I could not counsel without faith.
I used to think that counseling was very clinical and distinct from
faith. Yes, I would pray for my counselees and ask for wisdom but I was very
wary of the kind of counseling that pressed God on to those seeking help. I get
uncomfortable when people use their spaces of power to push faith on others and
I saw the counseling room as such a place. I still believe it is wrong to
deliberately force someone who has come for counseling to think about God if
they have not gone there themselves or to push a spiritual agenda of your own
as the counselor. However, I’ve realized how naïve my “Separation of Counseling
and Church” stance was.
When someone opens up and shares their deepest pain, their worst
experiences, my heart breaks. I cannot cry then. But I do later. I have lived
such a privileged, grace-filled life and for the first time, I am hearing
firsthand the terrible things people can do and say to each other. And as I
listen I cannot imagine living in this broken, crying, dark world with no
Light, with no faith, as so many do – God, how do they get through each day,
each black night? I cannot live without hope and there is no hope, no hope, for any of us, for any of them,
without God. There is no true “solution” to any “problem” without God. So, I do
not “push God” but I recognize that ultimately He is their only hope, and, if
they happen to mention anything to do with faith, I jump in and begin asking
questions because, if there is no hope without Him, I would be an awful
counselor, an awful person if I did not point to the truth about the Light in
this dark world.
I could not counsel without faith or hope. I could not life without
faith or hope. Thank God I don’t have to.
