Light of Light
“The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.” -Matthew 4:16 At the beginning of his ministry Jesus echoed these words prophesied by Isaiah 700 years earlier. In them Jesus proclaimed the…
Counseling and Wisdom
As far as helping methods go it is easier to sell so-called expertise, methods, and quick fixes. We tend to want ready answers, thus cookie-cutter wisdom, but wisdom cannot be packaged. It is not wooden or simplistic. More often than not real change requires significant shifts in perspective and motivation;…
Stillness
“We work hard and play hard not because we are more industrious or more playful than our ancestors but because we dare not stop lest in the stillness we are overwhelmed by the sound of our own anxieties and fears.” -Peter J. Gomes in his introduction to Tillich’s The Courage To…
Complicated People
As inconvenient as the condition suggested by our title may be, it describes all of us. Some attempt to “flatten” humanness by a mechanistic definition of man. Headmaster Thomas Gradgrind in Charles Dickens’ Hard Times was not the first nor the last to do so: “Thomas Gradgrind, Sir. A man of realities. A…
Merry Christmas
“…and laid him in the manger, because there was no place for him in the inn.” Luke 2:7 ESV Christmas Greetings, Few would script the coming of the world’s Savior in this way. It did not appear that the arrival of Christ exactly began with a bang. Isaiah tells us…
Understanding
“We will not achieve an accurate knowledge of ourselves, of what has gone wrong with us, and of what we are meant to be, unless we lift our eyes from ourselves to ponder God’s nature….” -Mark Talbot
Why Theology?
For many, the connection between counseling and theology is not clear. Our tendency is to look to the field of psychology for answers to personal problems and to look to the Bible for answers to spiritual questions. But in fact theology, properly understood, is intensely personal. It should not be…