Almost a decade ago, a lady went viral after contracting bronchitis from a house fire. Her famous words? “Ain’t nobody got time for that!” After the incident, this famous English expression gained even more popularity (The ain’t-nobody-got-time-for-that remix has almost 100 million views!) People often use this expression when some inconvenience or hardship emerges that they did not plan for (their car breaks down, someone is being melodramatic, they get bronchitis, etc.) Most people in modern society identify as being “busy.” In fact, not being busy is often conflated with laziness and backwardness. To be sure, there is nothing wrong with being busy with good things. There is truth to the expression, “Idle hands are the devil’s playground.”
However, a lot of people have the “ain’t nobody got time for that” mentality when it comes to other people’s hardships and pain. The world, as they say, stops for no one. Not only that, but the world often exploits people who are in a position of weakness.
In nature, the lion does not say to the rabbit with a broken leg, “I will come back later so you can have a fair chance.” It just devours.
A lot of people have that same “ain’t nobody got time for that” mentality when it comes to their own hardships and pain. Inner healing requires special attention. It requires patience. It requires grace. Inner healing requires discipline to cultivate new healthy habits and rid oneself of old bad ones. When these virtues are absent, an individual’s backlog of trauma gets larger over time. While it may be painful to realize that our current atittudes and processes have not facilitated healing, it is actually very hopeful.
Healing From Trauma
There are a lot of articles on this blog that address the topic of trauma and inner healing. Trauma and inner healing are a big part of recovering from addiction, bad habits, vices, and an overall downward life trajectory. If you read people’s inspiring testimonies on getting free from a lack of sexual integrity, you may begin to notice a theme: many people’s problem with pornography and addiction was accompanied by unresolved trauma.
On the other hand, freedom from addiction and vice is about becoming a particular kind of person. A person who does not medicate their problems in destructive ways. But also someone whose heart is healed. When we combine a lack of inner healing with a fallible human nature, the end result is typically bad, if not downright tragic. Inner healing is really not optional for people who want to get free from addiction and other life hindrances.
There’s a story in the Gospels of a woman named Mary and her sister, Martha. Jesus was visiting in their house. Mary was busy doing chores, while her sister Martha was taking a break to listen to Jesus’s teaching. After Mary complained about Martha, Jesus said to her, “You are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary” (Luke 10:41).
One thing is necessary.
The obvious takeaway here is that spending time with Jesus should have been the priority. It was the most important, even necessary, thing to do in that moment. To my mind, this passage also speaks to the larger human tendency to prioritize the wrong things. We pursue hobbies, studies, work, growth, recreation, even certain relationships, before we prioritize our own healing.
The fact is we have to make tradeoffs in life. Time spent doing one thing is necessarily time not spent doing something else. Just because something is “good,” or “not bad,” doesn’t mean it’s necessary or wise.
Our trauma may not be our fault, but it is our responsibility. We have to make time to heal, because the world is not holding its breath.
For more, see Fear Is Why We Are Always In A Rush | My Healing Testimony After 5 Years Of Debilitating Neck Pain / Back Pain / Vocal Dysfunction.
