Comfort in the Middle of Trauma
Just the word, comfort, makes my heart feel a little fuzzy, warm, and safe inside.
But recently, the Lord showed me another side of comfort that I hadn’t thought about a whole lot, and it was rather eye opening!
Understanding the Word, Comfort
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 reads,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” NKJV
That verse is loaded with the word "comfort". The source is God Himself, the "God of ALL comfort". The comfort of the Lord is the sweetest, most fulfilling, and satisfying kind of comfort. It hits the deepest, for it is real. When it collides with our raw hearts ridden with pain, that kind of comfort wraps itself around us like a warm blanket and brings healing. Rest. Freedom.
That kind of comfort is so thorough in its work that what was a festering and oozing internal open sore disappears. Gone. Healed. Washed away through the God of all comfort.
Post Trauma: What Healing is Like
Counterfeit Comfort is no Comfort at All
In my walk toward healing, I have found the "God of all comfort" kind of comfort. It's liberating and glorious. Truth isn’t afraid to face the pain, for it is stronger than any trauma, stronger than any wound, stronger than any dart the enemy could throw.
Before I encountered true comfort, I experienced and ran to a counterfeit. A replica. A quick fix, band-aid kind of comfort. The kind that numbs and drowns out the pain. The kind that hides the hurts and pretends trauma doesn’t exist.
Counterfeit comfort measures have to be repeated over and over again. False comfort is merely a medication, not a remedy. The problem never really goes away.
There's a story in the Bible that is so intriguing to me, in Hosea 5. As I was pondering the two different types of comfort, these verses caught my attention.
"...For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, Who give me my bread and my water, My wool and my linen, My oil and my drink.’ NKJV
But listen to what the Lord said!
"She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold— which they used for Baal. Hosea 5:8 NIV
God already provided everything above and beyond what Israel needed to thrive. Food, clothing, water, gold and silver. But, Israel ran after other things to provide the barest of necessities. Their hearts turned from the God of all Comfort and ran.
I've done that at times. I’ve run after other things to provide a semblance of normal and comfortable, but it's left me feeling so dry and unsatisfied. It left my heart with an ache, a longing for something more.
Sometimes we need to be okay with letting go of the things we used to find comfort and normal from. The things that used to ground us, calm us, settle us.
Painful Reality
Often growing seasons are painful. Being pushed out of the nest and being forced to learn to fly can feel like your stomach lands in your throat and you are terrified of hitting the ground and splatting like a bug.
But, really, it's a holy thing to be pushed out of our old comforts. Sometimes we've run to idols and we don't even realize it, and so God, in His love and mercy, pulls those idols down and lifts our head to look into His eyes and see the Comfort He longs to provide. He's not only the God of all Comfort, He is the Lifter of your head. Think of a husband and wife, as he gently lifts her chin to look into his eyes of love.
So if you're in a season where it seems like all your comfortable things are being taken away one by one, you may be in a season where the God of all comfort is longing to give you above and beyond what you ever thought you needed. He may be calling you to stop running after idols. He may be trying to lift your head so you can lock eyes with Him, and you will finally see the love and acceptance you have always longed to feel.
