Godly Growth Through Crisis

This past Wednesday night in our Midweek Connection Gary Evans shared with us some great material from Richard Dobbins that we promised we'd make available on the blog. We were discussing whether or not Naomi and Ruth experienced a crisis of faith during the loss of their husbands.

Here are some of those notes for those of you who wanted more time to study this material.

Godly Growth Through Crisis (see James 1:2-4)

Trials = shock: point of impact - several minutes to several hours - numbing, stunned, dazed, fight/flight responses, disorientation, distractibility

Testing of faith = storm: emotional turbulence – several hours to several days – ambiguous thoughts, uncertainty, moods ranging from euphoria to depression, coping ability compromised

Perseverance = search: mobilization of resources – several days to several weeks - relinquishing old plans and goals, exploration to create a “new normal”, professional mental health intervention if necessary for return to adaptive functioning

Maturity = sequel: long-term reconstruction – several weeks to several months (or years depending on incident severity) – making long-term adjustments rather than “getting over it”, learning from the past without living in the past, anticipated growth and improved level of adaptive functioning