How to Overcome the Lasting Damage of Trauma Through God’s Word – Episode 376

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Episode Summary:

Have you ever wondered why trauma seems to leave lasting marks on your mind, heart, and even relationships? In today’s conversation, I sit down with Dr. J. Otis Ledbetter, author of “Set Free, Released from the Damage of Trauma,” to uncover how we can overcome the destructive effects of trauma and move towards God’s peace and restoration.

Drawing from scripture and real-life experiences, Dr. Ledbetter reveals how even biblical heroes wrestled with trauma and how we can learn from their stories to create tranquil paths of healing and wholeness. If you’ve been searching for hope after loss, abuse, crisis, or disappointment, this episode will encourage you that freedom is possible. Today, we’re going to be talking about how to overcome the lasting damage of trauma through God’s word.

Quotables from the episode:

  • Trauma is something every person will face at some point in life, yet few know how to walk through it in a healthy, hope-filled way.
  • On this episode of Your Hope-Filled Perspective, we will explore how God’s word provides answers that lead us out of anguish and into healing, purpose, and freedom. We will talk about how to overcome the lasting damage of trauma through God’s word.
  • We live in a dark world. I’m in my seventh decade. I’ve seen a lot. I’ve pastored this church where I pastor now for 40 years. When I started pastoring 40 years ago, it’s not the same. You cover the same subjects, but you don’t cover them the same way. It’s different because we live in a different world. I was raised in a world where it was assumed there was a God. Nobody, hardly anybody ever doubted it. Now we live in a world that assumes there isn’t one. And so you don’t have point A to start with. So, you have to create that point A.
  • And because of it, the world’s idea of how to cope with the darkness is death. If you don’t want this baby, death is possible. If you don’t want to live anymore, you can choose suicide. The kids accept that. And when I sit down and I talk to them in a counseling manner, they have friends who have, or they know of friends who know of somebody who has tried that. And been successful at it. It’s an option for them where it didn’t used to be an option. We have to take that option off the table and go for life.
  • Many people think that trauma is an event. There are traumatic events. And I don’t know anybody that I’ve ever met who hasn’t been through some sort of traumatic event. Everybody has. You might call it garden variety. Not the clinical that somebody has to go to a clinician for. But everybody’s suffered some sort of trauma. Some event. But out of everybody who has suffered trauma, Dr. Phil Monroe, his statistic is out of every three that suffer trauma, that suffer an event, only one suffers trauma. He says, because trauma is not the event. Trauma is the chronic reaction to that event. Trauma is ongoing. An event can happen and then it can be in your past. You may never forget it, but it no longer identifies you. And it no longer points the direction that you should go, whether life or death.
  • This has been true in the spiritual world all the way back to when Joshua said, “God’s calling you. You have a choice today. Blessings or cursing. Life or death. I’m telling you, choose life.” That’s the same thing we have with the darkness that we see, lying, foul words. We live in a world that I knew nothing about when I was going to school. We see our kids and they take that as a choice. I have to take that option off the table for them.
  • The first emotion that somebody faces after a traumatic event is fear. That fear, the fear of loss. Mary and Martha, they lost their brother. And that wasn’t just a brother. That was financial security. That was their future life. In that culture, the male had all the advantages. The female did not. And with Mary and Martha, the anxiety surrounding Lazarus’ death and uncertainty and a future without him. So fear comes in first.
  • If you allow fear to stay very long, it turns into anxiety. The first three chapters of the book of Job are nothing but traumatic events that I hope nobody suffers. But he suffered them one right after another. And then the next 27 chapters are him dealing with anxiety. They use the word anguish in there. Anxiety causes anguish. But his anxiety, then he was on a search to assuage that anxiety. And he had friends that gave him bad information. There’s always armchair counselors. Be careful. I tell your listeners, be careful of the armchair counselors. Some of them are really good. Some of them aren’t. And for Job, he had some armchair counselors. They paid for it. They paid for the bad advice they gave. And then God said, okay, I’m going to assuage your anxiety.
  • But fear will take you into anxiety. Anxiety will take you to a place. I call it mood swings or moodiness. During mood swings, you are not yourself. You are that emotion that you have swung to. Whether you’ve heard people say, “I don’t even know them anymore. I don’t even know who they are.” Well, that’s probably where they are. They’re in this mood swing. I talk about Joseph’s journey because he had a lot of mood swings. And his brothers didn’t like him. And he must have been a favorite of dad. The only way to get rid of him was death. And one brother decided, no, not death. Let’s just sell him. Let’s get some money for him. But his mood swings ruined his relationship with his brothers, caused them to traumatically put him in a traumatic situation.
  • We need to explore how feelings like feelings of superiority or that sort of thing can lead you to the next mood swings when you’re not yourself. And then people will begin to reject you. And when they reject you because you’re not the person that they first met, then you will go into isolation.
  • Fear leads to anxiety. Anxiety leads to mood swings. Mood swings will lead you into isolation. I talk about Elijah in isolation. He contemplated suicide. He’s one of our great heroes of the faith. Yeah. And he was scared to death of Jezebel. He ran with his servant until he couldn’t run any longer. He told his servant to stay here. He ran another day, another day’s journey and was so exhausted, he laid under a broom tree with thoughts of, “I need to exit.” And he told God, I’m no better than my generation. Just take my life. Let’s get out of here. That’s where in darkness, as I said earlier, that’s where we are. We go there because it’s dark.
  • Isolation brings the worst. It brings hopelessness. And it brings despair, and loss of purpose. I counsel a lot of older folks now who go into what we call existential despair. They lose all purpose. They don’t know why they exist. And that’s what isolation does to you. Desperation and hopelessness that you would do something to take your life.
  • And when you get through that, then the next thing it’ll take you to is lying. Denying truth. Peter did that. There was nobody closer to Peter. When he saw the traumatic event of who he hooked his star to for three years, his wagon to that star, and they took him off, and they were going to kill him, it frightened him. He went through all of these things we’re talking about. When he got there and they accused him, he denied Christ three times. He lied. You can almost understand it because lying helps you create a safe place. Even though there’s no such safe place.
  • Trauma in and of itself is not bad. You can learn a lot from opposition and from hurt. You can, you can learn a lot. In fact, I don’t know of much that’s ever really happened of significance in the world that wasn’t at some place opposed heavily. Opposition. But some people just can’t handle it. So the fear comes and then they get in this cycle. And, you know, I’ve, I’ve met a lot of, of, of, of pastor’s kids.
  • The truth is what heals. God does not heal deceit. He heals truth. That’s so good. It is truth that heals. And it is for truth that Christ came to set us free to speak truth. And when he left, he gave us the Holy spirit to remind us of truth.
  • The one word for parents to pass a heritage to their children their faith, is intentionality. Just do something. Don’t think it can be done by accident. Be intentional. And when you’re intentional, great things happen. And we are called to that. There are so many examples of that in scripture. When God says to take every thought captive, that’s not going to happen unless we’re intentional. When it says to love your neighbor, we have to be intentional. When God tells us to forgive, that’s really requires intentionality.
  • I think people are traumatized by what is not. Isn’t what they say, 90 some percent of what you worry about never happens? The trauma of the unknown is, I think, the most garden variety trauma you can have.
  • And saying that it is, it doesn’t matter how old we get, we still do it.
  • When we were building this latest building here on the property, we have a private school, five to 600 students, and we were building a building. Well, at night, when I lay my head down and try to get some rest, all of those problems come in. And then you think about what all is going to happen. It hasn’t happened, but your mind tells you it’s going to. It keeps you awake. That’s the trauma of the unknown. Why do we allow what hasn’t happened yet cause trauma?
  • For young people, you’ve got a final exam tomorrow. You don’t sleep because of what you think might happen. It could happen, even to the point of the professor won’t like your answer, even though it’s a right answer. And I’ve heard college students tell me that. That’s the trauma of the unknown. Jane Levy had the best definition of trauma that I had ever read. She said, “trauma fractures comprehension as a pebble shatters a windshield. The wound at the site of impact spreads across the field of vision, obscuring reality and challenging belief. And that is exactly what it does. Even those things that aren’t happening to us do that.” That’s the unknown.
  • Transference is when we lay on people what we see them doing, and we’re going to be critical of what they’re doing. And we lay on them what we would do if we were in that situation. So then we accuse them already in our hearts and our minds of doing that because that’s what we would do. When you criticize somebody like that, when you look at somebody and you start transferring, you don’t have facts. You just are guessing. Then what you’re guessing is from your experience. So what you’re telling me is who you are, not who they are, because they haven’t done that yet. But you, you see, that’s where they’re going to land. So that transference, it really identifies you. It doesn’t identify them.
  • With trauma, we talk about the physical and the emotional and the social issues. Don’t leave out the spiritual because there is a God who loves you and he is a God of hope.
  • God knows us so intimately that he knows what we need and willingly provides it. God says, come to me if you’re heavy laden. I’ll give you rest. He didn’t say I’ll rescue you. He’s not going to rescue you. But he’s going to give you a place of rest. You don’t need to lie to create that place of safety. He’s going to give it to you. And so why would we go to science or why would we go anywhere else first? Why wouldn’t we go to the one that says, I made everything. I’ve got unique mercies for you. And there’s healing in my wings. And if you want healing, that’s the first place to go. That’s real hope. That’s the only place that hope is going to be sustained is through our Heavenly Father and going to his word.

Scripture References:

  • Isaiah 61:1 – “He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.”
  • Psalm 40:2 (NIV) – “He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.”
  • Joel 2:25 (ESV) – “I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten.”

Recommended Resources: (If there are affiliate links in this post, meaning, if you click through and make a purchase, I may receive a commission (at no extra cost to you)).

 

Many people think trauma is the event itself. What if trauma is actually the ongoing reaction to that event? @drjotishb and I explore the difference and how God's truth leads us toward healing. Share on X Fear. Anxiety. Isolation. Hopelessness. What if these are not separate struggles, but steps in a cycle trauma often creates? @drjotishb and I unpack that cycle and how Scripture points us toward freedom. Share on X

 

Social Media Links for Host and Guest:

Connect with Dr. J. Otis Ledbetter:

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For more hope, stay connected with Dr. Bengtson at:

Order Book Sacred Scars / Order book The Hem of His Garment / Order book Today is Going to be a Good Day / Order Book Breaking Anxiety’s Grip / Order Book Hope Prevails  / Order Book Hope Prevails Bible Study /  Website  /  Blog  /  Facebook / Twitter (@DrMBengtson)  /  LinkedIn  /  Instagram / Pinterest / YouTube / Podcast on Apple

 

About Dr. J. Otis Ledbetter:

 

Dr. J Otis Ledbetter, authorJ. Otis Ledbetter lives in Clovis, California, with his wife Gail. He is an author, conference speaker, and the Lead Pastor at Sonrise Church. He holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from Liberty University’s Theological Seminary. He and Gail have three grown children and twelve grandchildren. He has written numerous articles for magazines and specializes in Heritage Builders workshops nationally and internationally, which teach parents and grandparents the spiritual, emotional, and social components of the heritage they are passing to the next generation. His books include Your Heritage, In the Secret Place, Soul Hunger : Satisfy Your Heart’s Deepest Longing, and his latest 2022 release Set Free: Released from the Damage of Trauma. He has been featured on numerous radio and television broadcasts. His book Your Heritage was distributed as a premium offer on Billy Graham’s Hour of Decision.

 

 

Hosted By: Dr. Michelle Bengtson
Audio Technical Support: Ashton Bengtson

 

 

Trauma can leave lasting effects long after the event has passed, but it doesn't have to define your future. Discover biblical truth for overcoming the lasting damage of trauma, breaking free from fear and isolation, and finding hope, healing, and renewed purpose through God's Word. Learn practical encouragement to help you move toward lasting freedom.

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