00:00:10.440 Hello, everyone, and welcome to the MilMac Musings Podcast by Destined for Glory, where we reveal the intersection between God and science for living wholeheartedly. Hey everybody, we're back.

00:00:24.660 Gerard and I sharing with you today some of the message that we shared earlier about we can understand how people don't really see the love of God who have been through trauma, complex trauma. They don't understand the true love of God, and they have a lot of questions. So we talked about that in our last podcast.

00:00:48.540 And one of the things that we brought up was that the suffering of Jesus and how he understands what they've been through and how crucial we thought it was to understand his suffering, the cross and the resurrection, life that is given to us through that. And there was part of the book that I wanted to read, and I couldn't find it. And so I found it.

00:01:17.460 And now I would really like to start off today. Both of us would with this message. And this is about Jesus. So the crucified is the one most traumatized, most grieved. He bore the Holocaust, the genocides. He has carried the massacres, the starving, the crushing poverty, and debilitating illnesses.

00:01:46.980 He has carried every child who has been trafficked, tortured, abused, and thrown away. He was wounded for the sins of those who have perpetrated such horrors, and he has borne our selfishness, our complacency, our love of success, our self-righteousness, and our pride.

00:02:12.420 He has also borne our grief and our pain over the sights and sounds of evil that we ourselves have endured. He has been in the darkness. He has known the loss of all things. He has been abandoned by his father. He has been to hell. There is no part of any tragedy that he has not known and carried.

00:02:41.160 You will never enter an urban war zone. You will never face a perpetrator. You will never hear a victim's story. You will never sit by a deathbed. And you will never look in a child's frightened face that you are not encountering something your Lord has carried. He has done this so that none of us need face tragedy alone. For He has been there before us, and He will go with us and will work through us.

00:03:14.580 For what He has done for us in Gethsemane and at Calvary, He asks us to do as well. And this is our call. This is our call. It really shows the true Lord. Yeah And that's what He did for us. And as we think about that and the world, there's a lot of evilness in there, but you can get caught up in all of the evil.

00:03:46.920 But the Lord came and he's defeated it. But he's shown through his word what he did for us. And everything that we're suffering through, he's already gone through it. And it's just for me, it's with great joy to be able to really, truly talk about the Lord in a way that's truly the way he is. Yes. And he is love.

00:04:15.600 And as we're going through people, you might be a caregiver, or part of a support network, or the survivor, you may not even recognize all of this, but this is the truth. And this truth has to get out there. And again, it has to be patience when you're dealing with the people who have been perpetrated on. Yeah And the complex trauma, trauma, you know anything, people in war, all of these horrific things.

00:04:44.880 And sometimes as a Western culture, we just get so caught up in our everyday activities. But it takes much more than that. And that's why we're as part of the kingdom, the part of the body of Christ, to that's our job. We're here on earth. And it's such a we were just talking before how it's on our heart. And we've said it before, but you just can't describe it. You know We can go to work or we can have our careers or whatever.

00:05:15.720 This pales in comparison to anything like that because God puts that love on our heart because we love for what he did for us. He did it all for us, and yet we were able to reap the benefits of being here to help other people. And as we move forward from discipling, really, it's really a discipleship program to help people who are the survivors and the caregivers and the support network for people that they're dealing with that have gone through the horrific abuse.

00:05:48.600 You know, we're the ones that are able to help them to help other people. It's God working through us. We're not doing anything, but he's doing it all through us. And it's just fascinating when you think about the true goodness of the unseen realm. And it's just pure love and goodness. There's another part of it with their rebellion, but they're defeated. But the true love of God in the unseen realm, which is where everything came from. Everything physical is from the unseen.

00:06:19.080 So we just have to put that into perspective as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was just thinking about one of the other things that we were talking about was you know we didn't just and we mentioned this earlier in our other podcast. We didn't just wake up and think that we were going to do this one day. One of the things that I told Gerard is that in the beginning, you know I wanted to help people. I knew I wanted to help people. I was very compelled to do it. I couldn't control the desire to do it.

00:06:48.420 It was just but when I realized the darkness that was involved in it, it was like, "I don't want to do that. I want to do the nice, pretty clean things." you know And so I pulled way back. And it was only through really getting to know Jesus more, understanding God's love for me, and his transformative power that really changed my heart to say, "Okay, you know this is where I want to be." Exactly.

00:07:23.160 This is where he was. This is where I want to be. Exactly. It's the excitement of it. And I know it sounds weird and excitement in a situation like this. But a scripture came to mind in 2 Timothy 1:7, where God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. And this is Paul saying that to Timothy who was doing something to help the church grow. And that's the way God is. And again, fear is very real.

00:07:53.820 And what it is, courage is not having fear. It's walking through the fear. And he gives us the strength to do that. And it's just amazing that strength that's there. So that's another thing that we've talked about before, but it is the strength that he gives us to walk through and do that. So it just came to my mind. And a lot of times, I mean, this is an acronym that I had when I was learning kind of how to walk through those fears, is that fear is the acronym I had was false evidence appearing real.

00:08:27.300 Oh, that's a great one. Yes, yes, yes. I've heard that before, but thanks for bringing that up. Yeah I haven't heard that in a while. Yeah. That's great. So I'm just going to go into this one more time as far as it's kind of based on what we were talking about. We are not okay on this growing planet. And I believe wholeheartedly that the body of Jesus Christ is called to step into the mess and bring light and life. He has not called us to live cloistered lives away from the mess.

00:08:57.720 And frankly, given the stats, we cannot excuse me. Given the stats, we cannot have four women and one in five men in our pews have been sexually abused. One in three experienced domestic violence. One in five have been raped. And our children have been bullied. Our streets are not safe. And our families are losing loved ones to war, suicide, and disease. All of these things exist among the people of God just as they exist in the world at large.

00:09:27.660 And we've seen that briefly last time that it is in the church, and it's not being addressed. And I'm telling you, I know I have said this a lot, but I'm angry about that because people are hurting yeah and they're not getting the care and love. And again, a lot of churches don't have the wherewithal to do it. They're overburdened, and you know they just have so much in their plate. But others just don't care to do this. They don't want to get into the mess.

00:09:57.900 They don't want to get into people's you know lives and helping people in a way that God again, it's just not judging them. It's just they don't do it for one reason or another. I don't know if it's lack of knowledge or if it's just you know a pure decision like I was before of, "No, I want to be with the pretty things." you know But I do think it's a calling to Gerard. And I think you know it's something that God puts in your heart to do.

00:10:26.940 So if someone's not doing it, it's not in their heart yet. But we want to be able to come into those churches and to be able to help them to address that because you know it is what Jesus did. And it is what you know he outlined for us and what he put in our hearts. And then our life experiences too have certainly added to that.

00:10:50.880 And if somebody hasn't walked in those shoes, I'm not saying they can't minister to somebody or they can't help someone or give them, but I don't think that they can have the full understanding of the just I'm trying to think of a word that it just goes throughout your body of the whole impact of how that affects a person, how they think, how they behave, decisions they make, everything, how they seek God.

00:11:24.600 And they can sit there and they can listen to someone talking about you know God is love and just receive God. And yes, we do. We do receive God and God is love. But I guess what we were talking about in our break was there are things that we can do for you to bypass some of the things that we've been through. That's right. Exactly. That's the heart that we have. So you don't have to walk that walk.

00:11:55.200 Or if you're walking the walk of what we went through, there are ways to get out of it. Again, working hard to bring things that are inside in a bottle up that you're just pushing back, and you have all of these things. You put them way back in your mind, burying them. The triggers come about and bring things out. And then you just take the time to go through it with loving, caring people. And again, you're right. And thank you for bringing that up, too, because I can get kind of focused on the lack of trauma-informed people in the church and programs in the church.

00:12:30.540 But there is a movement. Thank God for that. And he does put things on people's hearts. So you know you're in his center of his will when you feel the heart for other people, which is the love of God, to reach out to them. So I think that's just so beneficial for us as a ministry. And as we talked about, it's just something that's on our heart that, as we said a number of times, how exciting it is when we hit the feet on the floor, just say, "Thank you, Lord, another day.

00:13:02.940 How beautiful it is. Thank you for this gift of life. Thank you that I'm able to do this." Yeah. And it's not all about us, but we're just trying to portray that God's love works through people. And as you who have been suffering going through the complex trauma, this is very real. We walked the walk.

00:13:21.600 We just want you as people out there who are listening to us to really understand how wonderful God is and how he will take anything that you've gone through, the brokenness, any other thing that you've gone through, the trauma, and if you've been in war or any other thing that you just mentioned, he will take you, and he will help you. And there's nothing, nothing that is too dark.

00:13:50.340 He's light, and he pulls you from darkness to light, and the darkness just has to flee. Yeah. You just made me think of you know the way that I see it in my mind is you know we are these broken vessels. And when God starts putting us all back together, it just creates this beautiful mosaic and all these different colors of the mosaic you know and the light shining through that and how brilliant that is and how loving he is to do that with us and for us.

00:14:24.960 And that's what we want for other people. And there really is such a thing as the providential hand of God. Yeah And so he brings ministries into people's lives. He brings other people into your life, or he may be thinking of a place where you'll be, or whatever the case may be, that will help you. That's all his heart is, is to because we belong with him. Everybody that's creative belongs with him. And there's a war there, but we're victorious.

00:14:55.260 You know We are victorious, and it's just wonderful that we can see the goodness of God, and that's what we want for each and every one of you to experience that as well. Right. We do. We can't do it for you, but we can certainly help you progress on that journey and have an understanding of who he really is, how to you know make your interpersonal relationships a lot stronger and better, and really how to be triumphant in your trauma, even though you've experienced it, how to navigate life triumphantly in that.

00:15:35.760 Not to say that you won't have things that come up because we're not perfect yet. I don't want it to sound that way. But for certain to understand when those things come, how to navigate that, and to do it in a healthy way, in a way that makes you be in alignment with your true self through Christ. Yeah. I know the scripture came to my mind, Revelation 12:11.

00:16:04.560 Yeah We are overcomes by the blood of the Lamb. His true sacrifice and the word of our testimony. And that's what we're trying to instill that we have to get the word from us to get it out into your journaling or your thought process to focus on some of the questions we have. And then you'll be able to really start the journey to them wholeheartedly. Yeah And again, it takes a while, but don't be afraid of walking that walk because you will get to the other side.

00:16:38.040 And when you're at the other side, then you can begin to live wholeheartedly. And as we've mentioned many times, there will be triggers, and there will be other things, but you'll have the tools to step back and be able to not have them take you back to that place and keep you there. You will have things. And we talked about it the other day. I just had triggers on thoughts that I was coming in, but I can step back and say, "Okay. What's causing that?" yeah you know And then when you have that ability and then when you have that network you know to talk.

00:17:09.240 It's great to talk with people to get things out as well. So it all works out in a great way, but it takes effort and it takes time. Yes. And it takes people around you who understand, who love you, who want to help you. And yeah, I was just thinking about those questions. And I don't know if you know what page they're on, if you have that marked. We went over them in the last podcast.

00:17:39.060 Do you want me to go find them? But I would really love that if you could. And then I'll say while you're looking for that, Gerard's going to read these questions off, and we did read them in the last podcast. But I think they're so important. And if you're listening, if you're a survivor, if these are questions that you have, please email us.

00:18:08.880 We can try to help you through that. We know that these questions are real. We know that there's a lack of understanding the goodness of God. And so we understand that you know there are times in your life where there's just truly no hope, but he will always make a way. He will always make a way. That's so true.

00:18:37.320 He will. And just before I read this, it brings me back to the time I was going through what I was going through. And it was the lack of resources that I had to overcome. And that in and of itself was very frustrating. And I wanted to do it based on being a Christian from a Christian perspective, but there's not a lot out there. So that's why I think you know just from my example of the heart, that God has put it on my heart to help people to not have to go through what I went through or what you went through.

00:19:11.160 And even going through the abuse that you have, you'll have the resources that really will be much more helpful than what we had. Yeah. We didn't have all this when we were going through all of this. And so it's why we really want to bring it forth for others like you. To be able to have that so that you know what to do. Right. And where to go. And where to go. That's the key.

00:19:38.820 Yeah And then as Allison mentioned, after reading this, if you have any questions, please feel free to we look forward to any responses on this. Yeah. We would love it. Very much so. So we're going to read this again, which is really, for me, very powerful. We try to represent God, the survivor. We try to represent God. The survivor struggles with questions about God. Who is he? What does he think about my abuse, my rape, the loss of all things?

00:20:09.660 What does he think about me? Am I loved? Am I forgivable? Does his patience run out? Why should I have hope? Am I lovable? Yeah. Am I worthy? Am I forgivable? Right. There's so much that you can add to it, but the bottom line is these questions, again, are so valid. And it's important that if you have these questions to ask them. Write them down.

00:20:36.720 Yeah And you know again, this is just the starting of bringing it from darkness to light. You bring it out. Yeah And once you bring it into the light, that's when things start to take place. And that's when Jesus comes in and heals your heart. Again, there are times where you'll be grieving, crying. You go through a lot of emotions. But if you just keep moving forward with the people who are beside you, supporting you, maybe caregivers, you just have to do the work.

00:21:10.380 But once you start seeing results, it's like anything else, when you start seeing a little bit of results, then it builds upon it. It builds a spiritual foundation for you to move forward in a way that's going to build from there. You're just going to grow and grow. And again, the places to come back to live the way God has designed us to live. Yeah. You know We talk about the love of God, and we talk about our love for him and for others.

00:21:42.180 And our hope is that through just listening to us, I mean, if you never contact us, if you just listen to what we have to say that you will find some truth in there for your life that will help you move forward, that'll help you to break free from believing that there are no answers to these questions that will help you find that the answers do come through the love of God, through other people, too.

00:22:17.520 I hope that God brings people into your life that can help you. And we certainly are here to do that too. But we know that we are just two people. Our hearts are broken. And our hearts are broken more. We do care about what you've been through.

00:22:47.340 I don't mean to say, "No, that's not why our hearts are broken for that," but more broken that you don't know yet how to be free and how to live and navigate your life and have the resources that you need. We just want that so much for you. Very much so. And that's the key for the ministry. Yeah And that's what God has placed in our heart to be here to help you as a survivor walk through what you're walking through.

00:23:16.440 And the tools are ongoing to be on-site. I think we have some now, but we will have the workshops and other things available very shortly. Yeah And we just want to thank you for being a part of this. And it's far from our heart to be able to joyfully sit here to walk with you each and every step of the way. Yeah And these are very small steps.

00:23:47.280 We understand that. But any small step is a victory. Yes. Amen to that. Yeah. I'll just say this. You know You've talked about the tools that we have, and there will be more coming up, resources, and we're going to have a curriculum for people to go through. And we're going to offer for people to be a part of what we're doing by supporting a wholeheart scholarship for people.

00:24:14.820 So if there's somebody that you know that you know really would benefit, would be helped, would be able to grow through going through our curriculum. Then we'll be sharing that information more so sooner on our website, destinedforglorymin.org. And you know because we know that God puts people out there that want people to grow, want people to know, but yet their gift is giving to be able to do that.

00:24:49.500 So yeah, I'm excited about us being able to move forward in that. It'll be soon. Right. And I don't really have anything else at this moment, do you? No. God bless you. Thank you for bringing up. Thank you for bringing that. And really, that's so true. God bless you. And thank you for joining us today. And just have a blessed week. Thank you. Thank you for joining us today. If you have questions for us, please email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

00:25:19.200 We look forward to hearing from you. Have a blessed day.