Administering the “Joy of the Lord” as treatment?

Posted on September 22, 2008

[This is the fourth and final post for September 2008 from Society members at IGNIS (Germany). This post is authored by Wolfram Soldan.]

Feelings of guilt and the struggle to know how to respond to it are common problems faced in counseling. We would like to help clients with these problems by wishing them “joy of the Lord” to encourage them, give them strength and a new start (like the “reset button”). But instead we know that in many situations this biblical advice does not seem to work.

Nevertheless, Nehemiah achieved success in leading the people of Israel through destructive guiltiness into gladness. It is profitable to take a deeper psychological view into this topic found in Nehemiah 8.

The context: Many Israelites had been back in Israel for about a decade and yet the walls of Jerusalem and the temple were still in shambles. When Nehemiah arrived, he disposed to rebuild the city wall in 52 days (!) against great odds. Soon, the people became familiarized with the word of god in a very intensive way. In response, the people seem to despair upon seeing their failures. After days of corporate repentance, fasting, weeping and practical steps of change (Neh. 9:1-3), Nehemiah stops the people’s acts of sorrow and directs them to celebrate for some weeks.

How is it possible for the Israelite leaders to cause such a change? There are some “ingredients” in the situation that may be helpful for us today:

• “This is the holy day for the Lord our God” (v. 9-11). The leaders connect the people to tradition of the Sabbath by using their authority as leader but anchoring that authority to the highest standard, God.
• “Don´t be sad. Don´t cry.” (v. 9). Notice the leaders make a command here. While the command does not make psychological sense by itself without specific and concrete operationalized application (e.g., stop crying) along with the command in the next point.
• “Let’s go, eat fat meals and have sweet drinks” (v. 10). Note this is positive, alternative command (concrete with relish).
• “And send some to those who have nothing prepared” (v. 10). Note the social application to care for other people so that all are included and the problems of jealousy and frustration prevented.
• Repetitions (“not distressed”, “holy day” (v. 9 – 11). Note that we need repeated reminders for what we need to do until we have comprehended and realized it (well known from Behavior Therapy).
• “The joy of (unification with) the Lord is your strength” (v. 10). Note the leaders put this celebration into the grand context of connection with God, not merely removal of guilt feelings.
• “The people went to…have great joy. Because they understood the words, they were told”and so they were led into a concrete alternate experience (mirth versus affliction). It is a sometimes ignored truth: good instructions are only as good as far you will realize them. We have to check for compliance, otherwise all efforts end up in frustration.

Application for today: When Christian counselors, filled with a heart of passion, creativity and truth, propose such concrete steps of the joy of the Lord to their clients, then the truth statements about taking joy of the Lord transforms into an effective medicine (right time, right dosage)

(Translation note: The text of the Bible in German compiles different German translations (esp. “Revidierte Elberfelder Übersetzung” und “DaBhaR-Übersetzung”). This compiled text is the basis of the English translation.)

Experience the Word!

Posted on September 8, 2008

[Kathrin Halder, of IGNIS (a Christian psychology educational center in Germany), and fellow Society member provides us with some thoughts on the role of experience in the Christian life.]

I don’t know about you. But in my Christian upbringing I was trained to cherish the Word and Christian doctrine over everything. I was urged to read the Bible, to bathe in it, to have my entire mind filled with it and to trust it more than my feeble human experience (so e.g. never saying that miracles could not happen, even if I had never experienced it so far).

Well, no Christian would probably want to argue about the importance of the Word and doctrine, about its predominant role in contrast to human experience. Nevertheless today I want to dare to advocate the importance of experience in the Christian life.

For one I don’t see the Word and experience as a strict contrast. As Immanuel Kant pointed out in his famous saying “words without experiential correlations are empty.” Words as well as the Word could not even be understood without experience. Would we really understand what the Bible would mean by grace, love or forgiveness, if we had never made any experience with somebody being gracious, loving or forgiving in our life?

And is it not actually the Bible itself teaching that God wants to lead us into an experiential relationship with Him and with the truth given in scripture? Would the Word not remain grey theory, if we clung to the mere word without seeking experience? Does a one-sided way of teaching that we live in faith and not in sight lead to an anemic Christian life, where we stop reaching out for things like physical healing? Just because we don’t “need” it we may try to prove to ourselves that we trust in the scripture itself without the necessity of experience.

I believe that a healthy, balanced inclusion of experience provides some helpful hints to find wrong interpretations of the Bible. For example, does somebody interpret the biblical call to be overcomers as living a life without problems in some constant stoic tranquillity? Experience could assist in finding out about that error. When problems, deep feelings of anger, or unrest and fear come, we rightly interpret that we don’t fully live the life of an overcomer yet (what most definitely is true). But on the other hand that experience also leads us to an honest cry to God that something is wrong, that something doesn’t work in this life. And thus God might be able to correct us, to show us that he means to be present in our trouble, for us to pour out of negative emotions before God as we come close to His comfort and solutions for the situation.

I love the Word, I cherish it deeply, it will always have the predominant place in my life, but I have also come to respect the importance of experience in my Christian life, of dissolving wrong contrasts between the Word and experience. And sure enough my life has become less anemic!

Fear

Posted on June 18, 2007

[Editor's note: this is the final installment from Ed Welch. This post considers some ways he, as a biblical counselor, looks at fear--an emotion that underlies most mental health concerns.]

Flip through the most recent version of the DSM and you find, of course, a rapidly expanding assortment of problems. Some of them clearly link to Scripture, others seem outside Scripture’s reach. With Oppositional Defiant Disorder Scripture comes alive, but with Asperger’s Syndrome or Paranoid Schizophrenia it seems silent. But if Scripture is really about a worldview – the lenses through which we see everything – then Scripture will color, clarify and reinterpret everything, even modern diagnoses.

Scripture is in the public domain. It aims for the person in the street. Therefore, it begins its reworking of the DSM by taking the technical terms and reducing them to their basic observations. When we do that with sophisticated terms such as paranoia, generalized anxiety, panic attacks, phobias, and many others, we find that they are versions of ordinary fear and anxiety. (And this doesn’t include the fears and anxieties that mobilize depression or addictions.) The American existentialists such as Irving Yalom are right. There is fear and anxiety everywhere.

If this is true, we would certainly hope that Scripture speaks early and often on these topics, and, indeed, it does. If you track fear chronologically, it is the most prominent consequence of sin in the account of the fall. Going to the end of Scripture, fear is clearly in view behind the final words of blessing in Revelation 22. If you want to look for the sheer number of times it occurs, fear and anxiety are among the largest sections in a concordance. The number one command in Scripture? “Thou shall not have sex”? No, by far and away the most frequent command is, “do not be afraid.”

The problem is that, in the imperative form, there is not much more to say. Don’t fear. Don’t be anxious. If you are either one, repent. End of story. Or, if you happen to remember Philippians 4 you know that when you are anxious you should pray. End of story. But there is more to say. While it is true that there are some passages that call fear sin because it kept people from acting on God’s explicit commands, such as the command to the Israelites to take the promised land, on the whole the commands are more pastoral than authoritative.

Luke 12 would be an example. It is the Sermon on the Mount passage, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life . . .” What Luke adds, however, reveals the tone of the passage.

Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. (Luke 12:32)

This changes everything. It is like a father who, when his daughter is taking the car out for her fist solo trip, says, “Drive carefully honey.” Though technically in the imperative form, that is not meant as a command but as a statement of his love and care for her. With this in mind, we would expect God’s words about fear to be plentiful, beautiful and persuasive, which they are.

• The terse, “do not worry” does not capture God’s intent. In the Sermon on the Mount passages (Matt.6, Lk.12), you can hear Jesus working hard to persuade. He appeals to his Father’s care for creation. If he cares for the rest of creation, don’t we realize that he is going to care for children who he created in his image? You can almost see Jesus’ understanding of how fears can be so recalcitrant, so he patiently returns to them with surprising words of comfort.

• In theological discussions there is a lot of talk about God’s covenants with his people. Are they unilateral? How many are there? What we often miss is that covenants were usually made during times when people had reasons to be afraid. In other words, at particularly difficult times God doesn’t say, “I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousands times. I am not saying it again.” Instead, he ratchets his persuasiveness up a notch and makes promises. Then he delivers his promises in way that invited certainty. He swears that what he said will come to pass. He even swears it on his very life. The death and resurrection is the final swearing that God’s promises to us are true and certain.

• The greatest promise is “I will never leave you.” The Scripture always points to God himself as our peace. All change from fear to peace and rest comes as we know God better.

• The existentialists are right about the prevalence of fear. They are also right that the fear of death lurks right under the surface, though camouflaged. God’s response? Certainly, the gospel of Jesus demonstrated its global authority by defeating death. All world empires hold their power, ultimately, by the power of the sword – follow or die. The cross abolished that power and set us free from the bondage of fear and death.

Here is what I am saying. First, fear and anxiety are my specialties. So thank you for indulging me as I quickly rehearse some of God’s words to fearful and anxious people. Second, where we as Christian counselors can get waylaid is when we overlook the richness of Scripture. If we think that God’s words on fear can be reduced to “don’t” and “pray,” we feel like we better look other places for help. But when we get glimpses of the depth of Scripture, we persevere in it and keep working at it until it gives up its riches. Biblical counseling, of which I am part, is not against extra-biblical data. Rather, it is for the breadth and depth of Scripture as it relates to the details of life.

Further Thoughts About Emotions

Posted on June 18, 2007

[Editor's note: this is the 3rd blog post by Dr. Ed Welch. In this post he muses about a practical theology of emotion.]

In the last blog I suggested that a Christian counselor’s identity is that of practical theologian. We want to think both biblically and theologically about all the issues of life. One way to do that is to examine the standard theological texts of our denominational traditions and ask, so what? What difference does that make for life? What difference does that make when my neighbor just lost his job? These questions are actually biblical themselves. They are not simply those of pragmatic practitioners. In Scripture, you will never find a dangling theological proposition. Every theological statement is expected to lead to action. It always has a “So what?”

One thing you won’t find in a theological text is a chapter on the emotions. Granted, emotions are embedded in the theological discussion about the heart or soul, and emotions are not things in themselves but they are signposts that reflect interpretations of life, so we can understand why they don’t receive separate chapters. But if you spend any time with people, you need a theology of emotions.

The Society for Christian psychology has already had presentations on this topic, but there is always room for more. Here are a few thoughts. They assume that we are ontological dualities, but most Christians who hold to theological monism would probably agree with most of them.

Emotions are bodily experiences. No debate there. You can feel them. Scripture even uses names for bodily organs as a way to identify emotions. A messed up body (or brain) will lead to messed up emotions.

As embodied souls, our emotions are also expressions of our souls, hearts, or spirits. This is not always true, because sometimes emotions are exclusively bodily experiences caused by bodily weakness. Also, emotions can be a hybrid, caused by both physical and spiritual issues. But Scripture as well as our own experience suggest that it is true more often than not. Emotions are a language of the soul. They have a cover story: “I am alone,” “I am a failure.” They also have a deeper meaning: “God has abandoned me,” “I want to trust in at least something I can do well rather than trust in God who strength is apparent in my weakness.”

In these two propositions, we have a fairly sophisticated and robust theology. Notice, for example, their application to depression. Depression is a bodily experience that may well be an expression of the human heart. One of the beauties of Scripture is that you don’t have to know the actual cause before you can help. There is nothing that keeps you from trying to assuage the emotional storm with physical treatments while you simultaneously ask, “what else is depression saying?”

When you walk with someone who is depressed you usually find that it is saying a lot. Listen and you might hear anger, fear, guilt, hopelessness, and shame. All these have spiritual roots and are addressed through spiritual means.

Did anger cause depression or was it simply revealed by it? It might be an interesting question, but, for ministry purposes, the answer is irrelevant.

How often can we expect to hear spiritual matters in depression? (“Spiritual” meaning that it points to our relationship with God). We rely on our own experience for that. Scripture doesn’t give the statistics. In my own experience I find that there are critical spiritual matters in the majority of depression, and as these spiritual matters are resolved in the gospel they seem to make a significant difference in the depressed person’s experience.

These propositions can form the foundation for a theology of emotions, but there is much more than can be said. One worthwhile area to consider is the connection between emotions and wisdom. My thesis is this: intact emotional responses are huge assets for growing in wisdom; without them, we can easily repeat foolish mistakes.

A 16-year-old male goes to a friend’s house with his buddies. He didn’t know that the friend’s parents were away. Soon after arriving, the alcohol and drugs come out. The young man refuses. Why? Because he was caught drinking a few weeks before. Apparently his parents have a keen nose for drugs and alcohol. As a result of getting caught, he parents took away all car privileges for a month.

The reason he refuses drugs and alcohol is that he can emotionally imagine the consequences of getting caught again. One month could turn into one year, and the thought of that is horribly depressing. So he refuses, not because he has anything against drugs and alcohol. He refuses because he can viscerally imagine the consequences of getting caught.

Take the same situation, same internal moral compass, but a different facility with emotions. Take a young man who is unable to feel very much. He will indulge because his emotions supply no warning signals.

This, in part, is what happens during mania. The artificial high leaves the person unable to feel anything miserable. As such he or she is prone to make decisions that have deleterious consequences.

These are a few thoughts on emotions. Certainly there is more to say. One final meta-comment. If you read my first blog you know that I call myself a biblical counselor. The reputation of biblical counselors is that they are obscurantists. But this last point on emotions showed my affinity with integrationists in that I was suggesting something that was not explicitly biblical. I am not so sure that our stance toward extra-biblical data is what distinguishes us along the Christian counseling spectrum.

Designed by Business Broker