Courage Grows When You Tell Your Trauma Story
I know many of you that are thinking, “I can never tell my trauma story. If people would find out, they would reject me.” I want to encourage you with something. It is the people that have been rejected, that God used for His glory.
It was Mary Magdalene. It was the Samaritan woman. It was Rahab, the prostitute, it was the barren woman, Sarah. There are so many accounts in the Bible of women that were bold and outspoken that came from the biggest mess that God raised up and used for His glory.
Dear reader, I know you and so many people like you have been reaching out and telling me your stories. For some of you, you think you’re too broken, you’re too far gone. You’ve screwed up too many times. You’re too dirty. Your body has been violated so much. You have no worth in value.
But God is speaking to you today and saying, “Rise up, rise up dear daughter (and son) of Christ! Surrender to Him so He can use you for His glory.
Look at me! I’m a survivor. I’m a survivor of so much pain that I experienced. I used to identify myself as a victim until God started changing my story. He said, “I’m gonna use you to touch people that have experienced pain similar to yours.”
Just like you, by no means did I want to tell my story to my clients. By no means did I want to share my story publicly. But all of a sudden it just started to happen when the Holy Spirit took control of my heart. He just started pouring things out of nowhere. There were moments when I was scared, anxious, and afraid that everyone (including my clients and friends) will run when they heard.
I thought to myself, “Well what if people are going to run away from me? What if people are going to reject me? What if people are going to shame me?”
And what if they do? I don’t live for people, I live for God that came down to this earth, to heal and save people He loved.
So don’t worry about those that tell you to be silent. Don’t worry about those that say you’re too far gone, you’re too dirty to ever be used by God.
That is not true anymore. If God can use me, if He could heal my brokenness, if He could set my feet on a new foundation that is Him, He could do it to you. He has used my story to help so many people get healing and care that otherwise wouldn’t have. If I would have just stayed silent, that would never have happened.
If God can use Rahab He could use you. If God can use Mary Magdalene He could use you. I could only imagine what will happen when you surrender to the Lord and let Him write your story, let Him use you to heal others. What a gift that will be.