We are so thrilled to have become connected with Dr. Alan Weissenbacher. We are excited about the possibilities that this relationship will foster. Our first endeavor together, is the wisdom that Dr. Weissenbacher is sharing with us in this guest post.
Should Christians Get Counseling?
By Dr. Alan Weissenbacher
Have you ever thought of the Good Samaritan story (Luke 10:25-37) from the perspective of the victim?
Jesus gives no particular identity to the victim, but maybe we can imagine what this unidentified person might say. “Ouch, I hurt. Everything has been stolen, even my clothes! Oh, a priest is coming. Go ahead and walk by. No worries. I have prayed to God, and He is sufficient for me. Wait, now this Samaritan is stopping. No need, no need. I don’t want to burden you. God will not give me more than I can bear. Carry on. It’s just a flesh wound. I’ll be ok. Wait! Stop! Why are you putting me on your donkey?”
This is not how the story goes! The expectation in the real story is that someone who needs help should get help! Yet many of us struggle with the idea of asking for help, particularly regarding needs related to mental and emotional health. We tell ourselves that all we need is to take our problems to God in prayer – and we should – or that God is sufficient for our needs – and He is. But that is not the end of it.
Proverbs 11:14 (NKJ) says, “Where there is no counsel, the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.” We are supposed to seek wisdom and advice from others. This is highlighted again a few chapters later in Proverbs 18:15 (NKJ) that says, “The heart of the prudent acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.” We are also told in Galatians 6:2 (NKJ) to “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” If we need help, advice, or direction, we are told to seek out others.
There are people in the body of Christ who have the God-given talent and training to provide wisdom to people in areas of their mental and emotional lives: marriage/family therapy, addiction therapy, trauma recovery, counseling for mental problems like anxiety or depression, or life-coaching to name a few. The spiritual gift of healing (I Cor. 12:9) doesn’t just relate to physical issues, it covers mental ones as well. If you need help, get help. And it does not have to be a “major” issue. Counseling is seeking wisdom from someone trained to help you work through whatever you need to, from serious life issues to challenges common to many such as changing jobs or kids going away to college. Deciding which type of therapy is right for you depends on your needs and varies from person to person, but the bottom line Biblically is to seek help.
And getting wisdom when a problem is small keeps it from becoming more serious later, and healing will likely be faster. For example, if my airline flight from San Francisco to New York is one degree off, it is much easier to course correct early when I am only a few miles off course than at the end of my flight where I find myself in the Arctic.
But what about the idea God will never give us more than we can handle, often interpreted as “We can get through this without outside help?” Why should we get counseling?
The idea of God not giving us more than we can handle comes from 1 Cor. 10:13, where it says that you will not be tempted beyond what you can bear, and God will always provide a way out. Yes, God will provide a way, but the verse does not specify what that way is. What if the very solution God is giving you are professionals who can help? And to press this further, “God not giving us more than we can
handle on our own” is not Biblical. Life constantly gives us more than we can handle. This is why we need to rely on God. John 15:5, states that God is the vine and we are the branches, and apart from God we can do nothing. Life is more than we can handle. We need to rely on God and the means God gives to empower us: prayer, Scripture, and the body of Christ – other people.
Also, it may be pride and wanting to be self-sufficient that stands in the way of asking for help, and both are not Biblical. We need others for encouragement, wisdom, and to shed light on areas of which we might be unaware. After all, we can be masters at deceiving ourselves.
In conclusion, think of a hill with fresh snow. Earlier in the day, you can sled down however you want. As the day progresses, you carve some deep furrows in the snow, and it steadily becomes harder to make a fresh track. You easily fall into the earlier ruts and follow them down. Your brain is like this hill. Through the years you have worn some deep grooves in your brain for various thoughts and behaviors, and some of them are so deep and established that you cannot get out of them alone.
If you need help, get help. As stated in Proverbs 12:15 (NKJ), “The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.” Seek it out.
Dr. Alan Weissenbacher is the author of The Brain Change Program. He served many years as a chaplain at the Denver Rescue Mission, where he helped homeless addicts by removing them from an urban setting, empowering them to operate a farm, and providing them counseling, spiritual care, and job training. His work with these clients inspires his research into neuroscience, spiritual formation, and methods of improving spiritual lives, religious care, and addiction recovery. http://www.brainchangeprogram.com
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