enduring Life-Altering Events

When asked as a pastor, to express with sincerity the lingering trauma that consumes the soul when a life-altering event makes its appearance, I would use the word "Numbness" to describe it and I am not alone. Many people describe the after-effects of traumatic events as going from initial shock to numbness, but it is important that we understand numbness is not shock, although it can follow on its heels. Shock is the immediate and radical realization of loss, numbness follows. Rather than quote a psychological definition I want to relate in real-life you, me and God terms. Numbness is the ongoing state a person drifts in and out of when under heavy distress. It can also occur to someone who has been exposed to a past traumatic event and is often referred to as PTSD or Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. It is what induced the psalmist to cry, "I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living" (Psa.