BP2 (Introduction 2 of 6)
If you’re flying over the Pacific in a Boeing 777 and suddenly experience sharp pain in your left arm and feel like an elephant is sitting on your chest, would you want to know that a cardiologist exists three rows behind you?
If you have severe cramping in your leg muscles while swimming at the beach and begin to drown, would you hope that a lifeguard exists on the beach?
If you jump out of a De Havilland Twin Otter skydiving plane at ten thousand feet, would you want to know that a tandem instructor wearing a parachute exists–and that you’re tethered to him or her?
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY
Unless you have a death wish, you’re going to say yes to all three questions.
So, what if you’re experiencing severe depression, nagging suicidal ideation and unable to get out of bed? Who would you want to exist during your time of dire psychological and emotional need? I would wager that you would want a psychologist, a mentor or a pastoral counselor available to you.
But what if a divine counselor also exists, the God who designed you and made you? Wouldn’t you want him to be with you at a time like this?
Below are seven reasons (clearly not an exhaustive list) why the existence of the divine Designer is critical to the journey of therapy.
Please note that when I mention therapy, I’m referring to a journey of growth that’s not limited to a psychological focus but that also includes spiritual and relational formation as well.
First, just as a designer is needed to construct a massive and complex skyscraper .626 miles high, common sense tells us that a designer is required to build the complexity of the human mind and body. Design always presupposes a designer who knows his or her subject. Just as I turned to a website designer to build this blog site, so you can turn to the divine architect to build a healthy life since he’s the one who designed you in the first place on purpose and for a purpose.
Secondly, since Jesus as God came to us in our skin—as a human—he is able to empathize and even sympathize with our suffering, our temptations and even our mental illnesses. Empathy is a foundational attribute necessary for caring, successful therapy to occur. How amazing that the Designer Himself embodies that characteristic in his personhood (Hebrews 4:14-16). What an example for us to follow.
Thirdly, the One who designed you is a personal being, not some universal stream of consciousness or impersonal ground of all being. He can be known by you and you can be known by him.
If you have a relational God who made you in his image, then your primary purpose on this planet is manifestly clear: to pursue healthy intimate relationships.
Psycho-spiritual-relational therapy (PSRT–a way to describe Designer Therapy) is all about functioning healthily in your relationship with God and others. Indeed, life works the way it was intended to only if relationships are valued over money, power, fleeting pleasures, entertainment and toys.
PSRT exists because you were designed to be close to God and others but something terrible interrupted that intimacy. If you remain distant from God and others—and even your own self–you will experience any number of unwanted psychological symptoms.
Fourthly, science is a discipline in our universe only because we have a created, ordered universe with consistent laws of nature that can be studied and measured. We don’t encounter the chaos that would necessarily exist if we evolved from a blind and godless process of natural selection and random mutations.
Amazing DNA that is chock-full of more information than three sets of Brittanica Encyclopedias readily points to the existence of a Designer.
Since people also are created by a Designer, PSRT exists. There is an order to human nature just as there is an order to the universe. The human mind and heart can be studied. There is a normal baseline that exists because you have been designed. Therapy has a clearly defined target at which it aims . . . for life.
Fifthly, a reading of the New Testament gospels readily shows that Jesus’ character displays other attributes essential to therapy besides empathy. Grace, mercy and unconditional love are all aspects of His personhood that He brings into relationships with humans.
Where do you think the famous psychologist, Carl Rogers, acquired his idea for unconditional positive regard? Although he later identified as an atheist/agnostic, he grew up in a religious home and undoubtedly was exposed to the Christian concept of God’s unconditional love.
Jesus came to love, not condemn. In the presence of His kind of love, there is a safety to open your heart and talk about everything—good, bad and ugly—instead of hiding due to a fear of being rejected or cast aside as a shameful pariah.
Sixth, Jesus brings truth to therapy similar to how a structural engineer brings truth to the construction of a skyscraper. Just as the engineer knows that a design that is aesthetically pleasing may result in a fatal flaw, so Jesus knows that subjective feelings are not what a healthy life is built on. Experience must bow to the reality that is built into the universe.
If you have no Designer, you’re left to guess at what’s true for healthy functioning and often end up relying on what feels good instead of what is objectively true. You follow a path that seems right to you, but in the end, it leads to dysfunction and even death. Would you ever take a flight to Australia without a pilot who knows the way? You clearly want an experienced pilot who will take you safely to your desired destination.
Don’t you want the same for the destination of your life?
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND
Last of all, you are better if a Designer exists.
When the Designer is onboarded during the PSRT journey, the difference is remarkable. It’s one thing to know that a Designer created you and built order into you; it’s quite another thing to invite Him into your life and have Him live inside of you. Now the success of therapy is not resting simply on your own ability to grow but on the power of Jesus to grow you.
Therapeutic growth is much more hopeful when love, truth and the Spirit of reconciliation powers you instead of just your own self or the limited wisdom of a human therapist.
In summary, the presence of a Designer behind the universe points to the truth that you are a designed being. If you are experiencing depression, anxiety, an eating disorder, psychosis or obsessive-compulsive symptoms among other things, the bad news is that your original design is experiencing a malfunction because you are a broken being living in a broken universe and have likely developed broken ways of coping.
But the great news is that the Designer has placed discoverable truth in the universe that counselors and mentors can draw on to help restore you to your highest level of functioning through PSRT.
Designer Therapy for Life, then, is built on the certain foundation of the unshakable bedrock known as Jesus. He is the Designer, Creator, Healer and Reconciler who has come to restore you in more ways than one. Ultimately, he is the divine counselor who will lead you to a peace that passes understanding.
Don’t do the journey without Him. He came for you.
I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me ~ Psalm 16:7