Poetry Heals PTSD Just like God’s Gourd for Jonah

Just as in all things God knows how much each man, woman, and child can take when it comes to bearing grief and sorrow. What I would like to do is tell you how He heals through inspired poetry. Bear with me as I make an analogy to the healing of Jonah’s depression through the precious gourd in Jonah 4:7-11.



It was only at Jonah’s breaking point when he praised the Lord and vowed to do His will (seeing that there was a plan for him that he could not escape.) If I may stretch this a little further to include those persons facing addictions to drugs, alcohol, shopping, gambling, sex, etc. Vastly the above are signals to not being able to cope with their trauma, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It is only at the point of surrendering to a Higher Power, as in Jesus Christ, are they (we) able to pick up our cross and move forward. The direction is shown no longer with self-medicating through whatever self-punishing behavior, but with a new way of thinking!



If I may continue to use Jonah’s revelation of the gourd, you may contemplate that the gourd was a tool for relieving Jonah’s depression. Why was Jonah depressed? He was in a traumatic life situation that he was not in control of what was happening to him. Just as those who experience PTSD. God realized that He needed to step in for Jonah as he could not hold in anymore mental distress. It was this Celestial Intervention that comes in the nick of time, through no power but of the Divine. Even though this did not take 10 years to happen (as in the time it usually takes to break down from PTSD) the healing started when the gourd was provided.



Poetry is the tool of Divine Intervention that directly coincides with the gourd. It is an emotional release of blocked feelings that are opened up from the mind’s box of secrets. These secrets were kept veiled (not only from the victim’s mind) but hidden from most of mankind. When there is a combination of surrendering oneself to your Higher Power and using prayer, praise, and contemplation, inspired poetry becomes the mind and soul’s healing revelation!