The Society for Christian Psychology (SCP), a division of the American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC), has a new web-page and blog. For those of you interested in the theoretical and practical tasks of a Christian psychology, you ought to check it out. Yours truly will moderate the blog. Several authors will post their thoughts and ideas on a weekly basis for a month at a time. First up is the SCP director, Eric Johnson. His first post gives a bit of the background to the Society and why it exists. You may want to look around and see some of the articles, PowerPoint slides, bibliographies and the upcoming conference this September.
Science Monday: Stress and Aggression
On Friday I was listening to a local show on public radio about stress and its relationship to aggressive driving. It got me thinking about the connections between stress and aggression in other areas of life.
What does stress do? Continue reading
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Filed under counseling science
Ponder this: Epictetus on God’s power and our focus
Here’s a couple of tasty quotes from Epictetus. Yes, I know he was a stoic and not a Christian, but still they are tasty morsels to consider.
I am always content with that which happens; for I think what God chooses is better than what I choose. The Discourses, Book 7.
What do we admire? Externals. About what things are we busy? Externals. And have we any doubt then why we fear or why we are anxious? The Discourses, Book 2, chapter 16.
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Filed under Anxiety, Meditations
Why do we suffer? Does God hear? What is He doing?
Dumb question, right? We suffer because we live as broken people in a broken world. We suffer because of sin and its effects. Does God hear? If he does hear and answer, how will we know? Will it translate to less suffering in this life? Continue reading
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Filed under Biblical Reflection, suffering
What to do with “ignorant” people?
Christians, especially church leaders, ought to be gentle with all (wise as serpents, harmless as doves). We know that we ought to restore fallen folk gently (Galatians 6:1f). Well, Hebrews 5:1f reminds us of this fact as well. Why should we be gentle with “ignorant people?” Because we too are subject to the same weakness. And our leadership isn’t something that we deserved or earned, but was given to us by God’s calling. Isn’t it easy to become prideful about our righteousness or at least prideful that we do not have someone else’s ignorance and sinful straying? It is our very weakness towards pride that causes us to forget who we are and where we’ve come from.
So, what to do with “ignorant” people? Speak gently as a fellow fool. This does not mean we will not rebuke, confront, challenge. But we will do so knowing full well that we too are likely to go astray even as we confront the person on their issues.
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Filed under Biblical Reflection
“Stupid Idiot”, Dick Vermeil, irritations, and good counsel
I was reminded of an important lesson on my trip to Atlanta this past weekend. Here it is: Its easy to get overly fixated on the various irritations of life; the interpretations we make show a lot about our outlook; good counsel comes in surprising packages. What am I talking about? Read on for my tale of woe and healthy rebuke. Continue reading
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Filed under christian counseling, Uncategorized
Science Monday: the state of eating disorder research
The latest American Psychologist (62:3) is a special issue all about eating disorders research. And most of it isn’t particularly encouraging. Here’s some of the concerns: Continue reading
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Filed under eating disorders, Uncategorized
PCA Mercy Ministry Conference
I will be traveling today to the 2007 PCA Mercy Ministries Conference in Atlanta to present two seminars: (a) Distorted Sex: Providing Mercy to Sexual Strugglers, and (b) Repentance & Restoration: A Look How God Restores Broken and Sinful people. If you are interested in seeing slides, click the page at the top that says, “Articles, Slides, And Other Things.”
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Filed under Repentance, sexuality
New counseling tool discovered!
[Warning: Comic relief]. Every good counselor keeps his or her eye open for the latest/greatest counseling tool that will make them highly effective in their work. This link will take you to a video of such a technique that will allow every counselor to solve the problems that clients bring in under five minutes. Further, the technique is cheap so everyone can afford it. Check out this video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sd6iVYOpcQ
On a serious note, counselors and lay folk have their own version of this technique that they have been inclined to use in some shape or form. It is interesting that no one wants to receive this technique but everyone has been tempted to use it none the less.
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Filed under counseling
Why you might not want to email your complaints
Have you ever used email to complain or air your criticisms to another person? Is the sky blue? Of course we who use the medium have all done it. Some times we thoughtfully consider our words and present our concerns to the other person in a well-crafted letter and other times we fire off an email without much thought but that gets right to the point. Either way, it is an inferior means of communication. Here’s some of the problems: Continue reading
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Filed under Communication
Musings on Faith and Psychology 