My father’s life experiences would send most of us to therapy. No such services were available then in rural Kansas, and if they were, stigma was attached. People born in 1935 pressed on, stoic as they internalized their grief and pain, all while doing their duty, serving their country, raising their families, and performing their jobs with excellence. It was a hardscrabble life.
Meanwhile, deep wounds festered for decades, his trauma shaping my fears. When he entered his eighties, all of a sudden, he began speaking about experiences he’d never discussed openly in the past. One by one, the Lord resurfaced the life-altering events that had shaped his life.
First, he talked his way through his naval service. We honored him for his valor during long swims through shark-infested waters, enemy fire in turbulent oceans, hearing loss from his role as gunner’s mate, and swabbing decks covered in radioactive fallout after watching nuclear bombs tested in the Pacific. He spent much time in this place of reminiscence.
Then, seeming to have come to peace with his military experiences, he shut that door, moving on to consider the tragic death of his brother, which he had witnessed as a thirteen-year-old. My sister and I sat breathless, barely moving or breathing as he described in detail the car accident that changed his life. We’d never before heard these facts. Gently, the Lord enabled him to come to peace, to see that as the little brother in the backseat, he was not to blame. More healing.
There were other harms. One by one, the Lord surfaced these. This inner work allowed my father to be at peace at last, more at rest in the Lord than I’ve ever before seen him. Now his prayers are spontaneous and sweet, his love more tender.
Watching the Lord gently guide this process of personal growth, bringing wounds to the surface, and then applying the balm of comfort and grace has been a great encouragement. My mother says we’re watching God prepare my father for heaven. I’m deeply reassured and comforted by the love God has shown by patiently and lovingly bringing healing into his life.
Though we live and write in a different time than my father experienced as a young man, the Lord’s help has existed for generations, and it continues. He works in the lives of each generation according to our needs, our cognition, and our current technology, or lack thereof.
Nowadays, we sift and sort through our traumas more readily, resurfacing them and getting professional help if necessary. We’ve realized that talking through issues with encouragement from God’s Word can help greatly. We more readily seek input from our pastors and friends as we wrestle with the Lord during hardships. We reach out for community support when needed. We discuss topics that were avoided in previous generations.
We can now research online. We need not bear these experiences in silence for an entire lifetime. Anyone can find Bible study help, assistance with original languages, and guidance for practically any situation, because of the ready tools at our fingertips. We are a new generation in a new era, with more access to the written word than ever before, now available on our gadgets, computers, and phones.
At this unique time, the Lord has gifted us to be writers. Us! What a privilege!
As Christian writers, God can use our words to give encouragement to the suffering, providing a source of help to turn them toward God’s Word. Given the pain my father experienced and that we, his family, suffered as he struggled for decades, I feel particularly blessed to be used by the Lord right now as a writer of encouragement.
Writers, our mission is from God, for this time and in this season. When we pray, seek God’s wisdom and inspiration, and write to uplift others, we participate in God’s restorative work. The words he gives can transform lives, apply salve to heartache, and begin the healing of families.
This work is holy. Lean into your holy calling. The Lord uses your gifting for good.
When we pray, seek God’s wisdom and inspiration, and write to uplift others, we participate in God’s restorative work. This work is holy. Click To Tweet
Thank you for this beautiful encouragement, Melinda! It truly is amazing how much information we have access to these days. I find myself praying often (although not as often as I should!) to not abuse the gift God has given me, but to only write His truth and His words.
That’s the daily challenge, to write what he would have us to write, to honor him with our words, and to allow ourselves to be used by God for his own purposes! We evaluate each project with these goals in mind. God uses the words he gives us as they go out into the world!
God’s Word is perfectly appropriate in all seasons, and fellowship is just a reach away. We have much at our disposal. I’m thankful for that, and I do press on with the calling of putting encouragement to paper. Thank you for your encouragement.
Yes, no matter the season, the year, or the era, God’s Word heals and the Lord prepares us for his purposes. I’m glad you’re out there writing for Jesus, Stephen. You provide gifts and blessings no other writer can give. Each of us is entirely unique and needed as a tool in God’s hands!
This is amazing encouragement that we all need. It’s hard to hear what your father went through, but beautiful how you described it. I think I take for granted how much help is at my fingertips. ❤️
We truly do live in a different time, Jessie! We have so much help available, and society functions so differently. People are encouraged to work through these types of harm, to get counseling for PTSD, etc. Back then, no one even had a name for PTSD, other than “Shell Shock” during WW 1. Times have changed! Thanks be to God!
It definitely is an easier time to get help now. And yet, it was a great blessing to watch the Lord bring healing to my father in his timing and in his way! God is good!
Beautifully said, Melinda. I love how you say things. I pray often to take my calling to write as a mission from the very heart of God. I never want to take this sacred calling lightly or lose sight of how words: bring life or death, provide encouragement to troubled hearts, proclaim the power of God’s Word, and help our souls, along with the reader, discover antidotes for healing and godly living.
I’m glad my post was inspirational, Karen!Our gift and calling to write is such a significant responsibility and challenge. We write for him, in this time in which he had us born, and he wants to use our words to reach our generation. The time is ripe! We were born in this time for this purpose. Your ministry of doing this is always uplifting and challenging! Press on, sister!