Well, time to buckle up. The publisher sent our manuscript to be proofed. The blogging will slow and with it comes the realization of how much I enjoy it. The medium is a good one for me, I discovered, in that the short and concise helps me to think – and most often, re-think – an issue. Part of the gratification, too, is checking the hits from overseas; I had thought that post traumatic issues were a conscious world wide concern. The last two were from the Ukraine and Philippines. I see reaching out as more and more a part of ministry; not aggressive evangelism, rather shared compassion.
There is a different issue re-surfacing just now. For years I have enjoyed the biblical thinking of Marcus Borg. In fact, our Friday book study group had just finished The First Paul when it happened. I had almost completed the third of a series on religion and the obsessive compulsive disorder. I was going through Acts at the time. It hit me that the experience Saul had on the way to Damascus was a flashback. My sympathy for Paul skyrocketed even as parts of the New Testament became more apparent to me for the first time. I had worked with post traumatic counseling situations for a lot of years and there they were: all the characteristics of PTSD spread out sequentially by Luke, Greek physician and Pauline biographer. I have yet to get back to my manuscript on The Gospel of Matthew.
I laid The First Paul on the book table by my easy chair and there it sat as other books and magazines came and went. I looked at it and it glared back at me. I have just not known what to do with it. I finally decided to re-read it, as that realization about Saul being knocked flat and blinded had just left about everything in limbo I had ever read about Paul. So I picked up the book again. I am still at a loss, having now spent the last many months rethinking and writing and re-writing about Paul and the post traumatic process. The whole experience has been like going to the doctor to get your eyes checked and finding out you need bifocals.
As it gets closer to that manuscript seeing the light of day in bookstores and Amazon.com, I confess I am filled with delight and fear as to how the reviews will come in. It is so different. Just for starters, it is a husband and wife book and both of us have had our tussles with flashbacks, too. “The Word of God is as lively as a two edged sword,” is one traditional way of looking at these things.
I guess you will let us know what you think. Hope so: now that’s living by faith alone!
A Support Blog For Those Concerned With Post Traumatic Stress
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