1 Corinthians 12:26, “If one part of the body suffers, then all the other parts suffer with it. Or if one part is honored, then all the other parts share its honor.”

Trauma for some is a loaded, powerful word. I’ve heard some horrible stories of other peoples traumas. Many times I have wept. I’ve associated it with rape, domestic violence, brutal death etc.

For some, sadly, trauma is common and the regularity of the trauma they have experienced has caused them to come to the point that they expect it, and even think they deserve it.

More recently I have realised, if I stub my toe, in the medical world it’s known as ‘blunt forced trauma’.

I have experienced trauma of some kind, and it’s likely you have to.

Like most things though, we need to be careful that we don’t wrongly blame or excuse our sinful behaviour as a result of obtaining a definition or new understanding, but rather use it as a framework to decipher (observe and analyse), understand more deeply our behaviour (what we do) and learn to apply (transformation) why we do what we do (our beliefs and values).

Trauma is Greek for wound. Not just big, bad wounds, but all wounds. There are many kinds of wounds – Physical, emotional, social, psychological, religious/theological…all wounds.

As Christians we need to know that we are capable of causing wounds in other people, and that even small wounds can get infected.

When we step back to consider that, for those of us who have been saved through Jesus Christ, we belong to the body of Christ (it’s His because he is the head of it!), then when we consider wounds it would do us well to have a Body of Christ perspective.

(Keep in mind perspective isn’t just about where we stand, but rather who and what is included in the view.)

As I’ve been thinking over this, I’ve been reminded about how serious infections can form from the smallest of wounds. Our eldest, when she was younger got a number of boils, requiring antibiotics. We had no idea why they kept reoccurring in a similar place on her foot. On one of the visits to the doctor, He informed us that the boils were forming when she got a small tear in the skin of her foot, and then bacteria was getting in, causing an infection.

1. If we hadn’t of treated it, and cleaned it, the infection could have further developed and been life threatening.

2. Time to get new, better fitting shoes.

The body of Christ is similar. We don’t need big, bad wounds to get the body infected – the small wounds – a harsh word spoken, a harmful theology developed, taught and lived, an unhealthy, personal, sinful habit simmering away affecting our closest relationships, and mix that with the harmful, destructive work of the enemy, alongside poor responses, recovery and treatment and tada! There you have it, an infection in the body that divides, distorts, disturbs and destroys the body of Christ.

We need to understand this, so we can

1. identify it in our churches, and amongst family and friends, aswell as ourselves.

2. know when we’ve been wounded (our pain receptors don’t always wave the red flag in obvious ways),

3. learn how to keep our wounds clean, so they can heal with minimal infection

4. Tend to the wounds of others well, bringing Jesus into the pain to heal and restore.

5. Learn which wounds are our responsibility to heal, and those which are not.

I’m hoping to write more about this, soon.

Love in Christ,

Erin