Tonight I've opened up The Living Bible and read Roman 12: 12: Be glad for all God is planning for you.
To me, this says that we are to look forward, not backward. To look to God, not to men. To expect to be a witness to good, by being grateful and glad for every evidence of good we encounter.
This may require some work. Perhaps it's easier to blame others or God for what has not seemed to work out for the best. The requirement is to keep on loving, no matter what. Jesus showed us the way. Jesus was the epitome of Christly love that keeps loving and forgiving, of looking to God and knowing that God, Love, was supporting and guiding his very being.
Perhaps this is an antidote for the heavy burden of trauma.
Hymn 312 (words by Charles Wesley, slightly adapted for the Christian Science hymnal) verse 2 offers courage and assurance:
From strength to strength go on;
O wrestle, fight, and pray;
Tread all the powers of darkness down,
And win the well-fought day.
That, having all things done,
And all your conflicts past,
Ye may o'ercome through Christ alone,
And stand complete at last.
Bosede Bakarey's article in the Christian Science Sentinel of Feb 4, 2013 ("Prayer that heals trauma") offers an example of a life was turned from trauma and tragedy to freedom. She writes "It was when I 'came to the Christ' and realized that the conditions I was facing could never disrupt my real spiritual selfhood that I became completely free from illness and my family's situation turned around."
Having met Bosede at the Church Alive summit in Brisbane some years ago, I recall that part of the solution for her as a widow with several small children (the solution is always IDEAS, not things) was the idea to make THE BEST wedding cakes she could possibly make. Her business enabled her to put her children through tertiary education.
Let's then be glad for all God is planning for us all.
Julie Swannell
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