“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905
I know the exact year when I read a book by looking at the bookmarks. I write notes on the margins to trigger a memory of a lesson learned. Sometimes curiosity gets me to reread that portion of a book.The only way to move on to a new book is to remove the bookmarks. I can give the book away or shelf it.
Unresolved traumas are like those bookmarks. We forgive our abusers but the traumas are not resolved. We carry shame in our bodies like a good compliant child. And they are killing us. We run to our drug of choice to numb the pain.
To resolve is to settle it with God. Give it to God. My problem is I give to God and when I’m done I pick them up again and go on.
Forgiveness is a choice one has to make. To resolve the trauma is for us to trust GOD to deal with our abusers. Trust was hard for me. Trusting the invisible Supreme Being, who deep in my unconscious mind was like trusting my invisible friends I had when I was a child. My father left one morning and never came back. I went through so many silent treatment for reasons I didn’t understand in my adolescent years.
So to resolve is to trust GOD and stop trying to figure things out. Stop ruminating. Romans 12:19-22 says forgive and leave room for the Lord to do his work. He says Vengeance is mine. Now take the bookmark and throw in the fire.
The LORD loves your abusers too. They’re human beings made in his image just as you are. His grace abounds but HE is also just and fair.
The more we practice resolving our traumas, removing bookmarks in our souls, the more we understand ourselves as renewed individuals belonging to Our Heavenly Father.
Forgiveness is not forgetting.
Forgiveness is to remove the dagger lodge in your heart so healing can begin. Resolving is trusting GOD for the rest.
Lord God help me to trust you.