DOES JESUS HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH COUNSELING

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You catch yourself mad cleaning, yelling at someone inside your head. Nothing works, you can't even believe you have the energy to clean. You just feel dark, alone, and like you are crying inside. You show up at church every Sunday, or you used to. You used to teach and help. Maybe you still do. You believe in Jesus, sort of. You think you do. Sometimes you are just not so sure. He seems distant, or even absent. Your faith is weak and you aren't sure what to do next. You go through the motions, but so much has gone wrong. You thought you were doing it right, but the bottom fell out and life fell apart. You fight hard, all you want is to help the people you love. You watch them hurt and your heart breaks, you can not let them see you cry. You try to fix it, make it better. You try no matter the cost to you. Now, you are mad cleaning feeling hopeless and wondering if it is worth it. You think "I need something, what is it?" You cry out to God, "Where are you?" "How could you let this happen?" "I thought I was doing the right thing." "Will this ever end?" What else are you going to take from me?" The list of questions goes on and on and you wonder if you need professional help. You wonder if you are having a nervous breakdown or if you are losing your mind. You wonder who to call. You don't want anybody at church to know how you feel. You might be the pastor, his wife, or the worship leader, and if they found out how you really feel…..

Does Jesus have anything to do with counseling and what kind of professional do you need? Showing up at church doesn't work. Praying isn't working for you either. You have heard that therapists and counselors use techniques and have beliefs that are the opposite of what you believe. You know they will say of course your views are welcome here, but then you hear that they will tell you to empty your mind and you know, that is not the correct answer. You know, the Bible tells you to be filled with the Spirit, but you already feel empty. Well, maybe you feel full, full of junk, weighted down and heavy. Whatever it is, you don't know where to turn.

Yes, I am a licensed therapist in Maryville, Tennessee and I do believe that Jesus has everything to do with counseling and therapy. I know that while many licensed therapists will tell you that Jesus was good and that you can learn a lot from loving like he did when you look closely, they do not see Jesus the same way you do.

Silence in the Dark

You believe Jesus is (yes is, not was) both fully human and fully God. You don't understand it, but you believe it, most days anyway. You feel like Job when he was sitting there listening to everyone, even his wife telling him to give up. I believe you might be a lot like Job, I'm not saying that God allowed an attack from the enemy just to prove you are faithful. However, John Chapter 15 gives us another picture of why you may be experiencing so much silence and darkness. The other day someone said something, I wish I knew who, to give them credit. They said that "the teacher is always silent during the test." It's only at this moment that I suddenly realize that if God is light, then the darkness we feel during a test makes sense. The Gospel of John Chapter 15 offers us an explanation of what happens in the dark.

15 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. 9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.<

The Grapevine

Let's focus on the verses above and what they might have to do with Jesus, counseling, and the darkness that is surrounding you. Maybe you do some gardening and know about pruning, maybe you don't. Either way, I'm not sure you know about pruning grapes. When the Bible refers to a vine, most of the time the reference is to a grapevine. Have you ever swung on a grapevine? I have. I digress, the correct question for me to ask you is, have you ever seen a vineyard right after it was pruned? I have only seen pictures, but they tell me all I need to know. The vines in the pictures I have seen, they don't got no branches at all. Ok, I'm having a little grammar difficulty here, but you get my point, right? You heard me correctly there are no branches left on those vines. Matter of fact, I think they even cut the vine back as well. I don't know for sure, I do know that I don't see any branches on those vines. I have chewed on these verses for over twenty years. Jesus indicated that all of the branches get cut. Maybe it is because of your life's circumstances or maybe rebellion brought you to the pruning, the separation, and the darkness. Regardless, you just know you are stuck in the dark.

The current common cultural teaching of people who only consider Jesus to be a good man or prophet is that he just wants us to love one another. Taken out of context, it's easy to say that. Jesus tells us over and over to love one another. He meant that, but consistently, before he tells you and me to love one another, he tells us to do something else. I believe that is the piece most of us miss. It's the piece I struggled with for so long. Before he tells you and me to love one another, he tells us to put him first. He says Love God first. Here in this passage, he tells you and me to "remain in me." Another translation uses the words "abide in me." ( NKJ) You and I miss that detail, we are to hang out with Him first. He is supposed to get our best time and our effort to please. He tells us to do what he says, He tells us that when we hang out with him and do what he says, he makes us clean. See, you have been feeling dirty, dark, and junky, the test has been hard, the teacher is silent and the lights are off. Regardless of the source of the pruning, you are at rock bottom. Jesus tells you to stick with him, day in and day out twenty-four/seven abide with him.

You Are Not The Only One

I believe there are two clearly visible examples of The Gardener pruning branches very closely to Jesus. One was burned in the fire (metaphorically of course– well maybe not) the other, well let me just tell you, he bore fruit. Let's talk about the first guy, even people who don't know much about the Bible know that calling someone Judas means they are a traitor. That's right, Judas like you and me betrayed Jesus. If you read scripture closely, Judas' sin, I believe, was forgivable–don't shut me down as a heretic just yet. The betrayal is the problem for sure, but what did Judas do once he realized his sin? Some believe that Judas was well-intentioned in trying to force Jesus into the violent war of rebellion he believed would come from the messiah. Truth is, I don't know. I just know what Judas did with his rebellion. Judas separated himself from Jesus, returned to the enemy, and tried to give their money back to them. He was sorry, I think it's safe to say that the gardener cut Judas back to the vine and the decision Judas had to make was either hold on tight or run away. He ran away. He ran to the enemy for absolution. I think that might be one of the branches that ended up in the fire.

The Gospel According to John, Chapter 18, just after Judas betrayed Jesus Peter did the same thing. Peter betrayed Jesus after fully declaring that he would never betray him, Peter was prepared to die for Jesus, well, until he wasn't. Peter's betrayal is more often called denial. He denied knowing Jesus, three times, and the third time he adamantly swore that he did not know Jesus. Again, don't take my word for it, read it. Peter realized his betrayal as well, exactly at the time Jesus told him he would. Peter made a different decision than Judas. Peter didn't run to the enemy for forgiveness, he ran to Jesus himself. I am confident that Peter spent some time in the dark over those days, he ran to an empty tomb he saw Jesus, but he felt the separation. He couldn't stay away, he wanted to be with the one he loved and he even ran to him from out of his boat, chapter 21. Maybe you don't know that Peter went on to lead the church, he wrote part of the Bible and he gave his life proclaiming his Loyalty to The Son of God, the one he watched die to pay for the betrayal.

Are you still wondering what Jesus has to do with counseling, Jesus has everything to do with counseling. The darkness, the heaviness, the feeling lost and as if you are so tired you won't make it another day, that feeling. Peter and Judas both felt it. Judas ran to the enemy and then went out and hanged himself. Peter ran to the comforter, the shepherd, the one who spent three years teaching him how to live. You don't have to keep trying to survive another day, you don't have to die in the darkness.

Wonderful Counselor

Where are you running for your answers? Are you running to the enemy? Are you running to a world that acknowledges Jesus existed but degrades him to the role of just another man? Jesus is The Counselor, it says so in Isaiah 9:6. He is called Wonderful Counselor. Yes, it is possible that your brain is ill and you need medication. More likely though, you need to run to Jesus and rest, listen, and learn from Jesus just like Peter did. More often than not, you and I take the world's approach and think we need to just love others. You and I are more concerned with getting the credit for doing something good. Sometimes, you and I are so busy loving other people that we forget to love Jesus first. It is during those times that you and I end up hurting the ones we love the most.

Jesus, the ultimate counselor tells us to come to him for rest. Peter made his first priority pleasing Jesus. Paul said in Galatians 1:10c that if he were still a people pleaser then he would not be a servant of Christ. When you and I look to the world for approval or answers we end up deeper into the dark. When God prunes us, the purpose is so we can latch on to the vine and grow the fruit of the spirit, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, Faithfulness, and Self-Control. When you think about counseling, what are you looking for? Peace? Joy? Gentleness? Faithfulness? Love? You get my point, right? The Wonderful Counselor will take those horrible times of darkness and pain in your life and if you make him your first priority, he will show up, make the fruit grow in the dark, and then turn the lights back on so the fruit can grow even more.

You can go to the world, to therapists who deny Jesus, maybe you have read this and are thinking you don't believe in God or Jesus and we are just here by happenstance. There are plenty of therapists and counselors in Maryville and Knoxville TN who will help you decrease your pain and increase your happiness. You get to decide if you are going to live your life separated from God. Should you decide to see me, I will respect that choice and offer love and kindness and gentleness for a couple of reasons first of all, because The Gardener, with a broken heart, respects that choice and secondly, how will you ever know how much he loves you, if I don't? After all, that is what he tells me to do second. div.class_name {
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