Stories of HOPE &
Nuggets of Truth

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 of these emotions occupy your being as you consider the searing loss of “normal,” the

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, what to engage in, whom to be around or how to even begin to join

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 deeply distressing or disturbing event that overwhelms a person’s ability to cope.” This can be

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 had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become

"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 more than God. But when I think about it, I am just like Israel because

"...let grain from the bundles fall purposely for her" Ruth 2:16 I love the story of Ruth from the Bible. It has joy, sorrow, mess and tenacity. It has strong personalities, determination and incredible provision. Some would say it’s a story about women overcoming adversity…and it is. In picking through the story I have found women who have suffered incredible loss and who are desperate to survive. Women who

"For this slight and momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 It is truly a wonder of wonders: that God grieves with us and feels our pain