Redefining Trauma

Post-Traumatic Growth

Today, trauma can be a buzzword haphazardly slapped on minor disappointments or inklings of discomfort. But this excessive use of such a serious word in our cultural conversation belies the fact that the experience of trauma—real or perceived—is universal. Instead of isolating ourselves in a cocoon of pain, trauma presents us the opportunity to connect with other people on the basis of suffering. There’s a unique comfort in seeing someone else vulnerably working through their hard stuff and in realizing that you’re not the only one suffering. There’s a healing balm in the realization of “You, too?”

You are not destined to be defined by the trauma in your past, but you can choose to be defined by the Christ-fueled overcoming of that trauma. How are we to be conformed into a more gracious, gritty, patient, and peace-filled shape without first rubbing against the sharp edges of suffering?

Trauma can be more than a dark pit of despair or a spiral of depression. It has the potential to be our deepest source of empathy, strongest point of connection, and most forceful impetus for growth if we bravely choose to let others into both the brokenness and the mending. While psychologists coined the term “post-traumatic growth” in the mid-1990s, we knew about it long before then. We simply called it “resurrection.” If you can see the possibilities beyond the pain, then your story is not yet over.