November Theme: Trauma

I am not much of a feeler but it is hard to miss all the hurting that is going on out there. Well, it is not just "out there" but "in here" as well. Those of us who like to think the trauma is always somewhere else or with someone else just need to reflect a bit harder and have a bit more honesty with ourselves about things.Trauma is prevalent. It is a part of our humanity and our propensity toward injustice and selfishness. Someone always pays for selfishness, even the one who is being selfish. This morning in the car our youngest child, age 6, thought selfish was "sell fish" and didn't think the fish would be too happy about that. Maybe they have trauma too! You just can't escape it so you might as well deal with it in a healthy manner.Whatever the source of our trauma is, it is important that we recognize it and create space for its expression and healing. While I understand that often we make Sunday morning worship the catch all that is supposed to accomplish too many things I do think we could do a better job of expressing some difficult, far too real, things on Sunday. Authentic worship would demand this but too often we keep singing happy go lucky songs among a hurting people. Is that faith or is that denial? I don't know that it can be both at the same time.Is our assembly or community a safe place to express trauma and look for healing? Are we so set on everything and everyone being "okay" that we are missing an opportunity for the Gospel to be the Gospel? I think we can improve in this area and when we do we will be accomplish some of the reasons Jesus has us here.So let's talk about trauma this month and consider how we might find more community relevance in our ability to bring healing to the hurting through the love and mercy of Jesus.