Psychology has forgotten that the soul does not exist in a vacuum. Some of you have been going to counseling. You see therapists for all kinds of things.
You see people going for marriage, or they’re going for this and for that. And the thing that always strikes me is, by the time I talk to someone, they’ve exhausted every option that they have but God.
The reason is that modernity has taught us that God is not important.
He is a last resort, and yet he is the healer of the soul.
I have heard some pretty horrendous stories over the years. I’ve heard so many instances over and over again of someone going to counseling for marriage, and suddenly the wife and the counselor turn against the husband, and it’s the husband’s fault, or turn the husband and the counselor against the wife, and all kinds of chaos descends.
I hear people and therapists all the time encouraging people that if you’re not happy, then it’s just time to walk away from your marriage, or walk away from a loved one, or walk away from this thing that is important, when that’s the last thing that they should be doing. Because the Scripture reminds us to persevere and to endure.
See, some of you have gone to counseling and received the end result that you were not expecting.
You were going for help, but what you ended up getting was more problems, more pain, more suffering.
Why is that?
Why is it that so many times, when someone goes to see a counselor, they end up worse than when they started? They ended up with no solution, or worse yet, a solution that ended up in more misery, in more pain, and in most cases, taking people further from God instead of toward God.
So I need to explain something to you, and we really have to understand this about counseling.
Psychology initially was interconnected with the soul. The psyche, the soul, is what it was about, about healing, but a kind of healing that only happens with God. In the Enlightenment and through the modern period, you know, you think most of the 20th century, what we learned was that science supersedes, has a greater priority over God.
But what is science really?
If you think about it, if you boil it down to its most common denominator, science is seeking to understand the human condition through a human framework.
The problem with that is, is that humanity is broken. It’s sinful.
It’s separated from God. It pursues the lust of the flesh and the desires of the flesh over holiness and righteousness.
If we want true healing, it’s found in holiness and righteousness.
It’s found in God. It’s found through living in community in the church. It’s found in the Eucharist, in the body, in the blood of Christ.
It’s found in the things that God has given to us, not in a broken, frailed system seeking to understand a broken and frailed system.
Think about the people that came up with all of these different psychological theories. Every one of them was a mess. Whether we’re talking about Kant, or we’re talking about guys like Nitzke, or even Kellogg, the founders of Kellogg’s cereal. He created his cereal to deal with psychological issues, not to give you something delicious to eat.
Think about it for a second. These people were messed up in the head because they were disconnected from God.
It’s really amazing to just sit back and think about how we got to the psychologies and the theories that we have today.
There’s another problem. When we root ourselves in world systems and in the world’s way of thinking, who is the prince of this world?
Satan.
And when we follow our ways, it ultimately leads us into his ways, because he tempts us, he tricks us, he pushes us, without us even knowing that it’s happening, into something terrifying.
Most psychology traps us in hopelessness and despair.
There’s a reason for that, because the Scriptures remind us that there is a way that seems right unto a man, but in the end it leads to despair, it leads to hopelessness, it leads to more chaos, it leads to more pain, and it is a vicious cycle that just goes round and round and round and repeats itself over and over and over.
See, brothers and sisters, you weren’t destined for that.
The Scriptures remind us that the one who is free, free in Christ, the one who is free is free indeed.
Romans 8:1 is a beautiful build-up to this moment when the Apostle Paul reminds us that there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus our Lord. If you’re free and there’s no condemnation, then what counseling should be doing is reaffirming this in repentance. But we’ve got so many people out there being so cute. They think that their ways are better than God’s ways, and they’re leading people away from God.
I’ve got a bad feeling that if you’re a counselor, there are some things you need to rethink through, because while you’re getting cute right now, God might be looking at you and going, what is going on? He might be looking at you, saying right now, I want you to correct the way that you’re thinking, and he may be warning you, as he did the seven churches in Revelation, that if you don’t do things God’s way, judgment is coming.
Christian counselors are not immune. They’re not immune from walking away from God and teaching false doctrines or teaching false philosophies that are vain and empty and valueless.
Because in the empty, in the vain, and in the valueness, what that leaves us with is something no one wants. What it leaves us with is hopelessness and despair, chaos and anarchy. What it leaves us with is a path of destruction everywhere we go that follows us like a lost puppy dog.
If you want healing, if you want restoration, if you want that relationship back with your spouse or your children or your parents, or if things are so broken at work, if everything in your life feels like it’s falling apart, have you ever considered that maybe it’s God’s way of saying give up on all this empty, vainless, worthless, earthly stuff?
Is it possible that He’s saying stop building up your treasures on earth and start storing up your treasures in heaven?
Is it possible that right now you have fallen into some kind of teaching somewhere from a pastor or a Bible teacher or some online personality that’s telling you that, you know what, if you just do all these things, you’re gonna get all these rewards in heaven. Chase the rewards by all means, because it leads us down the path of righteousness.
But eternity isn’t something that we’re waiting for. It’s here now. You, as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, stepped into eternity at your baptism.
You stepped into the Holy Spirit who indwells you.
Brothers and sisters, you have eternity now. It’s not something we’re waiting for. It’s here. Heaven is on earth through the church. When we come to worship, the very throne of heaven enters into our presence.
So many of us are worshiping, and we’re wondering why we leave church more tired than we entered it. We’re wondering why the pastor won’t just get on with it, so I can go home. I’ve got things to do today.
Brothers and sisters, we should not be thinking this way.
We should be thinking about… I am in the presence of God and the saints with the angels, worshiping the living God.
Heaven is on earth now. It changes us.
If the Eucharist is just a symbol, then why bother with it?
If John 6 isn’t real, when Jesus says, eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, for in it is life, what’s the point? This is why the Apostle Paul tells us before we partake of the Lord’s table, you better have your affairs in order, and you better not have sin over you, because it will judge and condemn you when you partake of the Eucharist. It’s not symbolism. It’s real.
If you’re going to counseling right now, if you find that it’s not working, if you find that the state of affairs is worse than at the beginning, reach out to me. Reach out to me.
I’m reminded in Revelation, the very last chapter of the book, Jesus reminds us that when heaven comes once and for all, there’ll be no more tears, no more weeping, no more pain, no more suffering. There will only be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, goodness, and self-control. There will only be the fruits of the Spirit.
There will only be what God always intended for things to be.
Brothers and sisters, are you ready?
Are you ready for that kind of peace?
No matter what happens to you, no matter the circumstances, no matter the trials, no matter the tribulations, no matter the pain or the suffering that you’re going through right now, how did St. Paul say that I count all things joy? How did he say that he could endure through the pain and the hurt? It was because of Jesus. You and I have that exact same access.
The question is, are you going to look at it from the world’s view? Are you going to look at it from some counselor who only half believes the Bible and is going to encourage you in your sin?
Or are you going to turn to God and ask him to help direct your paths for his namesake, for his glory, through you and in you, so that you might become the righteousness of God, so that you will be able to take your light and so shine it before the world, so that you could become a partaker of his divine nature, as Peter writes in 2nd Peter chapter 1.
St. Athanasius said that God became man so that man might become God.
We were always created to be like him, not to be him. We’ll never be a creator. We’ll never be the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That’s not what that means. It doesn’t mean we become God in that sense, but what it means is that we become like him in the sense that we are his creation, given his image and his likeness.
You and I have the image and the likeness of God embedded within us, within our genetic code. Within your DNA is the image of God. Think about that.
Are you ready?
Are you ready to discover what that means?
Are you ready to break free from your hurts, your pains, your addictions, the things that shackle you and keep you from being able to experience life in the way that God intended for you to?
Father Don
Paster, Holy Trinity Church
