When my wife left me and the courts determined that I only get to see my sons 10% of the time, my world was going to shit as fast as a toilet flushes...
Ironically, we were going through marital counseling when she decided to leave me, and our counselor recommended another therapist I could go to.
I was barely hanging on man... by a thread or less... the new counselor created a space where I could vent and really explore the depth of my emotions and experience...
One day, I had a breakthrough... all along, I thought I was sitting at the bottom of a deep pit that I had dug; cold, alone, and in total darkness. Each day, I just focused on surviving the day, numbing the pain, and wondering how somehow I could climb out of that pit and be with God again... to experience his goodness, his warmth.
In one of my sessions, though I knew this conceptually and theoretically, I came to the realization, through gospel truths that my therapist was encouraging me with, that God was with me, sitting next to me at the bottom of the pit...
I wept uncontrollable tears for the next day and a half... I can’t even point to what all those tears meant, but I can tell you that it was a turning point and the start of the next chapter of my life... and God had used my counselor to lead me there. I was going to church, I was going to small group, but this was something different and God chose to use it powerfully.
Thank you for being vulnerable with us. I'm shedding a tear even imagining you at a pit, but Jesus is there with you. He is with us, isn't he? Churches and pastors offer so much, but yet there can be even more avenues of redemption in seasons in our lives. Thank you for blessing this community by sharing.
I have had a professional Christian counselor in the past. For about a year during Covid I just hopped on my computer and talked to someone from the comfort and isolation of my own home. When I started, I was not as honest about my need for help. Rather I fully believed, but self-justified nonetheless, it was an experiential lesson to figure out the role and place for Christian counseling and when it would be wise to recommend it to a fellow believer or student I was discipling. I didn't think I was bad enough either. But I was curious. No surprise but turns out I needed the help and it was key for getting through a tough season in my life.
And I found that the benefits to be exactly what you are stating in that there is a third party person that cares but has the benefit of a fresh perspective and no agenda. Yet a faith-based counselor need not be a "professional" or cost money. The best counseling does nothing more or less than pointing back to Jesus and the Cross. And in that sense, we can and should be counseling each other by doing that for each other in the Body of Christ as your Dad did for so many.
So much agreement that we can receive that kind of help from professionals or others. I'm sure so many of us don't feel equipped to be counseling another, but where we care, listen, commit, and speak real truth I'm sure a special work will happen. The Church has to be equipped!
When my wife left me and the courts determined that I only get to see my sons 10% of the time, my world was going to shit as fast as a toilet flushes...
Ironically, we were going through marital counseling when she decided to leave me, and our counselor recommended another therapist I could go to.
I was barely hanging on man... by a thread or less... the new counselor created a space where I could vent and really explore the depth of my emotions and experience...
One day, I had a breakthrough... all along, I thought I was sitting at the bottom of a deep pit that I had dug; cold, alone, and in total darkness. Each day, I just focused on surviving the day, numbing the pain, and wondering how somehow I could climb out of that pit and be with God again... to experience his goodness, his warmth.
In one of my sessions, though I knew this conceptually and theoretically, I came to the realization, through gospel truths that my therapist was encouraging me with, that God was with me, sitting next to me at the bottom of the pit...
I wept uncontrollable tears for the next day and a half... I can’t even point to what all those tears meant, but I can tell you that it was a turning point and the start of the next chapter of my life... and God had used my counselor to lead me there. I was going to church, I was going to small group, but this was something different and God chose to use it powerfully.
Thank you for being vulnerable with us. I'm shedding a tear even imagining you at a pit, but Jesus is there with you. He is with us, isn't he? Churches and pastors offer so much, but yet there can be even more avenues of redemption in seasons in our lives. Thank you for blessing this community by sharing.
I have had a professional Christian counselor in the past. For about a year during Covid I just hopped on my computer and talked to someone from the comfort and isolation of my own home. When I started, I was not as honest about my need for help. Rather I fully believed, but self-justified nonetheless, it was an experiential lesson to figure out the role and place for Christian counseling and when it would be wise to recommend it to a fellow believer or student I was discipling. I didn't think I was bad enough either. But I was curious. No surprise but turns out I needed the help and it was key for getting through a tough season in my life.
And I found that the benefits to be exactly what you are stating in that there is a third party person that cares but has the benefit of a fresh perspective and no agenda. Yet a faith-based counselor need not be a "professional" or cost money. The best counseling does nothing more or less than pointing back to Jesus and the Cross. And in that sense, we can and should be counseling each other by doing that for each other in the Body of Christ as your Dad did for so many.
So much agreement that we can receive that kind of help from professionals or others. I'm sure so many of us don't feel equipped to be counseling another, but where we care, listen, commit, and speak real truth I'm sure a special work will happen. The Church has to be equipped!