I know I have needed help with overcoming religious trauma, and I think we all do to some extent.
When christians start looking at other people in the church as people who aren’t born into sin and give them a “higher rank” among others, that’s a dangerous place to be. People are sinners. Period. People are poor gods. They will disappoint you time and time again. But, Jesus won’t.
If you’re like me and struggle with trauma, start with prayer. If you’re struggling with how to pray, download this free guide to help you get started in prayer.
Religious Trauma
Religious trauma can come in all different shapes and sizes. It’s sneaky. It’s hurtful. It’s not of God. It’s from the enemy.
Once upon a time, I was a new christian. I didn’t have strong, developed faith. I put my hope in the leaders of the church and not in God. I looked up to the leaders as higher than me, “holier than thou”-if you will. And quickly, my “faith” crumbled. I found myself in an unpleasant situation with members of my church and ended up just quitting going to church altogether because my feelings were hurt. I didn’t try to talk to them, pray through it, or anything that would improve the situation. Instead, I threw myself a pity party, blamed everyone for their terrible behavior and just quit church.
I went from being at church every Sunday and Wednesday (and any other day I could find a reason to be there), to just not going at all. I didn’t pick a new church. I just quit.
I began to spiral out of control. Everything in my life fell apart. I turned to drinking and partying nonstop because I didn’t like my life. I didn’t have the faith that I thought I once had. I was mad and bitter and lonely and just an all around hot mess.
Through my hot mess season, God taught me some things. Lots of things, actually. As I would spend nights crying out to God to just help me and give me people to do life with, a family, a job, a stable, happy life, He started to grow my faith.
Little by little I started to change. My mindset changed, my life changed one small step at a time. Before I knew it, I would look around and see some of the things I prayed for. This took years and over those years, God changed my heart, not much of my circumstances. And when my heart changed, everything changed.
I finally understood who Jesus really was and who He really is. I saw people as broken and sinful and just trying to figure life out. I saw people’s mess-ups as just being human. I saw my mess-ups as just being human. I quit looking at religion as a specific way people had to behave, but rather, a relationship with Jesus.
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May Heavenly things constantly interrupt Earthly things.
