Sometimes people ask me why I am studying biblical counseling. “Why would you want to counsel people? I could never do that,” I hear. I do believe that it is a specific calling for me, but, at the same time, Christians are all called to reach out to hurting people with the love of Christ in many different ways. We are to speak the truth in love to people (Ephesians 4:15). We are to be the body of Christ and to show people that there is hope, even in the midst of despair, because of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Many things led me to pursue biblical counseling. The world is full of hurting people, often without hope. We see it daily in the news. I hear it in conversations with people. My dad had a personal experience with deep depression 2 years ago and I watched as he went from sheer hopelessness to restoration, by the power of God through prayer. That same year, I went on a mens’ weekend away with my church at the time (Morningside Baptist Church, Edinburgh) and listened to 2 friends sharing at an Open Mic’ time: one spoke of his own journey through depression and hope in Christ; the other a Clinical Psychologist with the NHS in Scotland, and of his passion as a Christian in that field. That day I knew that I needed to become a counselor. I am so thankful for God’s tugging at my heart as I was comfortably working for Scottish Water at that time.
Why pursue counseling? This song by Leeland and Brandon Heath sums it up well:
You live among the least of these
The weary and the weak
And it would be a tragedy
For me to turn away
All my needs You have supplied
When I was dead You gave me life
So how could I not give it away so freely?
And I´ll
Follow You into the homes of the broken
Follow You into the world
Meet the needs for the poor and the needy God
Follow You into the world
Use my hands use my feet
To make Your kingdom come
To the corners of the earth
Until Your work is done
Faith without works is dead
On the cross Your blood was shed
So how could we not give it away so freely?
Follow You into the homes of the broken
Follow You into the world
Meet the needs for the poor and the needy God
Follow You into the world
(repeat)
And I give all myself, I give all myself
I give all myself to YOU
(repeat)
Follow You into the homes of the broken
Follow You into the world (Follow YOU)
Meet the needs for the poor and the needy God
Follow You into the world
Follow You into the homes of the broken
Follow You into the world
Meet the needs for the poor and the needy God
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