Casting Your Cares Vs Carrying Them Living in the center of trauma brought days of sadness and deep pain in my life. Those who walked the journey with me witnessed the toll of balancing hope and hopelessness as residual bombs exploded. It was in that setting I had a new coworker speak into my life.

Perspective Changes Everything I recently picked up a study I started several years ago but never finished called “Changed Into His Image” by Jim Berg. Stumbling across this book was not simply a reminder of my bad habit of starting and not finishing books, but rather a timely message I needed to hear. In one

Learning from the Past; Building Health for the Future Age has a way of blurring your vision. You need longer arms for the fine print and regulated “daytime hours” for the road. We laugh at “cheater glasses” that have become wardrobe and scramble for one of 20 pairs when it’s time to read the medicine

Keeping God’s Word Close The other day I was putting a new license plate on my car. I had picked the most freezing day of winter and was on a mission to complete it in record time. Running into the garage I grabbed the first screwdriver I found and ran back out into the tundra

Sharing the Treasure of God's Word “We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.” 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 In the midst of trauma, your world turns upside down; you feel broken in a million pieces and steady footing seems

The Impossible, a movie about a family who survived a Tsunami, expresses the chaos of trauma. It showed how hopelessness drives into your heart, mind and soul; you can’t breathe or orient to normal anymore because it no longer exists. Sorrow overwhelms, pain penetrates and confusion plagues your mind with a sense of drowning.  All

How to Survive the Holidays Feeling the jolly of the holidays is excruciatingly hard? Experiencing pain even when you are around familiar people or traditions? Trauma does that. It brings a new level of awareness for the brokenness you feel, and it seeks to steal the joy of those moments. Figuring out why you celebrate,

How to Help the Hurting Holidays are especially hard for people in Trauma. Even when you are around familiar people or traditions, trauma brings a new level of awareness for the brokenness you feel, and it seeks to steal the joy of those moments. Our working definition of trauma is “an emotional response to a

Christmas 2022 is just a few weeks away. I find myself looking back over this year and realizing again how desperately this world needs Hope. Leviticus 25, describes a kinsman-redeemer as a close relative who basically allowed the hopeless to find hope again.  I’ve thought about this with Christmas approaching.  Hebrews 2:17 says “Therefore he

"The Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins. They shall eat, but not be satisfied." Hosea 3:1, 4:10 I was struck by this verse because of how utterly silly it is. I say it's silly because it seems improbable that Israel really loved raisin cakes