Dr. David Ayer
Trauma keeps you stuck in the past, denying you your divine destination. You were created with purpose. Knowing this, what holds you back?
The call and response of Abraham, Abram at that moment, is the stuff of legend. It is probably the most famous response to God’s call in history. Abram leaves everything he knows and loves to go after what God was calling him into.
You, too, are called by God to a place that He wants to show you. My question is, what is holding you back? The answer is usually, in one form or another, fear.
Fear has many faces, but the result is always the same. It locks us down. Whatever the root, too often our questions and fears keep us stuck in neutral. The Lord is pointing you toward your purpose and calling and calling you forward. What is that vision? Or maybe a better question is, what is fear trying to keep you from?
“A ship in harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.” ~ G.T. Shedd, theologian
From my experience, if someone doesn’t fulfill their calling, it is usually fear that holds them back. If that is you, you are not alone. In fact, you are in really good company. Did you know that Abraham may not have been the first one the Lord called to go to the Promised Land. It is his father, Terah, who may have been the first one God called to Canaan.
Genesis 11:31-32
31One day Terah took his son Abram, his daughter-in-law Sarai (his son Abram’s wife), and his grandson Lot and moved away from Ur of the Chaldeans. He was headed for the land of Canaan, but they stopped at Haran and settled there. 32Terah lived for 205 years and died while still in Haran.
What keeps us stuck where we are? The answer is almost always fear, and it usually takes one of three forms. The first is the fear of the unknown. It echos in our hearts things like, “I just don’t know,” usually followed by, “This doesn’t make any sense,” and, “How is this going to happen?” Ultimately, it is a fear of being out of control. This is a problem of faith, but it is less about faith in God and more about faith in ourselves. It really comes down to not believing that we can do it. More than anything, it reveals doubts about our callings, at least in this area. The answer to this is Gideon’s answer. Have the Lord confirm it (or not). Whatever direction He gives, go and fight knowing that He is bringing the victory.
The second fear is doubt. The question here is, “How is He going to do this?” This is really just a reframing of the question, is God going to let me down? The problem here is how we see Him. Doubt is about our view of God. At its core, this fear is summed up by, “I don’t really believe God will do it.” Doubt is a lack of faith in God and His ability to act in this world. When this is our fear, we need to go back to the Word and look to all the times that God made the impossible possible. When you realize that you are just the latest in a long line of people the Lord called to do the impossible, you will find the courage to step onto the battlefield and take on your Goliath.
The final thing that can keep us stuck is trauma. Trauma is defined by the APA as any disturbing experience that results in significant fear, and other disruptive feelings. These often produce long-lasting negative effects on attitudes, behavior, and other aspects of functioning, because they challenge a person’s view of the world as a just, safe, and predictable place. I believe that it is trauma that did not allow Terah to go on to Canaan.
Terah had a son, Haran. Genesis 11 tells us that Haran died in Ur leaving his son, Lot, without a father. It is after this event that Terah moves his family forward, beginning his trek toward the land of Canaan. But as they were on their journey to this new life, they ran into their past. Scripture tells us that they came to a city and settled there. Terah and his family remained in that place until the day of his death. The name of that place was Haran — the name of his dead son (Gen. 11.31-32).
Terah died in the place named after his greatest heartbreak. Trauma does that. It arrests us, holding us captive to our past and amplifying the voices of our fears. If we don’t find healing, both we and our calling can die there in the prison of our trauma, because of the three things that hold us back. Trauma is not a faith problem; it is a wounding that does not let us advance.
In Romans 8, Paul offers us a unique insight into the disabling effects of trauma. When the apostle lists all the things that cannot separate us from the love of God, there is one notable exception – the past (v 37-39). It is often the unhealed traumas of the past that create the obstacle that separates you, to one degree or another, from God’s love. It is not because He doesn’t love you and not because you don’t love Him. It is because, to protect your heart, you have built walls that separate you from others including God. It is this barrier to receiving His love and the confidence it produces that seals us off from the faith in Him that we need to overcome our fears and doubts. We don’t need walls. We need the healing that allows us to move forward to inhabit the places that the Lord has dreamed of giving us.
I believe that it is time for us, and many people that we lead, to be real with God about our hurts, fears, doubts and traumas, so that He can heal us. As you pray through this, you may even find that you have to forgive God for times when you feel He has failed you. He knows your hurts. He knows where your disappointments have produced fear. But more than that, He knows that you are called to fulfill the destiny He created you for. You just need His healing first. He is ready right now to meet you in your place of pain. You will not die there. He will lead you on.
