Talking about a collective trauma. A pandemic, civic unrest, increasing polarization, inflation. We have had a difficult couple of years.
I heard a word the other day to perfectly describe where many of us are today pandemic-2021 - languishing. We aren’t all in the deepest pits of depression but we are most certainly not thriving. We’re somewhere in between those and probably leaning more towards the depressed side of the equation. We’ve become indifferent.
We are collectively traumatized and it’s killing us because we’ve never been taught how to grieve together, how to lament together, or even how to really truly praise together. Psychologist Adam Grant is correct that we might not even notice that we are languishing:
“Part of the danger is that when you’re languishing, you might not notice the dulling of delight or the dwindling of drive. You don’t catch yourself slipping slowly into solitude; you’re indifferent to your indifference. When you can’t see your own suffering, you don’t seek help or even do much to help yourself”
All that trauma will go somewhere. That pain, frustration, and disappointment is going to find a landing spot. It may wreck marriages, it may destroy friendships. It may create discontent within church family. Trauma has a tendency to run away from healing, especially if we have not cultivated the discipline of lament. Those who are experts on dealing with trauma tell us that there are two big things that need to happen for healing:
I need to tell my story safely to another human.
I need to tell my story to God.
Can you think of a better place for this to happen than in our church? Is there a better story than the Gospel? We must be at the front of the line in listening to other people’s stories and pain and then hoping and helping to reframe our collective trauma which only Christ can understand it.
We need also to tell our stories. We need to give our vent to the Lord, sharing our frustrations. Our languishing hearts. We must cast all our cares upon Him.
\Jesus heals every languishing heart. Mine and yours included.
