I was being a nerd (surprise surprise) this morning and I was surfing the 'net' from the companion website for my Abnormal Psych textbook. The American Psychological Association (APA) website has a site relating to the general public's psychological needs. There's articles about resilience and post - traumatic strees relating to Hurricane Katrina. I checked those out to see what use they could be.
I looked at their help sections and mostly it was this:
1. Put it it perspective
2. Find stregnth within yourself
3. Find stregnth within friends
4. Find stregnth within 'spirituality' -- I know, I know, don't get me
started...
5. Achieve personal growth from it.
Personal growth?? What does that mean? People would say 'it helped me become a better person.' Ok... Right. A better person? More compassionate? I guess.
But what about those that have another Person acting within us? This Sunday there was a message about being filled with the Spirit which was the identifying feature of someone who is a Christian. Could 'personal growth' for us translate into 'Growth in the Spirit?' YEAH!!!!!!! When I realize that I need God - when He gets me to a place where I am crying and clinging to His Word - sometimes literally - I have sat on my
bed and held my Bible like it was my favorite stuffed animal and cried and cried. I reach out and He fills me with His comfort and His peace. Then I learn to give the situation to Him and He fills me with compassion and stregnthens my faith. It's all Him. My part is to yield to Him. It's radically different than anything the APA brochures say. I don't fill myself. God fills me. My friends including believers in Christ support and encourage me allowing me to pray with them so God can do His work.
No, my future colleauges in the HDFS world and APA, it's not about 'me - me -
me and my growth.' It's about 'God - Abba - Lord - Savior and His power,
stegnth, sovereingty and Spirit.'
Amen Sista!!
ReplyDeleteIt is always so blessing to remember who fills us up and who carries us through things, but how do you think that we can relate this to unbelievers. They hear the me me me aproach to coaping/healing (whatever it may be) most of the time at least 90% of the time and they hear it form credible sources (by the world's standards) like the APA, Doctors and the media. Where is the christian voice in all of this confusion? It should be the loudest most heard voice because it is the only way to find true growth and healing, it is a way that we dont have to just cope we can actually be victorious over our struggles. Thanks for the reminder of who my savior is and what he does for me and what my job is in this backwards world!
ReplyDeleteGOD BLESS!!!!!!!
You gotta love self help psychology. i'm in that class too (section 2) (this is angie). wow, i haven't even read the book yet, and you're looking that stuff up on the internet. i suppose that's why you want to go to med school...hehe.
ReplyDelete