About 6 months ago God suggested I start a blog. \u00a0My first response was to laugh. \u00a0For so many reasons, I just couldn’t see it happening. \u00a0 \u00a0But over the course of about 4 months I came around to the idea and now, at times, am quite excited. \u00a0What finally persuaded me to try blogging was the realization that this June (that’s this June right now) would commence 25 years that I have been a Christian therapist. \u00a0For 25 years I have been meeting week after week with individuals who are struggling with pain, sorrow, trauma, depression, anxiety, addiction, brokenness …<\/p>\n
Though I didn’t always, I very much enjoy my work. \u00a0And if I had to pick just one thing that took me from the stress and pressure I felt in my early years as a therapist, to the hope and meaning that I now feel, it has been the loss of confidence in myself. \u00a0See … growing up I was always pretty articulate. \u00a0In high school and college people often noticed that I was an insightful person. \u00a0And then, in graduate school, \u00a0I had the chance to be trained by some pretty amazing people. \u00a0So when I began counseling in June of 1992, I was pretty confident that I could be of help. \u00a0That didn’t last long. \u00a0My insights didn’t bare the fruit I thought for sure they would. \u00a0Within that first year I began to fear that what one of my professors had said in our last months of school might actually be true. \u00a0He told my class of 91 students that we’d “probably do more harm then good in our first five years”. \u00a0I chuckled – assuming this was a bit of exaggeration and sarcasm. \u00a0Nope. \u00a0I don’t think it was.<\/p>\n
During my early years God showed me over and over that my articulate insights were insufficient help to the suffering. \u00a0So much more was needed: \u00a0grace, kindness, patience, presence, wisdom and hope. \u00a0And the exact dose of all those things was going to be different for every single person and only God could see every detail of a person’s life and know just exactly how to love someone to wholeness. \u00a0I believe the conversations I had with people in my counseling office became powerful and transforming when I began to guard against any confidence in myself and put my hope in the One who loves, saves and redeems us all.<\/p>\n
My big objection when God suggested I blog was that it seemed completely unnecessary. \u00a0Surely we have enough bloggers out on the internet right now?! \u00a0And it’s not as though I have something new to say. \u00a0Neither am I the best therapist in town. \u00a0But, He reminded me, I have been coached by His Holy Spirit, session by session, year by year, and He has given me my own way of seeing and explaining things. \u00a0And with that in mind, I hope to share once a week, for one year, what I’ve seen and come to know. \u00a0And I hope someone is blessed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
About 6 months ago God suggested I start a blog. \u00a0My first response was to laugh. \u00a0For so many reasons, I just couldn’t see it happening. \u00a0 \u00a0But over the course of about 4 months I came around to the idea and now, at times, am quite excited. \u00a0What finally persuaded me to try blogging […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperricherfuller.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperricherfuller.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperricherfuller.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperricherfuller.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperricherfuller.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deeperricherfuller.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperricherfuller.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperricherfuller.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperricherfuller.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}