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Welcome to another episode of Jubilee Life Coaches Blog. I am Coach Brian. I have been a pastor for over 30 years, and lately I have been working as a Christian life coach. I bring a balance of Christian counseling and reformed theology to our worldview. Today's episode is about what trauma leaves in the body and the first quiet step toward recovery. Some nights the heart races for no reason at all. Pak Jeeyun is a Korean counselor and author. She directs a place called Replus Human Lab. In a talk on the Korean program Sebashi, she described evenings like that. Nothing was wrong. She was simply home alone. Then her chest would tighten and her heart would pound. That talk is no longer public, so I will retell her stories in my own words. She wondered why. Why at her age? Why only at night and only when she was alone? Thinking harder gave her no answer. The answer came years later when she studied trauma for herself. Here is what she learned. Trauma usually carries two marks. First, there was no choice when it happened. Second, when the hurt comes inside a relationship, it tends to come again and again. It piles up, it never gets a chance to settle. That is why many trauma specialists see trauma as a matter of the nervous system. Short breath, a tight chest, headaches, or an upset stomach with no clear cause. Pak says something I appreciate. Knowing a thing in your head is not the same as truly seeing yourself. She also borrows a picture from Marshall Rosenberg, who developed nonviolent communication. Feelings are like traffic lights, they are signals. Fear, anger, and sadness are not bad feelings, they point to a need underneath. When I am angry, perhaps what I really mean is this I want to protect myself right now. Then she names five old beliefs that often begin in childhood. They come from psychologist Jeffrey Young's work on schemas. In the end, I will be left alone. No one can really be trusted. What I need will never be given. I don't belong anywhere. And if people really knew me, they would not like me. Some of us carry all five, some carry none. This is not a diagnosis. It is a mirror. Now here is the story that stayed with me. When Pak was about eight, her father was scolding her upstairs. Downstairs, an older woman who worked in the house was washing dishes. She was not family. She was not even a relative. She stopped what she was doing and ran up the stairs. She held the little girl and she stopped the father. Her hands were still wet from the dishwater. Forty years later, Park still remembers that wetness. From that day on, that woman became the one thread in her life she could never let go of. Park compares support to a thread worn thin. Even one restored relationship can make that last strand strong again. It can give hope and direction for the rest of a life. Years later, in her own training, she watched a somatic experiencing teacher named Kavi Gemin begin a session. His first question to the client was simple. He asked where she would like to sit. People who lived through trauma had no choice when it happened, so healing begins by giving the choice back. What moves me is that the help did not come from a perfect person. The woman was not a professional, she was an ordinary person who happened to be there. We call this common grace. God does good to us through people who bear his image, whether or not they know him. What a gift those wet hands were. But Scripture says what that model cannot. The self does not create itself. It does not heal itself. The one who governs and heals our parts is God. As Paul wrote to the Philippians, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. So those five old beliefs are not our name. The fear of being left and the belief that something is wrong with us do not get the last word. Romans chapter 8, verse 15. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. Those wet hands were a small sign. They pointed to a larger hand that does not let go. So let me leave you with one question. Has there been a pair of wet hands in your life? Someone who showed up unasked and held on? When you think of that person now, what do you notice in your heart? Take your time with that. There is no wrong answer. Well, that's it for today. Thank you so much for joining us. And don't forget, we are freed in Christ to live. Now let us live to free others. This is Jubilee Coach. Until next time, Godspeed.