Helping someone with
Depression
Here’s an imaginary
scenario for pastoral care and some thoughts on addressing it:
Jimmy is a 17 year
old boy in your youth group. You
know his parents from church – the father’s treasurer, you’ve never got
to know the mother very well. He
has an older brother (6 years his senior) who’s doing well as a
lawyer. You’ve always known him
as a well-behaved but very internal person. He gives good answers in Bible studies and always warms to
challenges about ‘taking up your cross’ and ‘surrendering all to
Jesus.’ He confesses to you he is
extremely depressed, is often disgusted with himself and cuts himself to
relieve the feelings. He hints at
suicide. He says he has no idea
where God is in all this. He
doesn’t know whether he’s elect – but he asks God to save him almost
every day. Nothing ever happens. He is distraught.
Introductory Thoughts
1) Broken-ness is
both a virtue and an opportunity
Deut 8:2-5; Ps 51:17; Matt 5:3ff; Luke 20:18
It is a tremendous
opportunity to work with a person who has fallen on their face in utter
helplessness! This is exactly
where God loves to work with His people.
God opposes the proud but gives grace to those humbled under His
mighty hand (Prov 3:34; James 4:5; 1 Pet 5:5).
“Thorns”
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All but cursed, the
men of dust,
From garden’d bliss
dejected thrust.
Cast down to blood
and tangling thorn,
Flat-faced in mud,
bereft, forlorn.
Unmoved as ages
droned along,
Resigned to sighing
pity’s song.
To mouth their
sadness with each breath,
In love with self
and sin and death.
Then glancing back,
a glimmering sight,
Through gnarling
weeds, a shaft of light.
The tree untouched,
of matchless type,
Engorged with life,
effulgent, ripe.
It lay beyond the thorny wall,
A tantalizing
siren’s call.
All wrong reversed,
all tears made good,
All hunger filled
with holy food.
New drive possessed
the men of dust,
They set to work
with primal thrust.
To have the fruit at
any cost,
If failing this then
all is lost.
And so they pressed
against the wall
Of thorns and blades
and jagged sprawl.
Their eyes aglow
with mad intent,
Their bodies pierced
and torn and rent.
Their flesh sliced
through by razor wire,
Could not abate
their one desire.
No hurt could halt
their desperate zeal.
“Once through, the
tree alone will heal!”
Their bodies strewn
along the route,
Their hands
outstretched to reach the fruit.
Yet none would cross
this death-divide,
Their hope lay on
the thorny side.
Behind them in the
other way,
Another tree for
sinners lay.
It stood apart and
unacquired,
Gnarled and grim and
undesired.
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It did not catch the eye of men,
Who sought a ripeness there and then.
Yet this one pledged a golden yield,
To all who ceased and turned and kneeled.
For hanging lone across its form,
The Lord of Life enthroned in scorn,
Was off’ring all a bloodied balm,
With up-raised voice and out-stretched arm.
Thus from the midst of cursèd death,
Is raised His call with rasping breath.
“Come every man, leave off your quest
Find life within my piercèd breast.”
“He lies!” they shrieked through raging tears,
They scoffed and mocked with angry jeers.
“What life could this cadaver give?
What guarantee that we shall live?”
“Just this” He said with pity’s call,
“I’ve come direct from o’er the wall.
All bliss that moves your frenzied glee,
Such fountains first begin in Me.”
At once they spluttered daft disdain,
“No wounded Man or tree of pain,
Will be our well or way of life.
We’re free! You pledge us only strife!”
“Dear friends!” He pleas, “regard your plight,
“Your freedom bonds you, blinds your sight.
Your wounds for self, for self are loss,
Come lose them in my wounded cross.
“Your life is death, My death is gain,
Now trust the word of Paschal slain.
Come hide in Me through darkest night,
Soon heaven’s dawns shine fresh delight.”
Just so His promise stands above
All men, inquiring which they love:
To seek the fruit and Him defy,
Or heed Life’s call to “Come and die!”
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There is a great
similarity between depression and godly brokenness. In both, the fallen-ness of this world
and our hopelessness (outside of Christ) are felt in a profound way. In both, the person is brought to see
that life is not what we make it.
We are forced to acknowledge that our own sin and the accursed
frustration of creation oppress us and make us utterly impotent. The difference is that depression is a
condition of hopelessness and helplessness. Brokenness, on the other hand, is the quiet conviction
that, though there is no strength, no hope and no help in you, there is a
divine Helper who can be trusted in the midst of it all.
There should never be
the temptation to see Jimmy as a drain on the real business of
ministry. It will take a lot of
time and emotional energy to deal with him. Yet the opportunity for deep gospel work to occur is
actually very exciting. God works
with His people in the desert (cf Deut 8:2-5) – in the midst of that
humbling and ‘causing to hunger’, there the Word of God becomes
incredibly precious. The work you
can do with Jimmy has the potential to be far more rich and profound than
any of your regular ministry responsibilities. In the hands of God it could also turn out to be far more
fruitful in the long-run for the kingdom as Jimmy learns to grasp the
grace of Christ even in the depths.
2) Doctrine of God issues
It is important to be
clear on the kind of God who stands over and above Jimmy in His
depression. The God who Jimmy
desperately needs to hear of is not a needy monad. Glorifying God is not, for Jimmy, a
mustering up of self-willed worship.
If we were to preach that kind of ‘glorifying God’ as
Jimmy’s chief aim and (therefore) solution to depression, we would almost
certainly drive him to deeper despondency. We must not throw Jimmy back on himself
but we must preach to him a God whose glory is His gracious
approach towards the broken-hearted.
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Who is God?
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UNCREATED CREATOR
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FATHER, SON AND HOLY SPIRIT
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What is the divine nature?
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ASEITY: GOD IS SELF-SUFFICIENT – FROM HIMSELF
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COMMUNION – GOD IS SELF-GIVING – LOVE
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What is grace?
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ALL IS FROM HIM – HE SOVEREIGNLY ORDERS EVERY
ATOM AND ACT
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THE OFFER OF THIS LIFE OPENED UP IN CHRIST:
THE GIFT OF THE SON IN THE SPIRIT, THAT WE MAY BE SONS OF THE SAME
FATHER
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What is God’s
glory?
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HIS SELF-CENTREDNESS
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HIS OTHER-CENTREDNESS
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To glorify God is…
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TO GIVE TO HIM
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TO RECEIVE FROM HIM
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This means
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WORSHIP
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FAITH
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A rediscovery of
affective theology is a welcome development in reformed circles. It is now common to hear Christian counsellors
speak of the importance of the heart and the need to repent of idols to
the end of a single-minded devotion to the Lord. There is great truth in this (as I
hope has been shown in the section on depression). Yet to say that the heart is important
is not, automatically, to avoid works.
To make ‘heart-felt worship’ Jimmy’s chief aim is not
gospel. It is to take legalism to
newfound depths of difficulty. If Jimmy found it tough jumping through
behavioural hoops to glorify God, how much more difficult will it be to
jump through inner, pietistic ones?!
But Christ is the One
who worships perfectly for me.
That is the triune gospel of grace. Within Himself God is sufficient for all the worship
that is required of Jimmy. The Son’s priestly work is
Jimmy’s great hope, not his own.
Christ’s worship is that which I must confess and entirely rely
on. I never seek to repeat His
worship of the Father, I am wrapped up in it as a grateful
participant. This is what we must
communicate to Jimmy: he is included in the worshipping God by faith
in Jesus not by repetition of His worship. This is the one work (John 6:29) which God requires, to
believe in the One He has sent.
Jimmy’s telos
might be participation in the divine nature. His ultimate good may well
be worship. But it is a worship
carried out by Jesus to which he simply adds a grateful Amen.
Thus we must never throw Jimmy back on himself. His first duty is not to get his
spiritual disciplines back on track.
The gospel for Jimmy is that, right now, in the midst of his
pathetic, weak, miserable, perhaps deeply sinful life, he is
unshakeably, unimpeachably, unimprovably righteous. He is beautified, dignified, perfect
and complete in the LORD Jesus his Messiah. When a person is in the depths, they need to hear that
their righteousness lies entirely outside and above themselves (a
favourite theme of Luther’s). For a person in the pit, we must proclaim a
hope that is above. This is the
only good news worth hearing for a depressed person!
3) Clinging to the
sovereignty of God versus clinging to the Son of God.
“I want to know Christ
and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of sharing in
His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death…” (Phil 3:10). We must point Jimmy to his true Friend
and Sympathiser – not simply to an abstract sovereignty. It might be objected that Jimmy is in
no state to engage in a friendship right now, he just needs to know that
things are being worked out for good.
We reply that this friendship is not made real by Jimmy’s
feelings. Instead we proclaim it
to him in the gospel and pray that this gracious word will conquer his
heart.
Depression
Theories:
- Learned helplessness
- Frozen rage
- Frustration of idolatrous goals
A commitment to something you know will fail
=> a paralyzing feeling of hopelessness regarding yourself,
your world, you future
The first two theories
recognize something of the truth of depression. Firstly, I am helpless in a world divinely subjected
to frustration. Secondly, depression is a kind of movement beyond
anger. Yet both these theories
suggest solutions aimed at re-gaining control and re-asserting our
rights. We move far from God’s
intention of being humbled when we turn to these theories.
m therefore much more persuaded by Larry
Crabb’s theory. (see a Crabb summary)
He points to a root cause in our desires that become idolatrous goals to
which we commit ourselves. When
these goals are blocked we become angry.
When they are consistently frustrated then we experience
depression: the contradiction of being committed to something that we
have simultaneously given up on.
The solution is suggested by the diagnosis: give up on the
goal. This of course means repentance,
but it is a very deep repentance – a turning of our mind and heart (which
is deceitful above all things!)
Therefore it will
probably be a difficult and drawn-out process to ‘dig down’ within
Jimmy’s personality structure (see Appendix III) and examine the desires,
longings and ‘thirsts’ which drive him.
Fallen Personality Structure
(From p 148 of Finding God, Larry Crabb,
Alpha, 2000)
HERE’S HOW “If I do this, Self centered
relating
I’ll feel safer”
I WILL SURVIVE “I’ll find some way Arrogant determination
to get what I want”
I HATE ME “Something’s
wrong
with
me, that’s why Poor
self-image
people fail me.”
I HATE YOU “You failed me” Interpersonal
conflict
I NEED YOU “You better come Demanding dependence
through
for me.”
I DOUBT GOD “He doesn’t look
good Terror and rage.
to
me.”
The Godly Structure
HERE’S HOW “Doing this
reflects my Wise and
Other-centred
confidence in God’s style of
relating
goodness.”
I WILL OBEY “I can’t do it
perfectly Humble co-operation and joy
but I’ll do what’s right”
I JUDGE ME “When I fail to
love you, Repentance and
rest
I’m
wrong.”
I ACCEPT YOU “I don’t need you to
be Intimacy
different.”
I LOVE YOU “I want to give
something Freedom from
dependence
to you.”
I BELIEVE GOD “All things work
together Quietness
for
good because God is Trust
good.” Worship
In Jeremiah 2:13 terms
this means identifying the ‘broken cisterns’ that we have sought to
provide us with living water.
Again it should be clear how depression can also be a great
opportunity for gospel work as the poverty of the Lord’s competition is
exposed!
In Jimmy’s case I
would be keen to find out 1) where he thinks living water is to be found and,
2) what have been his experiences of frustration in this.
To draw out 1) I would
be listening out for topics of conversation where his interest rises. Who
are his heroes? What does he
picture as the epitome of cool, of success, of Chistian maturity? What does he day-dream about in his
better moments? Where does his mind go when he hasn’t got much to
do?
To draw out 2) I would
discuss the immediate causes of his ‘low’ times. Is it possible to identify certain
frustrations as triggers? What are the great ‘if onlys’ for Jimmy? What makes him angry? Could he write
out 5 major frustrations in his life so far? What does he beat himself up about the most? This leads us to…
Self Harm
This diagram of the
human personality is from Dan Allender’s The Wounded Heart.
Dignity and Depravity: “I don’t want you to see how bad or
how good I am.”
Shame: “I’m exposed”
Contempt (for self or
others). “This is my immediate cover-up,
having been shamed.”
Performance: “Here’s my long-term strategy for minimizing shame/exposure in
the future.”
In this paradigm, self-harm can be thought of
as the self-directed contempt I choose as a response to the experience of
shame. We hate to be shamed and
desire immediate covering (Gen 3:7,10!)
Yet the extreme feelings we all have associated with shame
cannot be quieted or distracted from without equally strong
counter-acting emotions. Without
the covering of Christ’s righteousness, hate works best. Self-hate is often more attractive
than hatred of others since my control-seeking flesh would love to locate
the problem in me so that the solution is also in me. My horror at
being exposed is thus quickly (instantly in our experience) turned to
hatred and this hatred is turned on myself.
For a worked-out example of all this, note the
language you use about yourself next time you lose your keys! You exposure to shame has caused you
tremendous discomfort. You cover
your discomfort not in a broken confession of your weakness and your
helplessness in a world divinely subjected to frustration. Your goals have been blocked and
you’re furious. You feel exposed
and you direct venomous accusations against yourself and somehow they
make you feel more in control of the world. (“If only I wasn’t so stupid,
life would work.”)
The expression of this hatred in self-harm
gives a great sense of relief in the short-run. I have effectively incarnated the problem – turning the
experience of shame for which I have no answer into a tangible
target for my contempt. I have
redefined my problem of shame (‘I’m a deeply depraved, wicked human
being’), into a localised, domesticated one (‘I’m so stupid/I’m so
ugly’). And I’ve answered this
domesticated problem by punishing myself. In all this I haven’t needed Christ or His cross! I have defined the problem so that
Jesus’ death is not the answer.
Instead of Jesus’ incarnation and suffering being the solution, I
have incarnated my problems and suffered for them. My self-harm is an assault on the
gospel itself – it is the declaration that Jesus is insufficient or
unnecessary. In all this I have
seriously underestimated the true problem of shame and also
underestimated the glorious covering of His righteousness!
Questions I’d ask Jimmy:
- Do you mind if I take a look? (be mindful
of child protection issues)
- Assess severity, take it out of private
domain, show that someone can handle it
- What do you get out of self-harm?
- When do you do it? (environment, causes)
- What would it be like not to do it? What
are the feelings that you’d be left with?
- What are you saying to yourself as you do
this? (literally or figuratively)
- On what basis?
- What does Jesus Christ think about you? In
general? When you
self-harm? Do you think He’d
want to cut you too?
- Can you write down on one side of a piece
of paper all the things you say about yourself when you self-harm
and, on the other, all the things that Jesus might say back?
- Could you use these on yourself next time
you are tempted to self-harm?
I’m wanting to move Jimmy towards seeing that his problems are far
bigger than the immediate causes of his self-harm, but the solution is
far far bigger still. “Jimmy you
really do need to suffer for who you are and what you’ve done, but instead
Jesus has suffered in your place. Don’t ever think His sufferings were
insufficient. Don’t belittle His
cross. Jesus is saying to you in the midst of your self-harm ‘I paid
for that, and I did a much better job!’”
Penal substitution really is at the heart of solutions to
self-harm! But getting that deep
down in his heart will take time.
You want to get Jimmy to the point where he takes his feelings of
shame to Christ’s flesh for atonement and not his own. You will need to get creative about how
Jimmy transfers his sin onto Jesus (perhaps a meditation on Aaron laying
hands on the scapegoat?)
NB: Danger of techniques. Tips
and tricks to avoid the moment of self-harm abound. Yet there is a real danger of making
these new techniques into the solution for these feelings (rather than
Christ). You might get someone
off self-harming and straight into OCD!
Suicidal Emergency
Five questions to ask:
- Are you considering taking you own life?
(bring it out into the open)
- Have you ever attempted to commit suicide
in the past? (assessing threat)
- Have you thought about how? (assessing
threat)
- What’s caused this? (moving discussion
onto the immediate issue – seeking to deflate it)
- Will you commit to me not to end your
life? (perhaps even get this in writing)
NB: Ultimately it’s their decision.
If Jimmy mentions any kind of desire to commit suicide, inform the
pastor/vicar immediately. If you assess that it’s a serious threat (he’s
tried before/he’s thought about how) don’t leave him on his own. Try to contact pastor/vicar before
contacting parents (parental issues may be involved in Jimmy’s reasons).
Families
The word coming to you from your parents always errs towards one
or other of these emphases:
either ‘Be happy’ or ‘Be good’.
If you’re a ‘be happy’ child you’ll either heed this word and
become licentious or you’ll rebel and desperately seek structures.
If you’re a ‘be good’ child you’ll either heed this word and
become a legalist or you won’t and become a rebel.
Psalm 62:11: The True Parental word is a single word (the
LORD is strong and loving - this is the one Word of the
Cross). We struggle to appreciate
its singularity, (the LORD says one thing, we hear two) and we distort
that which is meant to be a strong love and a loving strength. Only in the LORD do these two come
together – our Father in heaven must parent us!
Activities to explore family relations:
- Family tree – draw one of immediate
family. Attach two adjectives to every person
- Stones – choose different stones to
represent different family members. Arrange them. Discuss why.
- Imaginary walk through the house – what’s
everyone doing?
- What verdict do you hear each person
saying to you?
- What verdict are you seeking from each
person?
Perhaps Jimmy is a ‘be good’ son attempting to
keep the rules in order to seek approval. This may well be the ‘broken cistern’ which, because of his
parents’ (father’s) lack of affection, has run dry. Grieving that loss
will be very painful but very necessary. Seeking the Fatherly love of God
(and correcting distortions to Jimmy’s perception of it) will be
crucial. Repentance will involve
breaking free of all the ‘performance-based’ ways of relating that Jimmy
has learnt/sought. Family sessions (with the vicar/pastor as well) would
be a very good idea, if the parents would agree to it.
Assurance
Here are some quotes from Luther, Calvin,
Spurgeon and Barth:
Martin
Luther
‘A dispute about
predestination should be avoided entirely... I forget everything about
Christ and God when I come upon these thoughts and actually get to the
point to imagining that God is a rogue. We must stay in the word, in
which God is revealed to us and salvation is offered, if we believe him.
But in thinking about predestination, we forget God. However, in Christ
are hid all the treasures (Col. 2:3); outside him all are locked up.
Therefore, we should simply refuse to argue about election. Such a
disputation is so very displeasing to God that he has instituted Baptism,
the spoken Word, and the Lord’s Supper to counteract the temptation to
engage in it. In these, let us persist and constantly say, I am baptized,
I believe in Jesus. I care nothing about the disputation concerning
predestination.’
John Calvin
Warning against
speculation: "For we shall
know that the moment we exceed the bounds of the Word, our course is
outside the pathway and in darkness, and that there we must repeatedly
wander, slip, and stumble. Let
this, therefore, first of all be before our eyes: to seek any other
knowledge of predestination than what the Word of God discloses is not
less insane than if one should purpose to walk in a pathless waste, or to
see in darkness."
Faith: “is a firm and sure
knowledge, of the divine favor toward us, founded on the truth of a
free promise in Christ, and revealed to our minds, and sealed on our
hearts, by the Holy Spirit”
"Christ, when he illumines us into faith by the power of his
Spirit, at the same time so engrafts us into his body that we become
partakers of every good."
C.H.
Spurgeon
“Many persons want to know their
election before they look to Christ, but they cannot learn it thus, it is
only to be discovered by ‘looking unto Jesus.’ If you desire to ascertain
your own election; after the following manner shall you assure your heart
before God. Do you feel yourself
to be a lost, guilty sinner? Go straightway to the cross of Christ and
tell Jesus so, and tell Him that you have read in the Bible, ‘Him that
cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.’ Tell Him that He has said, ‘This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save
sinners.’ Look to Jesus and
believe on Him, and you shall make proof of your election directly, for
so surely as thou believest, thou art elect. If you will give yourself wholly up to Christ and trust
Him, then you are one of God’s chosen ones; but if you stop and say, ‘I
want to know first whether I am elect’, you ask what you do not know. Go
to Jesus, be you never so guilty, just as you are. Leave all curious inquiry about
election alone. Go straight to
Christ and hide in His wounds, and you shall know your election. The assurance of the Holy Spirit shall
be given to you, so that you shall be able to say, ‘I know whom I have
believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have
committed to Him.’ Christ was at
the everlasting council: He can tell you whether you were chosen or not;
but you cannot find it out any other way. Go and put your trust in Him and His answer will be – ‘I
have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving-kindness
have I drawn thee.’ There will be
no doubt about His having chosen you, when you have chosen Him.”
Karl Barth
“If we would know who God is, and what is the meaning and purpose
of His election, and in what respect he is the electing God, then we must
look away from all others, and excluding all side-glances or secondary
thoughts, we must look only upon and to the name of Jesus Christ, and the
existence and history of the people of God enclosed in Him” (Church
Dogmatics, II/2, p54).
“We must not ask concerning any other but Him.
In no depth of the Godhead shall we encounter any other but Him… There is
no such thing as a decretum absolutum. There is no such thing as a
will of God apart from the will of Jesus Christ… Jesus Christ reveals to
us our election as an election which is made by Him, by His will which is
also the will of God. He tells us that He Himself is the One who elects
us… As we believe in Him and hear His Word and hold fast by His decision,
we can know with a certainty which nothing can ever shake that we are the
elect of God”
"We might imagine the conversation to which it gives
rise and some of the forms which it necessarily takes. The man to whom it
is said thinks and says that he is not this new, peaceful, joyful man
living in fellowship. He asks leave honestly to admit that he does not
know this man, or at least himself as this man.
The Word of grace replies:
'All honour to your honesty, but my truth transcends it. Allow yourself,
therefore, to be told in all truth and on the most solid grounds what you
do not know, namely, that you are this man in spite of what you think.'
Man: ' You think that I
can and should become this man in the course of time? But I do not have
sufficient confidence in myself to believe this. Knowing myself, I shall
never become this man.'
The Word of grace: 'You
do well not to have confidence in yourself. But the point is not that you
can and should become this man. What I am telling you is that, as I know
you, you already are.'
Man: 'I understand that
you mean this eschatologically. You are referring to the man I perhaps
will be one day in some not very clearly known transfiguration in a
distant eternity. If only I had attained to this! And if only I could be
certain that even then I should be this new man!'
The Word of grace: 'You
need to understand both yourself and me better than you do. I am not
inviting you to speculate about your being in eternity, but to receive
and ponder the news that here and now you begin to be the new man, and
are already that which you will be eternally.'
Man: 'How can I accept this
news? On what guarantee can I make bold to take is seriously?'
The Word of grace: 'I,
Jesus Christ, am the One who speaks to you. You are what you are in Me,
as I will to be in you. Hold fast to Me. I am your guarantee. My boldness
is yours. With this boldness dare to be what you are?'
Man: 'I certainly hear
the message, but...'
In this perplexed and startled 'but' we see the
attack, and who it is that is attacked."
Faith is assurance – Heb 11:1ff.
Cf Calvin definition of faith.
Calvin is excellent on this issue of seekng assurance of our
election in Christ alone (perhaps not as good at focussing our doctrinal
speculation there also!).
I may also use the Spurgeon quote directly on
Jimmy.
If faith is assured knowledge of things hoped for then
Jimmy must seek assurance in the place we seek faith, i.e. in Christ. To
truly see Him as the Lamb is to see Him as my Lamb. Jimmy’s problem is not that he knows
Jesus, but is simply not bearing enough authenticating fruit. His problem is that he does not yet
know Jesus as he ought. Keep
preaching the gospel to him!
Tell Jimmy and keep telling him: “Do not stop short of anything less than a personal and direct
encounter with Christ!”
Putting it Together
1st meeting: Tell him you are pleased he’s wanted
to come to you, ask how he feels about opening up. Assess threat. Don’t promise
confidentiality (but discretion). Tell Pastor/Vicar after.
In all this, remember: there is no silver
bullet.
When we try to solve problems we look
for minimization and mastery. We define the problem as less than the
wrath of God against sin and the curse of all creation
(minimization). And we define the
solution as lying in quantifiable steps that are in our own power to
enact (mastery). God’s solution
involves entering into extremity (a true appreciation for the
depths of sin and curse) and brokenness (the solution is not
ultimately our repentance – the solution is Christ’s return. We are
utterly dependent on Him).
Change will occur therefore in the long process
of relationships, sharing the word, prayer, fellowship, worship, the
Lord’s supper. Get alongside – go
for walks (exercise might ‘blow out some cob-webs’), go to McDonalds
(Child Protection issues), get in the Word in creative ways (art,
meditations, poetry, music).
Give hope (‘I can really see how God can use
you in this way.’) Give community! We grasp the love of Jesus
‘together with all the saints’ (Eph 3:18). Beware being in loco parentis but always challenge
Jimmy to love his parents and engage them. Pray.
Bibliography
Larry Crabb, Understanding People, Zondervan, 1987
Larry Crabb, Depression, Metropolitan Tabernacle, 1986
Larry Crabb, Inside Out, NavPress, 1988
Larry Crabb, Finding God, Alpha, 2000
Dan Allender, Bold Love
Dan Allender, The Wounded Heart
James Torrance, Worship,
Community, and the Triune God of Grace, Paternoster, 1996
John Calvin, The Institutes of Christian
Religion, 1559 ed., 2 vols.; ed., J. T. McNeill; trans., F. L.
Battles (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960)
For a hotch-potch
summary of Crabb’s counselling models, click here
For a
comparison between Crabb and a more behaviourist evangelical, Jay Adams,
click here
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