Pursuing Hope

"You will be secure, because there is hope; you will look about you and take your rest in safety." - Job 11:18

Trauma is the unique individual experience of an event or enduring conditions in which the individuals ability to integrate his/her emotional experience is overwhelmed and the individual experiences (either objectively or subjectively) a threat to his/her life, bodily integrity, or that of a caregiver or family (Saakvitne, K. et al, 2000). No one can predict when a traumatic event will occur to them or to a loved one. All trauma is different and affects each individual in different ways, but there is one constant, and that is spontaneity. Trauma occurs spontaneously. Even if a traumatic experience is planned out by a perpetrator for example, the victim is still naive as to what is about to occur to them. With that being said, all one can do to prepare for any sort of trauma in their lives, is to hold on to the truth that trauma may occur, but to never lose hope, because security is found in hope.

Some may find their security in their home, their job, their family or their friends. These areas may seem stable and secure at the time being, however, a natural disaster can tear apart a home in a matter of seconds. The economy can affect one's job and take away all plans of retirement and family can be torn apart for various reasons including the loss of a loved one through a traumatic accident. The reality is that all things as we know it can one day no longer be as it was. The hope however, can be found by holding on to what is truly stable and secure and will never change, leave, or forsake through the worst of times and the best of times. This hope can be found in God. If one is rooted in Him then like Job when all things that once were, are no longer and become uprooted, God will replant and restore all that was lost turning things back to good. 

More often than not, when there are losses or hardships in our lives, many will lose heart. Their faith gets challenged and they get stuck allowing fear to hold them back. John F. Kennedy once said, "We should not let our fears hold us back from pursuing our hopes" (Cook, 1996). If we realistically admit that all things are unstable, unpredictable and unreliable outside of God, then when those hard times or unpredictable, possibly even traumatic events occur, hope can still be found by holding on to the stability and promises found in Him.

Allow the hope of a new tomorrow to get you through the reality of today. Then you too can be like Job, that after losing all, gained much more than he could have ever imagined possible. 

"The Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first." - Job 42:12


Article Written By: Jessica Felix Jager, MSW

References

Cook, J. (1996). The Book of Positive Quotations. Minneapolis, MN: Fairview Press.

Saakvitne, K., Gamble, S, Pearlman L, & Tabor Lev, B (2000). Risking Connection: A Training Curriculum for Working with Survivors of Childhood Abuse. Baltimore, MD: Sidran Press.