Before leaving Corinth and making his way back to Jerusalem to close out his third missionary journey, the apostle Paul wrote a letter to the Christians in Rome.

Cindy’s past was riddled with troubles. She had suffered brain injuries in utero. She had been involved in episodes of violence and trauma. 

Have you ever thought about how hard it is to be an incarcerated Christian? Yes, Christians commit crimes, too. 

Over seven hundred years before the Savior’s birth, Isaiah foretold: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders” (NIV, Isaiah 9:6).

Here is a simple, non-clinical answer:

When something traumatic happens in our lives, we react strongly in our body, mind and spirit. This is normal. The reaction is strong because it is a normal reaction to an abnormal event.

At the end of the book of Acts, Luke recounts how God made use of hurricane winds that blew Paul’s ship some 600 miles off course and shipwrecked him off the tiny, isolated island of Malta in order to spread the message of the gospel (Acts 27:14-28:10).