Triggered

When someone pokes at an unhealed wound in our heart, it’s easy to respond with anger, even rage. We fight. We push away. We accuse. Or, we may just withdraw to stay protected. We become trapped. God wants to heal our wounded hearts. He wants to return us to life, joy, and wholeness. What can we do to step into this freedom? Work through the following questions and Scriptures on your own, and get together with your running partner, life group, or friends and family to talk through what you are learning.

How often do you sit back and ask yourself why something harmful or painful is part of your normal? Life moves at such a frantic pace for many of us, so it’s often difficult to make the time to figure out why we blow up at our family for little things, break down when a friend makes an offhand comment, or shut down when work gets really stressful. When these emotional reactions are part of our day-to-day, we tend to think that’s just the way we are. But what if there’s another, healthier way to react?

Last week we learned about the symptoms of an emotional trigger, but what can we do about them? The way to undo triggers starts with humbly admitting that you have one and that you can’t solve it on your own. That humble admission to God provides Him with the permission to show us. God already knows—He knows you better than you know yourself—but He’s not going to force you into anything. Instead He will walk with us to explore the roots of a trigger. The root is based on a wound or a lie, even a partial lie. God can heal you and replace the wound or lie with wholeness and truth. How can you begin?

Have you ever noticed how our society is easily angered or triggered? Just consider road rage, reactions erupting around political issues, emotional battles in marriages, or fear evolving out of the latest news report. In contrast, we desire to be loving, kind, patient, joyful, and self-controlled people. Yet, we all experience things that trigger us. We find ourselves overcome with negative emotions. Anger erupts at a co-worker about an interruption. Impatience screams at our children for spilling milk. We react like we’re being physically attacked when our spouse asks a simple question. Or, maybe, we sink into despair from just one negative comment. When a present circumstance should not produce such an intense emotional response, it’s a symptom that you’re being triggered. No one wants to be easily triggered. It hinders us from living in the fruit of God’s Spirit. The first step is to identify the symptoms of when and why we get triggered.