The War Within: Finding Hope After Trauma

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What happens when war follows you home? When the training that kept you alive in combat becomes the very thing destroying your marriage? Justin and Jen's story peels back the layers of military trauma, revealing the raw aftermath of Justin's deployment to Iraq—where suicide bombers, mass casualties, and daily firefights rewired his brain for a battle that wouldn't end when he returned home.

"Your body comes home long before your mind does," Justin explains, capturing the essence of PTSD that military families understand all too well. His nervous system remained locked in Ramadi long after his boots touched American soil. Hypervigilance, emotional numbness, and rage replaced the connection and intimacy their marriage once knew. The drinking escalated. Walls in their home bore witness to outbursts. Eventually, an affair and divorce papers threatened to end everything.

But what makes this story different isn't the brokenness—it's what happened in the space between destruction and redemption. Jen doesn't portray herself as a saint with perfect, peaceful responses. Instead, she reveals her angry, tear-soaked prayers for vengeance and justice. Yet in that painful separation, God worked in ways neither could have anticipated.

"I was praying for a hit job on my husband," Jen admits, "while God was redeeming his soul." This raw confession leafs us to how healing often begins not when our circumstances change, but when we surrender our demand to control the outcome. For anyone walking through trauma, addiction, betrayal, or the slow erosion of connection—this conversation offers hope without glossing over reality.

The redemption they experienced wasn't instantaneous or perfect, but it was real. Their story reminds us that God meets us in our messiness, not despite it—and sometimes the greatest transformations happen when we stop trying to fix our pain and simply allow God to meet us there.

Subscribe and share this episode with someone fighting a silent battle. You're not alone, and neither are they.

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