Joy as Spiritual Warfare in Trauma and Work (What I Learned from Wanda Thibodeaux)
When Wanda Thibodeaux joined me on Created in the Image of God, she brought a phrase I can’t shake:
“Be joyful. Backhand the devil.”
It’s on the wall behind her as she works. For her, joy isn’t sentimental. It’s a battlefield. Recovering it—especially for trauma survivors and burned‑out professionals—is an act of spiritual war.
From Rural Poverty to “Do or Do Not”
Wanda grew up in Caseville, Michigan—the “tip of the thumb.” Small, rural, poor. Her parents were older when they had her. Her father had already raised 13 children with his first wife, who died. He then married Wanda’s mother, decades younger, and they had three more. Wanda was number 16.
By then, her parents were essentially retired and scraping by on a small farm. There was no margin, no backup plan.
“There really wasn’t any alternative,” she said. “You had to do it.”
She latched onto Yoda’s line: “Do or do not. There is no try.” It fit. When backing down isn’t an option, you hang on longer. You get things done.
But that “do or do not” script is a double‑edged sword. The same grit that keeps you alive in scarcity can also drive you into overwork and burnout—especially when you feel, deep down, that you don’t really matter.
The Glass Wall and “Who Told You You Were Naked?”
As a child, Wanda coped by immersing herself in beauty. She buried herself in writing and in music—Bach, Brahms. In the middle of domestic chaos, that order and transcendence kept her sane.
“As long as there’s this, I can be okay,” she thought.
The music convinced her there was a God. But He felt distant.
Her image was vivid: God on one side of a glass wall, her on the other. She could see Him, but not reach Him. No one in her environment—no parent, no community—embodied the love she read about in Scripture. She felt unseen, trapped.
Psychologically, she now sees what was happening. She was transferring her experience of people onto God. If caregivers were inconsistent or unsafe, then God must be, too.
That’s where Genesis speaks with surprising precision. After Adam and Eve hide, God asks, “Who told you that you were naked?” (Gen. 3:11). Not “Who informed you of a fact?” but “Who gave you this story of shame about yourself and about Me?”
Wanda eventually realized, “I was transferring my experience onto God.” The voices that taught her she was naked, unworthy, cut off—they weren’t His.
That recognition was the crack in the glass where light started getting in.
Just As I Am
One Sunday, still feeling that wall, Wanda and her family visited a church. The worship team pulled out “Just As I Am,” the old Billy Graham altar‑call hymn.
As they sang, all her unresolved tension around her father surged. How could God accept him “just as he is” after what she’d endured? How could she forgive?
But in the middle of that turmoil, another insight broke through:
“It’s not about my dad being accepted just as he is,” she realized. “It’s understanding God just as He is.”
Her father’s character and God’s character were not the same. Her father was an authority figure and also wrong. God is an authority and utterly trustworthy. Respect, she would later tell her dad, is earned. Authority alone doesn’t make you right.
Uncoupling her father from God—hearing God’s “Who told you you were naked? It wasn’t Me.”—made room for a different story: maybe she was worth something; maybe she was allowed to draw near; maybe she could use her gifts for Him.
Faithful on the Clock
By then, Wanda was already writing for business professionals. She knew the corporate world from the inside—and how many people in it were quietly miserable.
She described a Zoom call with other believers in business. One woman broke down in tears: “I don’t feel like I’m making a difference, and I don’t feel I can talk about my faith.”
Eight‑plus hours a day is a long time to live misaligned from your deepest values. A long time to keep your faith “off‑clock.”
“There’s got to be a better way,” Wanda thought. “Your work should reflect God. It should not be in conflict with Him.”
That conviction led her to pivot. Instead of only ghostwriting thought leadership that “pays the bills,” she wanted to serve those “designed and called to build His kingdom.”
Out of that came her podcast, Faithful on the Clock. Its purpose: help people bring faith and work back into alignment, so they’re not spiritually shut down during working hours.
She’s realistic. Leaders face intense pressure from shareholders, customers, and culture. “Even if they want to live their faith,” she said, “they have all these external voices screaming at them to not do it that way.”
That’s exactly why joy—and the fight to keep it—is so critical.
Be Joyful. Backhand the Devil.
For Wanda, this is the heart of it:
God is a God of joy. Our purpose includes reflecting that joy back to Him.
Satan, she says, “really, really wants to hurt God.” He does it by going after those made in His image. One of his main strategies is to steal joy.
“If he can disconnect you from joy,” Wanda said, “he disconnects you from God. You lose your sense of who He is and what He’s got in store.”
The theft can come through obvious trauma—abuse, neglect, poverty. Or through more socially acceptable means: workaholism, performance‑based worth, cultures where mentioning God is taboo.
Either way, the whispered conclusion is the same: there is no joy. You’re not worth it. God is absent or indifferent.
“The best thing you can do is fight for your joy,” she told me. “Even if it’s just putting your warm hands on your coffee cup and taking that in. Anything you can do to stay connected to it—that’s a backhand of the devil. You say, ‘Nope. Not today.’”
This isn’t pretending everything is fine. It’s choosing, in the middle of what isn’t, to stay tethered to God’s true character. It’s refusing to let the accuser narrate your life.
For trauma survivors, that might begin with one small, genuine pleasure received as gift. For professionals, it might be a single decision today to act in line with your faith, even if no one else notices.
“Spiritual warfare is worth it,” Wanda said as we closed. “Fight for that as hard as you can. No matter what lies he’s told you to get you to disconnect. You can reconnect… But it’s got to be an intentional choice. Little steps, every day, you can fight it.”
Be joyful. Backhand the devil.
You are created in the image of God. And God loves His creation.
— Wade
If this reflection on joy, trauma, and work resonates, subscribe, share, or pass it to someone who feels that “glass wall” and needs encouragement to keep pressing toward joy, not away from it.
Sneak Peek: Next on Created in the Image of God
Next week, we move from the quiet grind of daily work to the public arena where faith and culture collide. I’ll be talking with Derwin Gray—former NFL player, pastor, and author—about what it means to pursue justice, unity, and discipleship in a world soaked in division.
Growing up on the west side of San Antonio with parents battling substance abuse and trauma of their own, then moving into the spotlight of professional football and later the pulpit, Derwin has a unique vantage point on hardship, identity, and grace.
We’ll ask together: What does it look like to be truly “on mission” in a time when every mission gets politicized?
Join us for that conversation—and in the meantime, keep fighting for your joy.
