Jesusluvsall's Blog

Sunday afternoons are a meaningful time for me as I spend time with my Ukrainian friends at New Breath Church. Most Sundays, they ask me to share a message. It is always on my mind as I share that they are people who fled the war or who lived life under communism when Ukraine was part of the former USSR. Each time I share, it is on my mind and heart that they are people who have suffered.

In my work and ministry with refugees the past 24 years, such thoughts have been constant for me. Almost daily for 24 years, I have spent time with someone who has suffered war, brutality, and hardship.

In my own life having lived through trauma that caused me to write my book Jesus Understands Trauma, the suffering of others of any kind is something I am attuned to.

One issue that is common for refugees or for people who have experienced trauma is grieving what could have been if the trauma had not happened. One example is from my life that I share in my book Lifted Out of the Pit/Called to the Nations.

When I was in elementary school and middle school I was always one of the top students. I had dreams of perhaps becoming a doctor. But after 9th grade promotion, when I saw that I was the only student with no family there, I made what might be considered a fateful decision. Tired of life in a home with an alcoholic father and mentally ill mother, when someone I knew from my neighborhood called out to me from a white van, “hey Matt we are going to go party” I got in the van and joined them. It was my first time smoking something not tobacco. That was the start of my downfall as a teen.

There are times when I wonder what could have happened if I had not made the choice to get in that van. It would be easy to grieve the life I missed out on. But there is hope in the truth of Romans 8:28.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 

God worked and caused everything in my life to add up to me becoming a home missionary and a teacher who has had opportunity to share Jesus with people from all over the world. The in all things of Romans 8 includes our mistakes, our poor decisions, the hardships of life, the trauma, EVERYTHING. The in all things of Romans 8 is not only about abilities. God takes all of our life experiences and can make something beautiful out it all.

Thank you for reading. God Bless.