(I started this piece before our move and wanted to finish it in this hotel room before the moving and flurry of activity in the coming days.)
Grenade Definition: A small bomb detonated by a fuse and thrown by hand or fired from a rifle.
Recently, there was a story about a family that was looking through a grandfather’s belongings. One thing led to another, and an old grenade was detonated, which subsequently killed the dad and injured the two onlooking teenagers as well. The injured teens were treated at a nearby hospital for the devastating shrapnel wounds. Just thinking about this happening to somebody makes my whole body hurt!
This kind of example has me pondering this type of scenario in relation to the spiritual realm and how injuries that are sustained by us from similar yet spiritual types of attacks almost inevitably change us in ways that we are truly never the same again.
For example, ‘spiritual grenade bombs’ resulting from all kinds of atrocities, injustices, and blows throughout our lifetime really do affect and maim us in ways that we become ‘handicapped,’ if not physically, definitely mentally and emotionally for sure!
Case in point: when a soldier spends time in the battle trenches, they will more than likely emerge as someone who doesn’t look fine, definitely not unscathed, or much less seem whole, to be exact.
Usually, what tends to happen is that they will come out soiled from the top of their helmet all the way down to the bottom of their boots. All due to being entrenched in harrowing crossfires as they were hiding out among the dirt, grass, rocks, mud, brush, low-lying water, and whatever else that was there!
Oftentimes, said soldier will have to be carried out by others due to suffering and sustaining brutal blows and injuries to their bloodied bodies! From loss of limbs, loss of hearing, sight, bodily movements, organ functions, and even to the loss of life itself!
After such a harrowing experience, it is clear and obvious to denote and say that such a person will never be able to come out of that kind of trauma and be the same as they were before ever again!
PTSD Definition: Post-traumatic stress disorder is a psychiatric disorder that may develop after a person has been through, seen, or been threatened with a traumatic event. Types of events that can lead to PTSD include a natural disaster, accident, combat, or sexual violence.
So it is with PTSD, a condition that is utterly debilitating to those of us who suffer from it, to say the least. For a young girl, teenager, or anyone for that matter to have their souls violated through sexual assault, incest, rape, molestation, and sexual harassment, it no doubt changes them in ways one can never fully explain or imagine.
Sometimes when that type of bomb is detonated in one’s life, it is such a traumatic type of experience that what commonly happens is that the mind and body will go into protection or survival mode. This mechanism helps to aid the person’s psyche by repressing the soul-violating, beyond despicable, and disgusting memory of it all and will cause the mind to go into a type of dissociative amnesia.
Furthermore, when it is a beloved family member or caretaker, it is truly a shock to the system, and the young person’s mind can’t seem to wrap around or even grasp or much less accept the reality of this type of trauma ever really had happened to them! So much so that the repression of that memory is a blessing to the victim’s mind and soul because it helps to bury the shock of it all until either years down the road, until a safer point or place, or until a later time in life when they can begin to possibly face what type of atrocity had really happened to them!
Excerpts from: Signs of Repressed Childhood Trauma in Adulthood (verywellhealth.com)
Dissociation: means disconnection from yourself, others, and the world. This is the brain’s short-term way of escaping pain. Long-term dissociation can separate a person from reality or cause them to lose memories of entire chunks of time, called dissociative amnesia.
What is Dissociative Amnesia? An inability to recall information related to personal traumas is sometimes called dissociative amnesia. Dissociative memory loss can affect a specific part of a person’s life or significant parts of a person’s identity.
Denial: Denial is a psychological defense mechanism in which there is a refusal to recognize or acknowledge something painful. While denial is helpful when coping with traumatic events in the short term, ongoing denial can cause emotional, mental, or physical health problems.
Forgetting: While forgetting things is a normal part of life, those who experience extreme trauma may purposefully suppress it rather than unconsciously repress it. – End Source
As a former Sign Language Interpreter, the sign idiom for trauma or ‘scarred for life’ as in a horrific memory is: First finger in a hook (x sign) motion drawing a line on the forehead above one eye. (As in ‘etched in one’s memory’ but not in a good way.)
What does the Bible say about PTSD? | GotQuestions.org
As a victim and survivor of PTSD, I know many others have also been traumatized several times, if not more, throughout their lifetimes as well. It is my prayer that those who have been in the trenches of this type of suffering have found strength, healing, and comfort by reaching out to the Lord Jesus Christ throughout the process.
You are my Sunshine, my only Sunshine; you make me happy when skies are gray. You never know dear how much I love you, so please don’t take my Sunshine away.
For example, there was a time someone in my life made me think I was very special to them and that they loved me with all their heart. When times were low, they would gently rub my back and tell me it was ok. They would comfort me and tell me that my haters were their haters. They made me feel loved. That someone was ‘My Sunshine,’ and I attributed the song “You Are My Sunshine” to them and would sing it to them often.
We had a special bond until… *record scratch*… the enemy took it all away! The evil one has robbed many of us of much in our lives… and I do mean much.
But… what the enemy meant for evil, God meant it for good! In this life, things may never improve or get better. This may not be what we would like or want to hear… but it’s not like we have much choice or control in the matter either.
As the days wax utterly darker in this world and as the time of the Great Tribulation inevitably draws near, the anticipation in my heart to see the Lord Jesus grows stronger!
There’s a certain long-awaited embrace from the Lord Jesus that gives me day-to-day hope, keeps me going, and is what my heart happily looks forward to!
Just to have the arms of someone who loved me enough to die for me is beyond anything I can compare to in relation to what I have experienced here on earth. The love I have experienced here is easily lost at worst and sparingly fickle at best.
(Side note: The love of my best friend and husband has been my greatest constant and solace in this life. We just celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary recently and plan to go on some more travel adventures ‘Lord willing’ later this year. I am just thankful God gave me such a loving husband who loves me for me and to share our time here as we wait on the Lord to Harpazo ‘snatch’ us away.)
Back to the fickle love of one going from being ‘my Sunshine’ one day to being ‘my Judas Iscariot or as a Cesar’s Brutus’ the next! All with a spiritual knife stabbed into the back to help seal the traitorous deal too!
Isn’t that just lovely when that happens? No… I say, scratch that type of so-called love! God’s Word details a better kind of love… one which is everlasting! A Love and an ‘Epic Embrace’ from Someone who will give us the most pure, selfless, caring, thoughtful, tender, and sweetest embrace of all time! An eye contact from the One who knitted us in our mother’s womb, who knew us in time past, who called us out of darkness and into His glorious light! An embrace from Someone so Holy and Pure that it will heal the soul from the inside out!
For it is written that He will wipe ‘every tear’ from our eyes!
An ‘Epic Embrace’ like no other from Someone who bled and died to save us, a Love that sticks closer than a brother, a Carer who promises to never leave nor forsake us. All from the One who values and treasures us even when no one else on earth seems to care or chooses to see our worth. A Love truly like no other! An embrace that will heal all spiritual battle wounds, scars, PTSD, psychological damage, abandonment, and whatever else that ails us from being in the trenches of this evil world and laborious life!
This is the day I look forward to, the long-awaited ‘Epic Healing Embrace’ of all time, the wiping of every tear from our eyes from none other than the Ancient of Days, the One who created us and loves us so… this One is the Lord Jesus that I know!
https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Bible-Verses-About-Gods-Love-For-Us/
Until next time… Maranatha!
Sincerely & In Christ,
Candy Austin
(I have no Accolades….
I am just a Nobody,
Trying to tell Everybody,
All about Somebody,
Who can save Anybody!)
My Mission is to be ‘Salt and Light’ to a Lost and Dying world,
To be an Ambassador for Jesus Christ.
All for Him and His Glory!