Therapists and Counselors

 “Therapists aren’t people who you ‘pay to pretend to care about you,’ therapists are people you pay to teach you how to care for yourself.”

                                                                              Author Unknown

An Issue of Vision

 I needed eye surgery recently.  The surgery was an unanticipated event to correct a problem that I had never heard of.  I learned that the sudden distortion that was affecting my ability to read represented what is known as a macular pucker.  

 I have learned that a macular pucker is the result of damage to the retina.  As we age, the vitreous, which is a jelly-like substance that fills the inside of our eyes, often pulls away from the retina.  This detachment can damage the retina.  In my case, I noticed a sudden onset of multiple “floaters.”  And even though I did not experience a retinal tear or detachment, there was enough damage to marshal my body’s healing forces.  Over the course of a few years, scar tissue built up and began to pull on the vitreous that remained intact, causing the macula—the central part of the retina that is responsible for close vision—to wrinkle.  And so whenever I focused on small print, I found that the word was distorted.  It was quite alarming to realize that I was unable to read confidently.

 

Fortunately, a macular pucker can be treated.  A delicate, sophisticated surgical procedure removes the offending vitreous and scar tissue, reducing the stress on the macula and offering some level of improved vision.  And although the improvement can take as long as three months to be realized, I am most grateful to report that my ability to read fine print was largely restored a week after the surgery.

 

It has occurred to me that the phenomenon known as a macular pucker in the physiological realm has something to teach us about the spiritual realm.  As sinners in a sinful world, we sustain a good bit of internal damage to our hearts and spirits.  Some of this damage is of our own doing; a good bit of it is inflicted upon us by other sinners.  On this side of God’s kingdom, it is unavoidable.  

 

Sometimes, the damage we sustain is so painful that we avoid dealing with it, denying or minimizing the pain.  We “let it go” and move on without genuinely resolving the issue.  Over time, emotional and spiritual scar tissue can develop.  And then, our spiritual vision—our perspective—can become distorted.  We practice Christianity more to meet expectations than to express a vibrant, living relationship with Almighty God.  We react negatively to people and events that remind us of past pain as we misinterpret current events according to the past.  Our distorted “sight” handicaps us, and we struggle to give and receive love.

 

But the Gospel is Good News indeed!  Jesus came to redeem us—to take our sin and our pain and use those very negative issues to draw us to Him.  He takes that sin and pain upon Himself and offers us freedom and healing.  By the power of the Holy Spirit, He removes our spiritual and emotional scar tissue.  But our redemption—and the restoration of our spiritual sight--requires our participation: we must practice confession, repentance, and forgiveness.  And then our spiritual vision can be restored!  We are able to approach others with open hearts and know peace and joy as we minister in the name of Christ.

 

To be sure, God’s work in us can be intimidating, not unlike my eye surgery.  Often, we are blind to our distorted perspective, and we need the help of a faithful brother or sister to expose it.  And once we recognize that the scars of this life have twisted us away from God and away from others, we are required to acknowledge a need that we cannot meet on our own.  It is our Lord who covers our sin and redeems our pain even as we confess, repent, and forgive.  And just as I needed prayer support to manage the stress of my surgery, we need the patience, encouragement, and unconditional love of our brothers and sisters to support us as we allow the Great Physician to do His work in us.

 

 

 

Nice Is Overrated

“You’re so nice!”  I cringe inside when I hear these words.  While I understand—and appreciate—the affirmation and compliment, “nice” is not my target.  From a Biblical perspective, nice is not a virtue we are encouraged to pursue.  In my New American Standard Bible, “nice” appears once, at the end of Jeremiah 12:6: “Do not believe them, although they may say nice things to you.”  In this passage, Jeremiah is warning the people of Israel to beware of manipulative flattery.  And manipulation and flattery are often packaged in niceness.  But even without negative intent or connotation, nice is superficial.  Nice is often used as a substitute for depth and caring in the context of relationship.  And in our rushed, performance-oriented culture, it is easy to settle for nice—on both the giving and receiving ends. 

 

I believe that there is a good reason that Scripture does not promote “nice.”  God does not manipulate.  He proved this when He shared His free will with us in creation.  And God is most definitely not interested in superficiality.  Please consider Jesus’s interaction with the woman who sought healing from a hemorrhage that had plagued her for 12 years, as recorded in Luke 8:43-48.  We read that this woman risked public rejection by appearing in her unclean state; she manages to get close enough to Jesus to touch His robe.  She is healed!  But that is not the end of the story.  Even though Jesus is trying to walk forward amid a large and pressing crowd, He recognizes that healing power has left him; He stops and insists on identifying her and having a conversation with her.  Although Jesus is undoubtedly happy to “nicely” heal her, He doesn’t stop there.  He wants real relationship with this woman.   There is also a deep kindness associated with Jesus’s insistence on bringing the woman forth.  As embarrassing as it must have been for her, Jesus’s declaration of her healing would have put her well on the way to re-acceptance in her community.

 

As we negotiate life as fallen people in a fallen world, it is easy to compromise on many fronts: integrity, self-care, time management, relationships.  It is absolutely vital to remember that we serve a Triune God, a God of internal relationship who created us to participate in that intimacy with Him and to develop it with one another.  Our Lord calls us to be loving, kind, gracious, merciful, forbearing, and encouraging in our relationships.  Learning to do so helps us to partake in the nature of Christ, to become who He has created us to be and to become fit for heaven.  May we remember that the pleasure of nice is fleeting and not settle for anything less than the deep connection that our Lord desires for us.