Rick Warren - How God Can Help You Heal Through Trauma, Grief & Loss

March 18, 2026·21 min·2 clips

Rick Warren reveals that God not only knows your pain but keeps a detailed record of every tear you've cried.

The episode is a sermon by Rick Warren focused on theological and pastoral responses to trauma. Warren begins by defining trauma as an experience of feeling overwhelmed, helpless, or paralyzed by a deeply distressing event, noting it can stem from abuse, abandonment, betrayal, rejection, or events like death or divorce. He specifies the sermon will concentrate on trauma caused by evil actions of other people. Warren then shares his personal trauma: his youngest son's suicide after a lifelong mental illness struggle. He transitions to addressing the problem of evil, posing why a good God allows evil. Warren defines evil as anything opposing God and acknowledges everyone makes evil choices. He explains that God will ultimately wipe out evil but currently allows it because eliminating it would require removing human free will, which is necessary for genuine love. Warren states humans were created to be loved by God and to love Him back voluntarily. He discusses how sin entered the world through Adam, bringing death and a list of problems like decay, disease, and despair. Warren asserts everything on earth is broken by sin, so suffering is inevitable. He emphasizes that God has emotions and grieves when seeing human pain, citing verses like 'Jesus wept' and Psalm 55:8 about God recording tears. Warren notes God suffers with people, as exemplified by Jesus' crucifixion. He states God will judge everyone justly in the future, with a day of reckoning for evil. Finally, Warren concludes that God can bring good out of bad for those who trust Him, referencing Romans 8:28. The sermon includes two ad breaks for Shopify.

As heard by us

A sermon that says God sees trauma, keeps track of it, and can still bring good from it.

Rick Warren treats trauma as the kind of overwhelm that can leave a person shut down, afraid, or unable to move after something deeply distressing, then stretches that pain to cover abuse, abandonment, betrayal, and rejection.

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Why you'd press play

If you need a sermon that names trauma without flinching, start here.

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