KEY SCRIPTURE. Psalm 19:14

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.

RELEVANCE

I was in my early 20s in the 1970s. My mate and I were sitting in his car discussing politics, among other topics, when something he said caused an immediate reaction within me. I punched his windscreen. It cracked into bits, and I paid for a new one. 

That incident taught me a valuable lesson about finance, but more about triggers—words, memories, actions, etc.—that cause reactions within. They can trigger both positive and negative reactions. If they are positive, they leave us warm and fuzzy. If they are negative, they can ruin our day.

However, as Christians, we must give negative triggers to God. If we don't, we will never completely obtain God's peace, which passes all understanding. 

Everybody has or has had triggers. None of us can escape negative happenings in our lives, whether from childhood, teenhood, or adulthood, whether past or present, or whether they occur in the home, at work, or in other activities. Even words or actions from someone in our own house can trigger us. We all have the proverbial ghosts from our past and entrenched feelings in our present.

Triggers discharge detonators. They set off memories, and we temporarily become distorted facsimiles of ourselves as we wrestle with unexpected emotional experiences. 

Yet triggers can also set off perfectly natural and harmless experiences. A speech or song at a funeral may bring tears of compassion but not negative memories. These are emotional responses. We cry because we miss the person in the coffin, or it's a child's funeral or another such situation. In fact, it would be odd not to cry at some funerals. Weddings are similar. 

The trouble with negative triggers is that if we don't take note of them, analyse them, and then hand them fully over to God, they will continue to recur until we die. Many elderly people weep about issues they haven't dealt with. I know friends from my childhood and youth whose upbringings gave them many triggers. Some saw psychologists, while others just went on living with the trauma. 

If we are to give those triggerable experiences to our Lord and Saviour, it may require considerable forgiveness. We cannot obtain God's peace without forgiving people and organisations. It just won't work. Jesus said in The Lord's Prayer, Forgive us as we forgive others. Locked in the fine print of that transfer is the peace we seek. 

As the triggers arise, we can deal with them correctly. We pull them apart and see why we become so emotional about the former experience. Why does it hurt so much? Why are we so sad about it? Why do we become so angry or feel shamed every time this memory is uncovered? This is why forgiveness is so powerful and necessary. We cannot live with those hidden pains and forge forward in Christ. We must dump the baggage as we go.

Sooner or later, we will have to confront everything in our lives that we have not laid down at the Cross of Jesus. His Cross is there for those pains, anger, and downward feelings.

The power to be transformed and renewed is in our hands. 2 Corinthians 4:16 says our inward man is renewed day by day. Ephesians 4:23 tells us to be renewed in the spirit of our minds. RENEWED!

We're still a bit lame if we haven't dealt with triggerable experiences. Titus 3:5 explains that we are saved by the Lord's mercy. Part of that is the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. That renewal gives us the authority and ability to hand all fears and anxieties to our new Lord and Saviour, even the hidden issues when they arise. Once we have dealt with them, we leave them on His desk, not to be taken back.  

If we do that properly—if we have fully forgiven the persons or organisations (and even ourselves, as that is vital), peace and a smile will replace the grimace the next time we are triggered. Then, a time will come when we're not even triggerable by those events. They no longer hurt. Christ will have washed away the pain of those memories in His sea of forgetfulness. We will remember the event but not the habitual accompanying distress—and no more confused emotions.

This is the glorious peace that conciliates us on our way to maturity.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, what wonders you can do with forgiveness and peace. We all seek your precious, unfathomable peace but are slow to acknowledge our obligations. Please help us unpack all triggerable issues and give them over.

Photo by Engin Akyurt