GYC Conference 2023: But If Not

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Bible Buts & Band-aids: How to Apply God’s Word for Trauma Healing

K'dee Elsen Crews

Conceal and Seal: The Invisible Wounds of Trauma

Kneel, Reveal, and Heal: The Journey of Trauma Recovery

Bible Buts & Bandaids: How to Apply God’s Word for Trauma Healing 1

Bible Buts & Bandaids: How to Apply God’s Word for Trauma Healing 2

Questions for Healing: How the Bible Answers the “Whys” of Trauma

I'm so excited that you guys are all here today.

I know that there was some confusion yesterday with whether or not there was a fourth seminar, and now there's a fifth seminar.

Sometimes you have to just go as the spirit leads, right?

I have just a burden on my heart to not just share in general of mental health, but a big burden of my heart has been the church.

And I know I didn't share too much, but, and someone asked me, can you share a little bit more about your father?

1 day I'm hoping to write a book about my father's journey and how that inspired my own journey, but I'm a pastor's kid.

And that's a big part of my burden to share within the church.

We have a special message to give to the world, but we are struggling and suffering within the church.

And so I encourage you as Jesus encouraged his disciples to start within the fold of starting within yourself to find that healing.

And really that's most important because a lot of times we do start trying to help others with their healing.

And a lot of times they're not as receptive because they see things in ourselves, right?

It's the plank in our own eye when we're looking at others and the speck in theirs.

And so I really encourage you all to really search your heart and ask God for that healing.

Just know that healing, similar to the process of sanctification, is the process of a lifetime.

And so God is always faithful in providing enough healing day by day, and making sure that starts within yourself, and then as God heals you naturally, you notice when the Bible says, let your light shine, it's a natural process.

And so encouraging you all to do that within your own selves, but then also then share these things with others.

All right, well, let's start with a word of prayer.

Father in heaven, my heart is just full of joy seeing the work that you've done in these seminars.

I know that some people have shared, others haven't, but Lord, I trust you fully to know that you who have started a good work will finish it.

And so Lord, I pray that as we talk today about the great controversy and the why's, the questions that we have, that we can continue on that journey of healing as we continue to understand more and more of who you are and how much you love us.

So please be with us now we pray in Jesus name, amen.

All righty, so today, questions for healing.

We're gonna be talking about how the Bible answers the whys of trauma.

And I mentioned this earlier, the importance of having the understanding of why.

It's a common question that we ask, but a lot of times we really are only focused on answers, whether we ourselves are looking for those answers or similar to what we talked about with the band-aids that we use, we often just want to quickly give people answers, a way to kind of explain away or push away the discomfort of the confusion of trauma, the confusion of suffering, the difficulty of that.

Questions are really important for our healing.

And what's interesting, I was reading this book called Jesus is the Question and it starts off by discussing how we think of Jesus as the answer man, that he provided a lot of answers.

But we actually should think of him as the great questioner.

So here's some points that the book makes.

Jesus actually asks many more questions than he is asked.

For example, he asked about 307 questions.

He's only asked 183, and he only answers directly 3 of those questions.

We think about Jesus as the answer man, right, providing a lot of answers, but Jesus actually asked a lot of questions.

So if you think about it, if you do the math on that, Jesus is 60 times more likely to ask a question than he is to give an answer.

Now think about what were Jesus' first recorded words in the gospels?

When he was a young child, his parents were looking for him, and 1 of the first recorded words, Jesus asked a question.

He doesn't just say, I was in the temple.

He says, word for word, let me just read it.

Did you not know that I must be about my father's business?

1 of his first recorded words in the Gospels is a question.

What about 1 of his last words before his death?

And then in between there are many questions.

Think about what are the questions Jesus asked throughout his life.

We comfort a lot through answers, and answers can help, but questions do something different.

Helps the person be honest to themselves.

In therapy, a lot of times people think that therapists give advice.

That's actually very, very small portion of what we do.

We actually ask questions to empower the other person to find the answers themselves.

And a big part of this is kind of similar to Bible band-aids, instead of just a quick little answer, we want to engage people in the process of asking questions.

And if you think about it, it's a sign of great teachers.

Socratic questioning comes from Socrates, a great teacher.

And 1 of the main reasons why questions are so important is because of what we find in the middle of it, quest.

Questions take us on a journey, a journey not just of the answer, but the journey itself changes us.

So a quest is a journey to search for something valuable, but in the process of searching, we are transformed.

It says, the goal is not to communicate knowledge, but to elicit new understanding in the listener.

Information is not the goal, transformation is.

If he just gave answers, it wouldn't have been as transformative as questions.

God wants us to journey with him, engage with him, dialogue with him, into a deeper relationship with him.

A lot of times people come to counseling and they ask, you know, I'm trying to search what is God's will for my life?

And I often tell them no matter what the answer becomes or whatever you find, just know that the journey in finding it, you understand God more in the process, and that in itself, even if you never find the answer, is worthy enough.

So what are the most common questions that we ask when suffering?

We've kind of highlighted it in different sessions.

Now, we often have that question, but more in the form of a statement.

And what I want to encourage you today is when you ask this question, you ask it as a question and you let God answer.

So these are other versions, why me, why God, why suffering, why do bad things happen?

And what is the purpose of these why questions?

Sometimes it's just an expression to complain.

But sometimes genuinely we're wondering why.

Series

Bible Buts & Band-aids: How to Apply God’s Word for Trauma Healing

Questions for Healing: How the Bible Answers the “Whys” of Trauma

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Prayer

02 Prayer

57m

The Mystery of God

The Mystery of God- Part 2

35m

A Man that Understands Depression

49m

The Last Elijah: An Intergenerational Revival for These Last Days

03 Find Heart Healing

39m

Mastering my Emotions with God's Tools

Mastering My Emotions with God’s Tools - Part 3: Mastering Motivation

59m

Flip the Script

02 How Bible “Buts” Change Trials Into Triumph

53m

Preparing For the End of Time

1. Why Prayer Matters

45m

Growing Above and Beyond Faith Even When God Is Silent

1h 26m

How to Study the Bible and Empower Your Devotional Life- Part 2

58m

Pavel Goia Weekend

03 Incredible Grace

1h 5m

The Dignity Revolution: Relating to Ourselves and Others the Way God Intends

53m

Elders Advanced Training

Elders Advanced Training- Part 3

1h 5m

Sound Doctrine