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christian counseling today
Vol. 20 no. 4
Sue K im-Ahn & Monte F i sher
Dallas Willard once said the advantage of believing in the Trinity is not that we get an “A” from God on our theology exam…
it’s that we are equipped to live in the reality of a universe where the Trinitarian Fellowship is the foundation of existence.
Nowhere is that more important than when it comes to healing.
Harry Stack Sullivan, the founder of interpersonal psychology, used to say it takes people to make people sick and it takes
people to make people well. I am not sure about the first part of that saying; the bent-ness sometimes spoken of as original
sin makes my brokenness something I cannot simply lay off on other broken people. However, surely it is true that if I am to
heal at all, it will be through being known and loved by other people.
The Church ought to shine here, but too often it becomes the
last
place where people feel they can truly open up, rather
than the first. Monte Fisher and Sue Kim-Ahn are partners in ministry at the church where I serve, and they devote their
ministries to helping unconnected people find a family and stuck people find healing. Through their words, you will find the
Trinity at work
.
– Dr. John Ortberg, Senior Pastor, Menlo Park Presbyterian Church
erry had been married nearly 12 years.
Although he and his wife had some
struggles in recent years, he thought
things were okay. Unfortunately, that was
not the case… she wanted a divorce and
Jerry immediately began hearing from her
attorney. Jerry had never felt so over-
whelmed with sadness—his life had completely fallen apart.
He felt like a total failure, completely unlovable and was
scarcely functional.
When his sister called, he was sitting in his only chair in
the middle of a lonely studio apartment with his loaded .357
Magnum in his lap. He eased his finger off the trigger as she
told him about a divorce group at a large church in Menlo
Park. She was insistent that he “try it out.”
“What’s the point?” he thought, but the next day he
managed to get himself into the car and drive the 10 miles
north to the church. He drove choking on tears the whole
way, found the parking lot, turned in, but kept driving right
past the parking spaces and back out to the street. As he drove
home, he thought, “What a stupid idea. Why would I want to
do that?”
The next Monday, he found himself driving to the church
again. Maybe it was just because he knew his sister would
ask if he had tried it yet. Somehow, in his zombie-like state,
he made it and pulled into a parking space. He turned off
the engine and sat crying uncontrollably for almost an hour
before he restarted his car and headed home. “I’m going to
really give it a try next time,” he promised himself.
The following week, he made it inside the church’s
fellowship hall just as the “Divorce Recovery” (DR) group
was getting started. He sat against the back wall as the MC
J
healing the soul
in community
