What is Agency?

First post of a four-part series: Trauma in the Pews Section 2: Part III

Regulate to be Calmer
Pause to Consider
Use Agency to Choose

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash

Angie sat sobbing in the chair across from me. My heart broke for her nearly impossible situation even as I told her she did have a choice. Angie’s face told me she was not convinced of this. I understood why she didn’t feel like she had a choice—at least not one she liked. Yet, I believed using her voice to provide some direction to the chaos would empower her, even if the result wasn’t what she wanted.

I said, “You don’t have to just let this happen to you. You can tell them the direction you think it should go. Their plan is hurting you all over again.”

We sat silently for a minute, and then Angie sat up straighter, her tears stopped, and she picked up her phone to begin typing a text.

What I witnessed was an example of agency. Someone making a choice that previously seemed impossible is a powerful action that requires self-regulation and effectively using the pause!

Agency is an important goal of healing because it enables you to choose the best path and act on it. Employing agency to create your unique spiritual practices of confession, worship, guidance, and celebration can be empowering. To understand why this is true we must first reflect on what agency looks like in our lives.

Defining and Understanding Agency

After she sent the text, Angie commented on how much better it felt to do something in the situation and how feeling like she had no choice or voice felt unhealthy.

I nodded in agreement and said, “What you did was use agency.”

Angie looked at me intently and asked, “What do you mean by agency? I have never heard the term before.”

Today begins the third leg of our summer journey. We would love to have you join us!