Remembering Deliverance More Than The Experience of Trauma

“My soul hath [them] still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.” (La 3:20-21 AV)

The first nineteen verses of Jeremiah chapter three are the prophet’s recollection of his time in the miry pit.  It was a horrible time.  Jeremiah began to think that perhaps his dilemma was, in some way, self-inflicted.  He began to think that in some way, he had displeased God.  Jeremiah suffered in ways we would never understand.  Being lowered into a muddy pit is not exactly a holiday.  It was just what it says it was.  A hole in the ground so deep that he couldn’t climb out.  There was nothing there.  No water.  No toilet.  No sun.  Nothing.  He stood or lay in his own feces.  He stood and laid where he relieved himself.  There were no showers.  There was no provision for any kind of hygiene.  Let you think I am exaggerating; while visiting Ireland, we went to a castle with a dungeon.  It was exactly as the Bible would describe this miry pit.  It was a hole in the ground that went down at an angle.  There was a small iron gate that lay across the top.  This hole was no more than four feet across.  Not enough room to lay down.  The prisoner would have to stand the whole time.  The guards provided a small bucket for human waste.  But that was it.  A pretty bleak existence.  This was the condition to which the prophet suffered.  No wonder he must have thought there was something he did to contribute to his situation.

Then the prophet remembers God’s deliverance.  He remembers it was persecution that put him there.  He remembered God’s pity and love.  He remembers the horrible.  Yes.  But he remembers the deliverance as being much more important.  One of the coping techniques we learned to help other overcome trauma was reflection.  Part of our PTSD training involved slowly encouraging those suffering from trauma to discuss the details of their experience, allowing all the emotions involved at the time to surface.  We needed to help them overcome the mind’s natural response to trauma so it would not become a reoccurring disturbance for the rest of their lives.  They had to remember.  No matter how difficult it was, they had to recollect the details of the past so they could leave it in the past.  Once revealed and processed, the next step is to have them live in the present.  The trauma is past.  It belongs in the past.  What is important is to help those suffering from trauma to take stock in the blessings of endurance.  Even those things happened in the past and there may be residual consequences of which one might suffer, life did improve.  One simply has to look for that improvement.

It is important to think of our deliverance more than we do our suffering.  Otherwise, we will never heal.  It is natural to be traumatized by horrible events.  We all have them.  There are childhood experiences that will stick in our minds like a bad Japanese monster film.  There are young adult events that we wish never happened.  There are countless consequences of a sinful lifestyle that still cause us to recoil.  There are moments of persecution.  The ones that seem to hurt the most are the ones that came at the hands of professing believers.  There are satanic attacks, health issues, and financial disasters.  The miry pits from which we came are numerous.  Some are self-inflicted.  Some are not.  But they are many and varied.  If we are to overcome, deliverance must be the memory we cherish more than the experiences of the past haunt us.  It all depends on that which we focus.  Jeremiah remembered.  He remembered with trepidation.  But what he chose to remember was not the suffering.  Rather, the deliverance from the suffering.  Healing begins with context.  Seeing God’s hand in the suffering and deliverance is the way out.  Seeing only the suffering keeps us trapped.