The Shard Beneath the Skin: the Lingering Hurt of Unresolved Trauma

I was listening to a podcast recently where the speaker was recounting a story of an injury that she incurred. She was handling broken glass, and a tiny shard got stuck in her finger. They were unable to get it out. She was advised to just let it go; instructed that it would eventually surface. This fragment of glass in her finger was very bothersome to her, even when the skin abrasion had healed. It was very sensitive to the touch for months. Just as she thought that she was finally healing from this injury, it actually surfaced through the skin at another spot.

As she finished her story, she compared this shard of glass to the trauma that a person experiences in life. I thought the example was so incredibly fitting. There are many times when we think the easiest thing to do is push pain under the rug and not deal with it. However, when we do that, it will always surface in another way. If we have anger issues and we don’t really know why, it can often be traced back to past traumas in our lives. If we have issues with rejection or sexual impurity, it is frequently linked with some previous abuse or childhood trauma. Unhealed hurts surface in another form because trapped emotions need an outlet.

Trauma can actually affect your brain, so not only is it an emotional issue, it is physiological. It impacts the way we process things, and our brains need to be retrained. Trauma can cause physical changes to the developing brain of a child. I am no expert, but I am reading and hearing more about the amygdala and hippocampus that can be affected, which disturbs the ability to regulate emotions and process information.

Getting help from a counselor who is experienced with trauma is so important. However, I believe that there is a spiritual component that needs to be addressed as well. When we experience trauma in our lives, it is an open door for the enemy to come in to wreak havoc. It’s sad but true. So, along with professional counseling, I believe that having a trained minister help you walk through inner healing and deliverance will help to complete the healing.

Someone who has been sexually abused as a child often has issues with promiscuity. You would think that would actually make them fear being intimate with someone, but it often has the opposite effect. An unhealed place in our hearts can drive us to the very thing that traumatized us.

Sometimes a person is trapped in a cycle of overcompensating for the fear, shame, rejection, and abandonment that came in through that open door. It is based on self-protection. Overcompensation looks like control, manipulation, anger, and unmanageable psychological behaviors.

When you are dealing with unwanted/unmanageable behaviors, maybe it’s time to address that “shard of glass” that was never properly removed from your childhood or trauma experience.

The Holy Spirit is an excellent counselor to identify the “shard of glass”, properly remove it, and heal the wounds that were received when it first happened, and also heal the wounds as it is extracted. Don’t neglect going after complete healing and restoration.

Psalm 147:3: "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds."