From Grief to Grace: There is Healing for Trauma

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed. Psalm 34:18

One out of every seven people worldwide have experienced it—we’re talking about trauma.

In Africa, one of every two persons has been affected by the trauma of war, terror or displacement.[1] Joyce’s husband and 7 children were killed by militia in the Republic of the Congo. She and her remaining child fled to neighboring Uganda. There, in a refugee camp, Joyce learned of God’s love for her from His book, the Bible. In a Bible-based trauma healing group, she learned of Jesus’s suffering for her and that she could bring her pain to Jesus. She could lay her pain down at the cross of Jesus and even forgive those who took her husband and children from her.

“I’ve understood that God cares for me and walks with me even though I am going through hard times,” Joyce says. She even began caring for orphans in the refugee camp as if they were her own. “I no longer think about my past. I didn’t know that God is the answer to any problem.”[2] Today, Joyce can say, with the writer of the Bible book of Psalms: “My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life” (Psalm 119:50 NIV).

You may not have experienced a massacre or lived in a refugee camp. But you know that life hurts. The good news is that God sees and heals. He heals the broken heart that has experienced loss, betrayal, suffering, loneliness and crushed hopes. “You keep track of all my sorrows” the Bible says. “You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book” (Psalm 56:8 NLT). He is “…close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed” (Psalm 34:18).

Life Hurts. God heals.

[1] “Rebecca Deng.” YouTube, 3 July 2019, youtu.be/9K4FufUH6Jg?feature=shared.

[2] “Joyce – Uganda Th in Nakivale Camp.” YouTube, 3 July 2019, youtu.be/hq6Qq6oome0?feature=shared.