Whenever a diagnostic category begins to blinker us, or even to blind us to the many other things going on in a person’s life, we have mis-stepped. Our detailed engagement with a person’s problem won’t be a sign of sophisticated understanding. It may in fact be a sign that our thinking has become simplistic. We have reduced this person to their diagnosis and we have lost sight of all the other things – especially the spiritual realities – that are also true of them.
Category: Counselling
Through negligence, through weakness…
Here is sin that arises not from forgetfulness, nor from wilfulness, but from some kind of incapacity. That presents us with a rather different way of thinking about sin. Not our usual: ‘God expected one thing, I chose to do another and in this I committed sin’. But a much more nuanced failing that is more inability than iniquity.
Growing in care
How easy is it, for some of us, to assume that a piece of advice – or a thoughtful Bible study – that helped one person, is bound to help another? So, we whip it out, unthinkingly, hoping to play a trump card that solves the problem and sends the person away rejoicing in the Lord, so we can get on with our day.
Feeling stuck can be a time to start over
Sometimes people get stuck. And sometimes those trying to help feel stuck as well. It is a frustrating experience for both when nothing seems to be changing. At such times, stepping back and taking a fresh look at everything is often the wise thing to do.
I just need some tools…
The Bible teaches us that real change is a matter of heart change. What we love or desire or fear has to be reorientated. The transformation from ‘bringing forth evil’ to ‘bringing forth good’ is not a matter of the right tools: it's a matter of the right treasure.