Healing the Trauma of a Past Age

Today, I'd like to share a sermon with you that I gave in French at the feast in France.

And I'd like to give it directly in English to you today. Perhaps some of you might have heard it in translation. I'm not sure if anybody was there that year. The feast ended just about a month ago, which is hard to believe. Yesterday, a month ago, was last good day, eighth day of the feast. It's hard to believe. It's been a month. And so for the sermon, I'd like us to begin by turning to Luke 4, verse 18. Hopefully you have a Bible. I bring my Bible here, and I'd like us to read it together. Sometimes people like to read on their phones, however it might be. But I ask you to please read this with me, because I think it's really one of the most impactful moments. I think we know the context. Jesus is returning to his hometown. He goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath. He's given the scroll of Isaiah. And he begins to read from Isaiah 61.

And he reads these words. People ask you, what's your favorite scripture? I've got many, but this is definitely up there on my list. Luke chapter 4, verse 18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

If I had to summarize, or you had to summarize in one word what he's talking about, what would it be? One word. I'll tell you the word that I use. God in the flesh, Jesus the Messiah, is talking about trauma. He's talking about human trauma, sickness, disease, abuse, loss. By whatever word you want to describe our pain, Jesus captures it right here. And then he says in verse 21, today the Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Done!

From that moment forward, healing for trauma is ours, if we will take it. Not so long ago, I attended a funeral for a long-time friend who died from complications of routine gallbladder surgery. His death was very sudden. His son took him to the hospital. You know, laparoscopic surgery in and out. Figured he'd pick him up that afternoon. Seven days later, he was dead. Actually, it looks like a case of medical malpractice. Why would this happen?

Prior to the funeral, I called his son, a man of 28 years old. And this is someone who I saw grow up. This is someone where our families are very close. We would rent a cabin in the mountains for President's Day. We'd all go skiing or snowboarding together. We'd go ice skating together. We'd do things together. He with his family had come to the feast in France, sister his mom, and now he had just lost his dad in this bizarre accident.

And he asked me, when does the pain go away?

And I told him, it doesn't.

You see, I lost my dad in a bizarre accident when I was 21 years old.

And I have walked in that trauma for 38 years.

And I'm going to tell you that there is always a hole when you lose a parent. There's always a hole, especially early in your life. My mother-in-law, Maryse's mom, she lost her mother when she was five years old. Five years old. Right before the war began, she lived in Nazi-occupied France. Actually, she might have lived in free France, but it didn't really matter. She had German soldiers in her village. When I met my mother-in-law for the first time, 55 years after she lost her mom, I learned about how she lost her mom. And she told that story as if it had just happened. But in talking with this young man, my friend's son, I added, with time, the pain can be managed. With time, the pain can be managed. The pain doesn't go away, but it can be managed. And we began to talk about God, and we began to talk about hope. And after I hung up the phone, I thought about this passage. This is part of Christ's message to the world, to heal the brokenhearted, to set at liberty those who have been oppressed.

Now, likely, every person in this room, most people in this room, over a certain age, carry a certain amount of trauma. I've been in congregation, I've been in the congregation for 20 plus years, 25 years. I've now been in the Seattle area. We spent our time between Seattle and France. And now, even after four or five years, sitting in the Seattle congregation, as I was thinking about the sermon, I kind of just mentally went around the room. And I'm like, yep, that person would do that, do that, do that. And I realized we're all carrying something. It's just the question is whether we're going to get some help in carrying it.

And this verse is for every one of us. It was a prophecy given by Isaiah, fulfilled with Christ's first coming. A promise for all those who will accept it for now, and all those who will accept it in a coming age. The trauma of a past age that will be wiped away, or is being wiped away. And so today, I want to talk to you about trauma. And I hope you will be vulnerable, at least for a moment, to allow yourself to think of your own trauma. And then bathe yourself in God's power to heal, in this promise that is right in front of us in this passage. I'm going to share with you a biblical story of trauma, a story that will show we are not alone.

In fact, I think what we're doing right here, right now, is one of the most powerful things we can do for our trauma. Being in God's presence, among our brothers and sisters, in fellowship, in breaking of bread afterwards. Receiving the loving support from our spiritual brothers and sisters around us, and having an opportunity to be uplifted and encouraged. And when healing begins, then we become, I hope we'll see in this message, instruments in God's hands to help others who may face similar difficulties. I think it's clear, our time of preparation is now. And part of that preparation is confronting and embracing God's promise right here of healing. Sometimes we have certain behaviors that we may consider to be normal.

Certain fears, certain reactions that we assume everybody has, but which in fact represent symptoms of past trauma. That we really perhaps haven't understood or aren't dealing with it. Sometimes it's anger that comes out of the blue, and you're like, where did that come from? I was really on edge. Sometimes it's fear that others might consider irrational. Sometimes it's withdrawal from others or from a community because we're just a little bit too overwhelmed with certain feelings that we might have. Sometimes it's an enormous difficulty in believing that we can be loved. You've heard of imposter syndrome. That's another thing. Some traumas are so serious that they more or less define who we are. And in those cases, we need support. We need professional help. And I've told people, I think God's spirit within us can help us discern whether or not that person is giving us the advice that's necessary. And we shouldn't be afraid of getting help. And there are many examples in the Bible of traumas affecting men and women who believed in God and were faithful to Him. So that's another way of saying this is the normal human experience. Otherwise, Christ wouldn't have to say this as He began His ministry if it wasn't a problem. And so today we're going to talk about the story of Esther and how God intervened and gave Esther meaning for what she went through and showed His purpose in the trauma of her life. We're going to look at the trauma of King David and the prophecies of our role in the millennium participating with Jesus Christ and the healing of the nations. So if you're looking for a title of today's message, healing the trauma of a past age. Healing the trauma of a past age. And when we're done, I hope that each of us will ask if there are traumas that we need to confront in our own lives, whether we are moving forward on those or not. So let's begin. Please turn with me to Esther 2, verse 7. We're going to break right into the story, the middle of the story of Esther. We're going to begin by examining the story of Esther and what we can learn from the example of her trauma. Esther 2, verse 7. Again, I encourage you to turn there and read these together. I really work on making sure I give time for people to turn to scriptures. Esther 2, verse 7, saying it several times. So hopefully you've heard it. Because I think some of us are visual learners. I tend to remember things when I can see them written. I get less out of what I hear. That's actually been scientifically shown to be the case for most people. So hopefully you can read this together with me. Esther 2, verse 7. We're going to break right into the middle of the story. We're going to read something perhaps you have read before, but we're just going to pause for a second and dissect it a little bit. Esther 2, verse 7. Hopefully you're with me. And Mordecai had brought up Hadassah, that is Esther, his uncle's daughter. For she had neither father nor mother. The young woman was lovely and beautiful. When her father and mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.

So when we first meet Esther, we learn three things about her. And of course, we all focus on one of those, right? She was beautiful. And that tends to be kind of the focus of the story. But there's two other things. Second, she was orphaned. She was an orphan. She had lost her mother and her father. And third, she was adopted. She was adopted by her uncle. Three things about her. What were the circumstances of the loss of her parents? How old was she? What were her memories of them? Did she have siblings? Was she separated from her brothers and sisters? Did she have brothers and sisters? What was it like being adopted by her uncle? Did she have another woman in her life that filled the role of a mother? Or was she basically just with her uncle? Was there, as I said, another woman there, somebody to help her? We don't know, but just pause for a second and think about that. Orphaned, adopted. That is hard. Verse 8, And so it was when the king's command and decree were heard, and when many young women were gathered at Shushan, the citadel under the custody of Hegai, that Esther also was taken to the king's palace into the care of Hegai, the custodian of the women. How did she feel about being taken, perhaps against her will, to be, so to speak, tested in the bed of a powerful man? A tyrant whom she probably only knew by name. How did she feel about giving up any hope for a normal wife, a husband, and children? Was she ready to lose her virginity to a man who might not want to have anything to do with her after it was all done? Forced to live out the rest of her life in a harem? How do you think she felt about that? Verse 10, Esther had not revealed her people or kindred, for Mordecai had charged her to not reveal it. So there's more. If this wasn't enough, we see Esther was in a precarious situation. She was not in a safe place. And so not only had she lost her parents, now she lost her adopted parent, her uncle. She was taken from her village, put in a place that she didn't know, and now she's lost her identity, her heritage. She can't even reveal really who she is. Imagine the trauma. Imagine her prayers. Imagine all the emotions she was dealing with. She must have wondered, how could this possibly be happening to me? And again, was she even 20 years old? Don't know. Where was God? Where was God in her life to allow all these things to happen to her? Notice verse 11, And every day Mordecai paced in front of the court of the woman's quarters to learn of Esther's welfare and what was happening to her. Well, you know, somebody cared. Did Esther know that her uncle was there every day for her? I hope so. And then in verse 17, we read that indeed God gave her favor with the king. We see that God did not protect her from the trauma, but he walked with her in her trauma. He was there. He was present. He was actively involved. Look at verse 17. The king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins. And so he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Ashty. Now, one might think that this is the end of the story.

A trauma addressed by wealth and favor.

But would that really be consistent with how God works in the lives of his people? Well, wealth and favor don't solve our problems. In fact, I had a professor, an ambassador, who once said, any problem you can solve by writing a check isn't really a problem. You can't solve trauma by writing a check, and her trauma is not going to get solved by this either. So let's get forward to chapter 4, verse 11. Let's see the progression of the story that I think we know well. And again, we're dropping into individual parts. So Esther 4, verse 11, we see that Esther finds out from Mordecai about this plot to kill all the Jews. And she's terrified. We're going to read this in a moment, but we'll only look at 11. And all the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court of the king, who has not been called, he has but one law, put all to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter that he may live. And so they told Mordecai Esther's words here. We continue. It says, it says, it may live. Yet I myself have not been called to go into the king these 30 days. So Esther knows what she's being asked to do. And she's like, oh, let me tell you how it works around here. And I haven't been called up for 30 days. If I could summarize what's going on here, she's basically saying, look, there's nothing I can do here. And if I were to do that, I'm dead. So, sorry. And again, that might have been the end of the story. Would we expect more from her? You know, sometimes we think we're going to be the hero, right? But when it comes down to it, how would we face that? Now notice the response of Mordecai, verse 13, a man who perhaps knew her better than she knew herself. Verse 13, then Mordecai told them to answer Esther, do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king's palace any more than any of the other Jews. For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish.

But then he says, and the words ring out across the centuries, don't they? Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

There's a reason you're there. There is purpose in your trauma.

And perhaps Esther remembered the words that Mordecai had told her when she lost her parents. Perhaps she remembered the comfort. Perhaps she remembered the encouragement to trust in God, no matter what the circumstances came into her life. Perhaps she wondered if she was going to hide her Jewish heritage forever there in the palace. Perhaps she had worked through her trauma. Perhaps she was ready. We don't know, but Mordecai's words challenged her because she wasn't ready to do it. His words challenged her to pull herself together, and she chose courage over fear. She chose faith in God over her own instinct to protect herself. And she prepared herself mentally to face the most terrible consequences of death. And again, remember, she's a young woman. Verse 15, then Esther told them to return this answer to Mordecai. "'Go gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan and fast for me, neither eat nor drink for three days.'" By the way, a nice definition of fasting if you're looking for a definition of fasting in Scripture because sometimes, oh, you know, I drink water, but not fast three days and three nights. No food, no drink. And I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king which is against the law, and if I perish, I perish. Exclamation point. An easy life is not what she was called to. It's not what we've been called to. She was ready to risk all that she had there at that moment because she understood that there was a purpose in her life, a reason, perhaps, all these things that happened to her. Suddenly, her pain had meaning, and God gave her strength to not react as a victim in her trauma, but as a person who could overcome the trauma of her past and move forward.

I think it's interesting that a lot of times people will say, well, you know, of all the books in the Old Testament, the book of Esther is the only book where the name of God is not mentioned. Sometimes that sort of diminishes its value, but we see here that Esther is doing exactly what God's people do in these difficult times. She was fasting just as we fast during those difficult times. She was praying. She was drawing closer to her Creator, and the Jews were saved. We know. And the plot was revealed through the strength of a woman who God had prepared for that time. And at that moment, a strength that arose from loss and pain and displacement and disappointment. What place are you and I in right now that God may use us to accomplish His will?

I think the story of Esther is a story of trauma overcome. Let me go to my second point. Let's look at the emotions that we can have because of trauma and where we can find some comfort in that. This is a great story, but we might say, that's great, but I don't think I'm at that point yet. That may be fine, but let's work through the process. Let's back up a little bit. Let's turn to Psalm 55. Psalm 55 and verse 16. Psalm 55 and verse 16. David was a man who really knew how to express his emotions, didn't he? And in his case, what did he do when he was going through difficulty? Let's read it here. Psalm 55 verse 16 and 17. Psalm 55 verse 16 and 17. Because this is a place to go if you are dealing with issues, if you're confronting issues, if you're working through traumatic circumstances in your life. Psalm 55, 16 and 17 is a go-to scripture. As for me, it says, Psalm 55, 16 and 17. As for me, I will call upon God, and the Lord shall save me. Evening and morning, and at noon I will pray and cry aloud, and he shall hear my voice. He shall hear my voice. David knew God would be there for him.

I think Psalm 55 is a chapter about trauma. The trauma of betrayal. We sang that song, that second song, and I appreciate Brandon mentioning that, that's actually a song that really touches me. It touches my heart. That's a story of the betrayal of Ahithophel, his trusted advisor, to was not a foe who could deride. Right? He was my friend. I could deal with it if you were my enemy, but you were my friend. I walked with you, and you betrayed me. Let's go back and read some of the verses so we get the context here.

Psalm 55 verse 5. Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me, and horror has overwhelmed me. The translators here chose the word horror. If you think about a horror film, I don't want to see horror films. Oh, horror! This is a very strong emotion. And I said, oh, that I had the wings like a dove, for then I would fly away and be at rest.

Indeed, I would wander far off and remain in the wilderness. And it says, say, ah, think about that. I just wander off. I'm just going to get out of here. I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and the tempest. We see here the inner workings of David's thought processes, his minds, the trauma of betrayal at the hands of Ahithophel, the betrayal at the hands of his son Absalom, the very real fulfillment of prophecy that he had been told by Nathan of what would come upon his house.

Now, you know, maybe there's some psychology degrees in here, and I'm not going to go down that path, but there's ways that we describe this now. There's vocabulary we've been given for this type of thing. There's different responses to trauma. There's fight, there's flight, there's freeze, there's fawn, maybe some others. And what do we see here, David's reaction? We see David wanting to flee, to run away, to get out of the pain. He just, and maybe you felt that.

Sometimes you're just like, just get me out of here. Right? But I think the joke we know is we take ourselves everywhere we go, right? We can't get away from it sometimes. It was a moment where it seemed the whole world was crashing in on him. Everything he had in his life was being destroyed. Everything that mattered to him was being taken away.

Did he bring it on himself? Yeah, yeah. Bad move, sleeping with Bathsheba. But he had pleaded for forgiveness and God was faithful to forgive him. And we know what Psalm 51 talks about. So he had been forgiven, but the impact of that sin was upon him. Learning to hear God's voice is what we must learn to do now, because God will be there for us in these moments. I think we learn this now so that on day one of God's kingdom, we're there for people who need it.

We will comfort those who are brokenhearted, those who were enslaved, those who were abused. See, we think of enslavement, right? And of course, slavery is a major issue today. It's certainly in Africa and other parts, so there's literal slavery. But you know, abuse is a type of enslavement, too. What happens when a woman is abused by her husband? She flees and then she comes back. She leaves and then she comes back. It's a type of enslavement. And so understanding our trauma begins with understanding the ultimate power of God's Spirit to heal. What we need is God's Spirit to heal us.

What we're going to share with people in God's kingdom is that God is there to heal. His Spirit is there for us. And in fact, we're told this at the very end of the book of Revelation, that the tree of life is described as having leaves that are for the healing of the nations.

Why would Jesus Christ introduce his ministry with the description of healing if this was not at the core of why he came and why he will return? Turn with me to Matthew 11, verse 28, another one of my favorite verses. Perhaps you know it by heart already. If you know this verse, Matthew 11, verse 28. These are the verses, I think, that should be go-to verses as we're working through issues in our life.

Matthew 11, verse 28. Matthew 11, verse 28. It says, Come to me. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. See, that's sometimes what we want. We just want a break. We just want a break.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. This is a promise for us. But I also think it's a calling. I think it's a calling. As a disciple of Jesus Christ, we can and should reflect a certain kind of empathy. See, empathy is actually becoming a more rare commodity in today's world. Empathy. This is a kind of refuge to which humanity flees in the storm of trouble. When people walk into our congregations, what do they feel? Do they feel God's presence? Do they feel His power working in each of us here such that they can be authentic? They can talk about who they are and what they're going through. Sometimes there's inappropriate disclosure. It has to be timed and done appropriately. There's an oversharing that can happen, so sometimes we have to be sort of helpful in that. It's like, oh, let's slow down. But still, there's an empathy. There's a calling. You know, we're told in Hebrews 4 verse 15, you don't have to turn there, that we have a high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses. Some argue that word touches on empathize. Empathy. Would it not be understandable that Christ would allow some rain to come into our lives? Sometimes a lot of rain to come into our lives so that we could have more empathy for the suffering of others? The problem with trauma is that it's like a poison for our soul if we don't confront it. If we don't use the only antidote that is there, the love of our Creator, the love of God, and understanding what that means.

Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 13. 1 Corinthians 13. Again, we're looking at just scriptures that go back to this, of how this healing is available to us if we'll take it, if we'll realize it's there, if we understand that God does love us, that God does care for us, and that we are to reflect that same love outward to others. 1 Corinthians 13 verse 4. Love suffers long. 1 Corinthians 4 verse 13. The love chapter first. Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself. It is not puffed up. It does not behave rudely. It does not seek its own. It is not provoked. It thinks no evil. It does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. And then we get to the alls of verse 7. Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. And it is precisely in these alls that we find our trauma and the trauma of others. If only we could meditate on this every day until we begin to understand and how to apply it. And in so doing, perhaps we'll be able to excuse everything. We'll be able to believe everything. We'll be able to believe God's promises, even that they seem a little incredible. Perhaps we'll judge a little less harshly in the hope that perhaps we'll understand the other person's trauma. In fact, how can we really be good teachers in God's kingdom unless we can understand what those around us are going through? Otherwise, we're going to be cold and aloof, get over it. I don't know why it's so hard, move on. That's not empathizing. That's not understanding.

You know, I'm thinking a lot about grace, and this is learning to be gracious. We'll judge others less harshly in the hope that they'll change and repent of the wrong they've done to us. We'll be able to put up with everything. In other words, we'll react patiently, gently, without judgment, shortcomings, because we're working through our own trauma and we're not taking it out on another person, right, because we're confronting our own. We'll understand that the other person or people who've caused this trauma are also children of God and they perhaps don't know what's driving them. And rather than living in fear or anger, we'll live in hope that one day they too will join God's family. Let me go to my final point. What's the link between the healing of our trauma and our role in God's kingdom? Turn with me to Revelation 20, verse 4. Again, what's the link between the healing of our trauma and our future in God's kingdom? Revelation 20, verse 4. We read this regularly at the Feast of Tabernacles, and we tend to focus on the very last sentence. And I don't want to focus on the last sentence. I want to focus on the first sentence. Revelation 20, verse 4. Revelation 20, verse 4. And I saw thrones. Revelation 20, verse 4. And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus, for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands.

We skip over those first two sentences, and we skip right to the next one. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. And we get into the theology, right? And we start talking about the first resurrection and the second resurrection and kingdom, and we go through the timeline of Revelation 20 and so forth.

But how much trauma will God's people endure in not going along with societal norms as this age advances and concludes? I see a lot of tribulation here. I see in that second sentence, I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus, and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. There's trouble. Yeah, I hope I'm not one of those people. And if that happens here, what about other things that might happen? We've got to be ready. In the introduction, we read from Luke 4, Christ quoting Isaiah 61. But let us read the rest of the passage in Isaiah 61. Turn with me to Isaiah 61, verse 2 and 4. Isaiah 61. We're going to finish the rest of the story. We read the beginning as Christ quoted it. I think we know that this is Isaiah 61. We're going to begin in verse 2, in the middle of verse 2. I think we're probably familiar that there's a time gap between the first part of Isaiah 61, verse 2, and the second part of Isaiah 61, verse 2, a time gap of about 2,000 years.

What does it say? And I'm going to break right into the middle of the verse, because we already read the first part of the verse when we read Luke 4, and the day of vengeance of our God. Not going to be easy. Not going to be easy. But then, almost immediately, it switches. To comfort all who mourn. To console those who mourn in Zion. To give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. That they may be called trees of righteousness. That's a great study verse. Spend some time on that. I don't have time to go through that. The trees of righteousness. The planting of the Lord that he may be glorified. Wow! The healing continues. It gets better. It gets better. It gets better in the sense that now we're talking about a lot more people who understand who Christ is and who God is and what God's Spirit can do. Relief, like a cold cloth and a fever, right? Relief, like an ointment on a burn, like a warm embrace from a friend.

And then, what will all those who receive this relief do? Look in verse 4. And they shall rebuild the old ruins. They shall raise up the former desolations. They shall repair the ruined cities, the desolation of many generations. There is a purpose to all of this. There's a job to do. There's work to do. We'll take the ashes of our lives, help people who will take the ashes of their lives and trade them for something beautiful, something inspiring. We'll take the grief we've absorbed and we will transform it into joy. Into joy. People who know me and friends, I've given sermons about this. I have a problem with joy. Okay, that's me being vulnerable. I struggle with joy.

Some of you, perhaps, that way too. What does joy mean? We really joyous. Rejoice at the feast. Okay, I don't want to say I'm not doing that, but I'm working on that. Joy. Joy is a beautiful thing. A beautiful dress, a good-looking suit for a spirit of a brokenness and the events of our lives. And not just for ourselves, but for others. So that all of us will rebuild the ruins of society. Not just with brick and mortar, but with heart and salt. That's what's being talked about here. And in fact, I wonder if we can't identify the trauma that God has helped us overcome. If we can't do that, will we really be able to serve in God's kingdom? Or will we be all kind of just, you know, oh yeah, you know, life is hard and then you die, right? That's kind of how some people come across now. No, we can't be in that state. How can we role model this unless we can confront what we're doing? Now, that's not to say, get over it quickly. I'm not... don't get that. It takes time and everybody's on a different path. As I said, are we going to be some cold, distant teachers that don't really know how to relate to our students? I'd like to tell you a story, and I know it's going to sound terrible, okay? So don't worry. There's a good ending here, okay? But I'm going to tell you a true story. True story. It's going to sound terrible, but stay with me. In 1976, a group of children traveling on a school bus were kidnapped. Happened in California. The bus was hijacked by individuals working for a drug cartel. They removed the children from the school bus, and they placed them in an underground bunker.

They buried them alive. And then the criminals demanded a ransom, or they would not reveal the children's whereabouts. They would basically suffocate and die.

The police eventually tracked them down, and every single child was saved. Every single child. But can you imagine the trauma of being buried on a school bus? This was a traumatic event for these children. The trauma that these children suffered after being buried alive was terrible. But there was one child who seemed to be doing quite well. This was the child who, while they were buried, wandered around looking for a way of escape. This child never gave up hope that there was a way out. He took charge of a search for a solution.

And there was a difference because he would not allow himself to be victimized. Now, whether he could put words to that, I don't know. But that was just what he did. And he did a little bit better, in fact, a lot better, than the other children. I think we're going to help a lot of people who have felt trapped in their lives, traumatized. And sometimes we, too, can feel trapped and buried and so forth. But I'm going to tell you here, there's a way out. And the work of healing is for both the present and the future.

When the Apostle Paul writes, and again, we're not going to turn there, but when the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15, that this corruptible body must put on in corruption, I think he's describing a final healing. Not just a change in our physical bodies, but also in our minds. A mental healing of our psychological infirmities that are going to be erased. I think there is healing ahead, and it's time to make sure that we're not victimized, but that we're actually looking. There's a way out here. I know there's a way out here. God is here. He's going to, it's going to be fine.

So those are three things that I wanted to share with you today. Esther lost her parents. And had to give up all her plans for a normal life. David was betrayed by his most trusted advisor, and by his son. And how many people in this room have a story to tell?

I don't know you. It's helpful, right? So I can, in a way, perhaps giving this message here is better because I don't know any of you. I don't know any of your stories. But I think there's stories. When I lost my father at 21, I didn't know that suffering would be of any use. And yet, I think I was helpful to that young man who lost his dad.

And I didn't realize it would define my path as much as it did, but it did. We are not called to intervene in a plot to stop a genocide, right? We're not at that level, hopefully.

But we are called to participate in a plan to heal the nations. That's pretty big. That's pretty big. God is ready to accompany us in our pain and allow us to help him bring healing to others. I hope we can stir up the Spirit, God's Spirit in us, that Spirit which is love, to do the hard work necessary to understand our story. I hope we can spend time in God's healing words. I hope I've shared some. There's many, many more. In his love, in the power of meaningful relationships, one with another, as we fellowship in the body of Christ. Because I think, just like Esther, who knows if it is not a time like this, that we have been called to achieve and to help Christ achieve the healing of the traumas of humanity, the traumas of a bygone era.