When you experienced your trauma, life stopped, at least parts of your life stopped, yet the rest of life has continued in a way that can be both disorienting and offensive. So far this study has been a major deconstruction project; we have broken down your experience and its fallout in many ways. The result is, while you may feel like there is hope for things to be better, you likely also feel like a person without a story.

That is what this chapter begins to address. In this chapter you will begin to put the pieces you deconstructed into a new narrative; not a narrative that makes the “sad things untrue” but a narrative that allows you to understand yourself, God, your life, and the future in ways that are healthy and hopeful.

This new narrative will likely not answer the nagging “why” question. Think about most suspenseful movies you’ve seen or books you’ve read. When is the “why” plot revealed? At the end. Where are you in your journey? Still in the middle. It is unlikely at this stage in the journey that, however God intends to redeem your experience, that this could be clear to you now. Guessing at God’s intention will likely place you in a series of all-or-nothing moments where you try to seize a moment to make your trauma experience seem “worth it,” only to be disappointed or make the experience worse.

Instead, at this stage in your journey, it is recommended that you seek to understand yourself, God, others, your setting, and your future in a way that both sets you up for stable-healthy living now and allows for redemptive moments where your experience can be used for a larger purpose when the situation is wise. We will seek to do this by walking you through five questions that help you identify key ways God would have you understand your experience.

1. Who Am I Now?
2. Who and Where Is God?
3. Where Am I?
4. Is Hope Worth Fear?
5. What Am I Living For?

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