The Intersections Community

09/30/2026

Too often in my life I have memorized the promises of God but not pursued the gift of wisdom that would compel me to apply it. What was missing? Revelation which comes from my own personal relationship with the Father who created me. When revelation comes - it is Him revealing Himself in me, through me. What was merely words on a page, becomes life I must live. Or so you would think?

Often, I have allowed the mindsets of others—and even the limitations of my own thinking, shaped by a past that no longer needed to be repeated—to determine how I responded to wisdom. But the true gift of wisdom is discovered when I apply it and allow experience to deepen what it has revealed.

I think of the familiar image of an elephant tethered to a small tent peg, strong enough to pull free at any moment, yet remaining bound because it was trained to believe the restraint was stronger than it was. In much the same way, I have allowed fear and the experiences that framed it to train my mind. So even when revelation awakened faith within me and wisdom showed me a different way, I sometimes remained still. I knew more. I saw more. I even believed more—but I did nothing with what I had been shown.

This is why Proverbs 4 gives such urgency to this pursuit:

“Whatever it takes to gain wisdom, do it.
To gain understanding, do it!”

That classic Nike commercial is ringing these days in my spirit. Is God requiring you to walk by faith these days? I promise that if you "Just Do It!" you will find revelation and wisdom will continually lead you to understanding. Stop trying to know before you go....to read more about the gift of understanding click here for a new blog post by Faith Allison Mascato click here: https://theintersectionscommunity.com/writing/post/?slug=embrace-who-you-truly-are

09/15/2026

TSI: Part 3 - There is a particular expression of Traumatic Soul Injury I have witnessed among helpers, ministers, counselors, coaches, leaders, advocates, and healing professionals. It often ends in compassion fatigue and here is why.

Sometimes we build an entire professional life around what once helped save us. Our pain gave us empathy. Our recovery gave us language. Our testimony gave other people hope.

And for a season, helping others heal also helps us heal. There is nothing false about that. Something beautiful can grow from broken ground. But there is an important difference between a testimony and a calling.

Sometimes people choose professions because the work gives meaning to what they survived. We see our healing reflected in someone else's eyes. We become very good at helping people climb out of places we once lived ourselves.

Then something unexpected happens...suddenly the work that once filled us begins draining us. The people we serve start irritating us. Their repeated patterns exhaust us. Their neediness feels unbearable. Their unwillingness to change becomes almost personally offensive....To read more click here: https://theintersectionscommunity.com/writing/post/?slug=tsi-part-three-when-the-life-you-built-from-healing-no-longer-fits

09/12/2026

TSI Part Two: When Protection Becomes Identity

A Traumatic Soul Injury does not only remember what happened. It begins preparing for what might happen next.

That is one of trauma's most convincing deceptions. Something happened once, and the soul begins organizing life as though it will inevitably happen again. So we become architects of prevention.

We avoid certain relationships. We stop taking risks. We control environments. We refuse vulnerability. We stay invisible. We stop trusting. We create rules. We develop sophisticated explanations for why our smaller world is actually wisdom. And often, those explanations are very convincing. Because survival is intelligent.

The problem is not that you learned to protect yourself. You probably needed to. The problem comes when a temporary survival strategy becomes a permanent definition of who you are.

You are no longer simply saying: I was betrayed. You begin saying: I am someone who cannot trust.

You are no longer saying: I experienced rejection. You begin believing: I am unwanted.

You are no longer saying: I lost something important. You begin organizing your life around: Everything I love eventually disappears.

This is where trauma moves from memory into belief that forms identity. And identity is powerful. We naturally make decisions that agree with who we believe ourselves to be.

So the world becomes smaller. Not necessarily because danger is everywhere, but because the soul has confused possibility with inevitability.

This is why healing requires more than understanding what happened.

Eventually we must ask ourself some questions... To read more click here: https://theintersectionscommunity.com/writing/post/?slug=tsi-part-two-when-protection-becomes-identity

09/09/2026

TSI Part One: When Trauma Injures the Soul

Most of us know the term TBI: Traumatic Brain Injury.

I want to introduce another term: TSI: Traumatic Soul Injury.

It is not a medical diagnosis. It is language for something I have witnessed repeatedly in people who have survived experiences so contradictory to their identity, safety, belonging, or sense of self that the event did more than hurt them. It imprinted upon them.

Sometimes with such voracity that it takes their breath away for a moment—but can quietly steal pieces of identity for a lifetime.

A traumatic soul injury can produce symptoms that feel remarkably physical: brain fog, chronic pain, disrupted sleep, nervous-system dysregulation, difficulty concentrating, memory problems, emotional flooding, numbness, hypervigilance, and altered states of functioning.

Trauma does not remain neatly contained inside one part of us. Body, brain, soul, memory, relationships, and meaning all become involved.

But injury to the soul can be particularly elusive because healing rarely occurs simply through the passing of time.
It must be pursued. To read more of this three-part series, click here: https://theintersectionscommunity.com/writing/post/?slug=tsi-part-one-when-trauma-injures-the-soul
Faith Allison Mascato

08/30/2026

Freedom isn’t having a flawless life with no secrets; it’s becoming safe enough, healed enough, and loved enough that hiding is no longer necessary. There is a kind of love where trust is never demanded because it is being cultivated every day.

Paul describes this life of “transparent innocence” or a clean conscience in 1 Corinthians 1:12. Having no hidden agenda, no secret self carefully managed behind the scenes.

Marriage, at its healthiest, can become this kind of sacred place: a return to being naked and unashamed. Not merely physically, but emotionally and spiritually. A relationship where I do not have to hide parts of myself to remain loved. Where vulnerability is not weaponized, truth is not punished, and shame does not get the final word.

To read more click here: https://theintersectionscommunity.com/writing/post/?slug=naked-and-unashamed

08/25/2026

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