Trauma and Pockets of Personality

Please Note: Trigger Alert

One of my favorite Bible stories is “The woman at the well” in John 4.

There are a few reasons that this story strikes me so.  We don’t know very many specifics about her but what little we do know reveals a whole lot. Primarily, we know that she was married 5 times and that the man she was with then was not her husband.

Dysfunctional adult relationships
Consider for a moment what causes a younger woman to already be married 5 times. She most asuredly had a horrific childhood: It is almost certain that she was unloved and most probably had suffered neglect and abuse.

This would have left her scarred and not really knowing how to love or be loved. Yet because we were all created with the innate need for relationships, she went looking for them. However because of her past, she didn’t know how to be in a healthy relationship and so this resulted in even more trauma in her adult life.

God’s protection in severe trauma
God created us in a way that severe trauma is sometimes sealed off, encapsulated within us, but partitioned off from the rest of us. These encapsulated pockets of personality are NOT a sign of weakness.  I want to stress that so I am going to say it again: encapsulated pockets of personality are NOT a sign of weakness.

Rather they are a very major blessing because they allow us to survive trauma that otherwise would have overwhelmed us and may have very possibly even killed us – literally. God designed us in this way so that we could find healing for these situations, later in life, when we are more capable of dealing with it. However,  later in life, these pockets of personality can complicate things until they are properly healed.

The woman at the well
Considering her troubled youth, and her 5 marriages, by the time she met Jesus / Yeshua the woman at the well had endured much trauma. She probably had pockets of personality locked up inside her that either didn’t know how to be in a loving relationship and / or they simply refused to: They desperately needed healing. By the time she met Yeshua she was probably a walking internal conflict.

I am certain that this is why He orchestrated this divine encounter with her. Yeshua was and is incredibly compassionate. He wanted to talk to her. He wanted to help her. He wanted her to be healed so that she could experience the life He had waiting for her.

Many people don’t recognize Holiness when they see it; she did. I am looking forward to meeting this woman who put her faith in the Messiah; it would have been a very brave thing for her to do. Because she did, I am sure He healed her.  I am looking forward to hearing her story.

Jesus / Yeshua is a magnificently tremendous, compassionate, amazing, indescribable Healer. If you have suffered trauma ask him to reveal to you what parts of you need healed: He won’t disappoint you.