BP1 (Introduction 1 of 6)
Welcome to the inaugural Designer Therapy for Life blog!
I’m so thrilled you joined me here to consider how psychological, spiritual and relational truths sewn into the fabric of the universe are like a map pleading with us to follow the path to an amazing life!
There are so many different topics we could address in this inaugural post . . . a thousand different crossroads to pursue. Since there are three primary components to DTFL– the Designer, therapy, and life–it seems helpful to begin by fleshing out these three ingredients. I will build the foundation of this blog site over the first six posts and then let her rip!
It’s only natural to begin with the crux of it all: The Designer.
Speaking of design, I’m not sure how many of you have heard about the construction of skyscrapers in recent years, but they’re amazing! The Jeddah Tower that is currently being built in the Middle East will rise over half a mile into the sky! When completed, it will have more than 200 stories and 59 elevators, some of which will travel at 22 mph.
We know that the designers of these monstrous towers must find a good site where they can build and then calculate how to best anchor them into the ground to withstand factors such as strong seismic activity and gale winds. When you’re up more than half a mile in the air, winds can easily reach speeds of over 100 mph!
Like the designer of a trustworthy blog site, the designers of these mega-towers must dig deep into the ground to ideally find bedrock since a firm foundation is required for their monstrous building. In the case of some skyscrapers, workers dig down 250 feet or more—almost the length of a football field—and construct a massive, Y-shaped, triangular footprint in order to create stability for the structure that will rest on top of it.
A sure foundation is everything. Nothing else matters if the foundation is compromised or untrue.
Designer Therapy for Life, like a skyscraper, is built on an unyielding foundation. On the most solid bedrock in the universe. On a Y-shaped footprint of incalculable size: The Triune God Himself.
DTFL is here to invite you to build the precious tower of your life on something trustworthy– nothing less stable and true than the Creator of the universe who designed you.
Built on this foundation, the tempests of life and the major earthquakes that rumble beneath you (even death itself) will not destroy your life. Plus, you will have God’s Universal Positioning System (GUPS) at your disposal to direct your steps in a true direction as you navigate a confusing world that feels like it has no mooring.
Without a source of truth beyond yourself, you are left to make up your own version of truth or listen to the loudest voice in the culture that is currently shouting in your ear. You will follow paths that may feel right to you but will never know if they are objectively true paths that lead to life.
A divine Designer is necessary to provide you with such truth paths that will take you beyond human guessing and philosophical relativism.
I acknowledge that not all of you will resonate with the Designer. While it is true that some of you are living lives dedicated to following GUPS, others are currently following your own navigation system for life and do not want to trust anyone outside of you to guide you—human or divine. I get that. I did that for most of the first two decades of my life.
However, I would love it if all of you would stay, read and dialogue with me. I’m not here, after all, to be controversial. I’m here because I love people. My heart’s deepest desire is that you will find the path that will lead you to a life well lived. You only have one chance in this lifetime to get it right for your joy, so you might as well hear me out.
This current post will not expound on evidence for the existence of the Designer. If you wish, we can devote time in the future to study how you can know that God exists and how to recognize his fingerprints (or footprints) in the universe as well as on the human heart.
The primary objective of this post is simply to remind you that you’re not alone as you sail on the calm seas of life on a sunny day or on the violent waters of a hurricane.
DTFL will never rest on human intellect alone–thankfully. It will always acknowledge its reliance on the Designer of human life.
How reassuring it is to know that therapy is built on the bedrock of the God who made it all. Surely such a therapy can dig deep into the subterranean labyrinth of the human heart and understand every story built on every individual’s foundation because humans are designed beings—not random accidents.
Where’s your life narrative going right now? Where do you want to end up at the end of your life? Keep checking back at this blog site. We’re digging the blog footprint here at the beginning on the foundation of bedrock.
Soon we’ll be building story after story on that foundation addressing everything from depression to loneliness, from food to sex, from attachment to the universal dynamic of divorce that lurks under every relational bridge, from anger to emptiness, from mania to suicide.
Join me next time as we consider seven reasons why the existence of the Designer is as critical to the therapeutic journey as oxygen is to a scuba diver.
You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore ~ Psalm 16:1