Wake Up, Look Up

Hello everyone, and thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch, and in today's episode, we're asking the question, can the church fix trauma? This is prompted by an article I read in the New York Times about how childhood trauma doesn't have to be a lifelong curse. And let's just start with the data. In 1998, kind of a landmark study came out that showed that the experience of childhood trauma dramatically increases lifelong risks into adulthood of things like disease, addiction, and even mental health struggles, even potentially someone taking their own life. in response to this study, a, framework was created called hope. HOPE stands for Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences. Basically, it's a program that suggests there are things we can do to reverse the long term damage of childhood trauma. And those things really come down to four pillars. Supportive relationships, safe environments, emotional growth and belonging. places like San Diego are employing this in their welfare systems, their school systems, and they're seeing dramatic results. In fact, studies are showing that with these four pillars, people, who experience childhood trauma are 72% less likely to suffer, for example, from mental illness. I mean, that is a huge impact that a program like HOPE is having just by getting giving people supportive relationships, safe environments, emotional growth and belonging. When I read this study, first of all, I'm overjoyed that people who've experienced childhood trauma are finding healing anywhere. I'm, for that. But it also made me realize that the four things that the HOPE program is offering are four things that God has hardwired into the church. The church is supposed to be a place where you experience supportive relationships, where you have safe environments, where you can grow emotionally, where you can find belonging. Think about how many times in the New Testament it uses the language of one another. Passages like Galatians 6 bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. It made me think of Psalm 147:3, which says that God heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Of course, the question is, how does he do that? You know, obviously the beginning of that is he rescues them from their sin and shame and guilt and judgment through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. but the ongoing work of healing that God does is, yes, through the scriptures, through the power of the Holy Spirit, and through the presence of the local church. The reason why this is so important is because each one of us, and I mean myself here as much as anyone else, tend to think about our church involvement as primarily what it means for us. We go to the service that works for us. We look for the preacher that appeals to us, the small group that provides community for us. But what this is showing us is that showing up isn't just about me. It's about the people I'm showing up for. Because it's entirely possible that the person in the pew next to me or across from me in a small group or that I'm interacting with as I serve is someone who is working through and working out of childhood trauma. Someone who is in need of the church coming alongside them and helping them find a healthy future despite a, difficult past. Which means maybe I'm attending a small group that isn't bringing a ton of value for me because I'm the one God intends to bring the value. Maybe showing up at church is about being more aware of, of who's around me and what they need than asking what I need. Because the church has a real opportunity here to take people off a path of self destruction that an adult or an experience put them on when they were a child and to place them now in Christ through the ministry of the church on a path of healing. What an incredible thing that would be for the church to do. God is a God, but who heals the brokenhearted, who binds up the wounds of those who've experienced childhood trauma. But the mechanism so often he uses to do the healing and to do the binding are people like us within the context of a local church. I just wonder the impact we could have, you and I and our churches, if we started showing up asking God, I know you are in the healing business. Show me where, Where? Show me with whom you are working in, because I want to be part of that. What if church isn't about me, but it's about God through me bringing healing to people working through trauma in their past. Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. And while you're here, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get further content or even download the CCC app, where you'll find even more resources to help you grow in your faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

Have an article you’d like Zach to discuss? Email us at wakeup@ccchapel.com!