About 15 years ago, when I graduated from UWO with a MSE in community counseling, I set up the non-profit organization called Life Connections. I had quit the ministry (or the ministry had quit me) with Churches of Christ which I had been doing full-time for about 15 years. I wanted to focus on counseling instead of preaching. The beginning of the end was when I preached a sermon called "Are We Becoming the Undenominational Denomination" at a Preacher's Retreat at a place called Fall Hall Glen. My Church elders got a tape of it and sent me packing. I had been struggling for years with the indoctrination I had received from "the Brotherhood".
I had attended a "preacher training school" sometimes called seminaries by other denominations. My school was a very legalistic one which I later would call a "cemetary" because they seemed more concerned on "burying the Truth" than proclaiming Him. Jesus was put more in the background to "Biblical understanding". It became more important "what" you knew instead of "Who" you knew. I made all "As" for the equivalent of four years of college crammed into two years. From Greek to Logic, denominational doctrines to apologetics, from Genesis to Revelation, we were drilled five days a week, studying 6 nights a week. My teachers even called it "saturation learning". I loved it. I gloried in it. I was saturated in the B-I-B-L-E, yes that's the book for me.
I became sure I was saved by my "great learning" and was becoming 5 times a son of satan with my knowledge of "the truth". I came from Texas to Wisconsin to save all the lost in and out of their churches to come to the one and only TRUE CHURCH of CHRIST. Interestingly in Wisconsin I began to return to the faith of my childhood--were Jesus became again a real person and a personal God.
I had originally gone to this school to gain "tools" so I could try to make sense of the Bible. Well I learned the tools. Unfortunately the TOOLS became more important than the people. I had become a "religionist" and as my knowlegde of "the Book" grew my spirituality slipped away. My faith was replaced with facts. The Bible had become a text book instead of a guide book to point to the one who is the Source of Life. I needed to once again become connected to that Life. I had to lose my life to find it.
I wanted to offer counseling to those who were hurting at a cost they could afford, especially if they didn't have insurance. I didn't want to be a "Christian Counselor". I wanted to be a counselor who could help guide people--\especially religious people--to find what I had found. Unfortunately, I didn't know I wasn't ready. Fifteen years later, two years of being part of a mental health clinic, two years of counseling sexual abuse victims (and their abusers) and ten years of facilitating domestic abuse offenders was helping to prepare me. Especially by using the cognitive, behavioral approach to assertive communication skills. Assertiveness training and decision making is learning to think in a way to really take care of ourself without being abusive or controlling to others or to ourself.
So now Life Connections is going to be the conduit to help guide others and myself to the Way, to the Truth and to the Life. What do you and I need to do to connect to Life--REALLY? How is this done? Well it's a journey called "this life'. In a word: ASKING. Learning to ask for what we really need and focus on what we have control over--ourselves and not the other person, be they partner, spouse, parent, child, friend, enemy, etc. It seems so simple yet it is so profound: Ask and it will be given to you, Seek and you will find and Knock and the DOOR will be opened to you. A--S--K. And everyone's journey is individual. And no one can ask or seek or find for you and I. We need to do that ourselves. And it's ok to ASK for help, in fact I believe it is essential.
What do you need to do to take care of yourself, without hurting or controlling others? What is it that you need to ask for--really? Interested? How do you not focus on others or things which we have no control over? How can we learn not to give our power away? It can be done and it's a process of connecting the dots. Which dots you ask? The dots that connect your heart to your Life Connections--emotionally, physically and spiritually. Check out the website: http://www.lifeconnectionsinc.com and continue your journey. I would be honored, humbled and previledged to walk beside you. We can help each other as we seek to connect to the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE. I promise you I do not have all the answers. I do believe I can help you in asking some of the really important questions.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
