The Accidental Counselor

Pastor Tim: The Accidental Counselor

Imagine that it is Sunday morning and you have just finished preaching a sermon. You have spent countless hours preparing all week to teach for 30-40 minutes. As you stand at the back of the church and greet people, someone approaches you and thanks you for your teaching. You thank them for saying so and you move on to the next person. The only problem is that the person who just thanked you isn’t moving. They say something like this:

What you taught today was very helpful for me. But I still have so many questions. Can we get together sometime this week so we can talk further?

At that point, you begin to panic on the inside. You are a bit baffled that the sermon did not answer all of the person’s questions but you agree to meet with them. As the meeting draws near, you begin to get a little nervous. You wonder what questions will be asked and you struggle to know what you will say if you don’t have good answers to their questions.

And then the appointed time to meet arrives. In walks your congregant and out come the questions.

Pastor Tim, I really enjoyed your sermon on worry this past Sunday! Thank you for your preparation and careful exegesis. Your sermon caused me to think more carefully about my lifelong struggle with anxiety. Over the past several months, my struggle has intensified and I don’t know what to do. I have recently started having panic attacks and find myself getting very agitated when I am around large groups of people. I have even started avoiding events where I know there will be a large crowd. I wonder if you can help me?

With the questions now on the table, you begin to emphasize your three points from your sermon hoping that a reminder will do the trick. It doesn’t! Your friendly congregant has actually taken notes and can almost preach your sermon for you! They start probing for more detail. I know your points from your sermon but can you help me more with my struggle with anxiety? The issue could be a number of other struggles: depression, anger, addiction, marriage, parenting, being single or single again.

Deer In Headlights

With that one question, you feel like a deer in headlights. You don’t know what to do. You maintain a calm exterior while inside you are struggling with your own anxiety. Once again, you recite the passage you preached hoping that will make things better. Once again, your congregant cuts you off in mid sentence to let you know that they remember the passage but it still seems too difficult to apply to the specifics of their struggle with worry.

Why I Wrote Unstuck: A Nine Step Journey to Change that Lasts

The illustration above was repeated many times in my own life as a pastor. I would preach a sermon that was relatively helpful for someone and they would approach me asking for more guidance. Like you, I would get nervous because I did not know what else to do. This is precisely why I wrote Unstuck: A Nine Step Journey to Change that Lasts. I wanted to provide a pathway for the pastor or a friend to walk down with the person who is struggling.

Hope and Direction

In the book, there are 9 steps that are essential for change to take place in your life. The 9 steps take you on a journey towards greater Self-Awareness, Gospel-Awareness and Other-Awareness. Each chapter ends with a practical application. Here you can see the diagram that illustrates the path to change.

Step One—Get Grounded: In Christ

Whenever you are struggling with a temptation or some experience of suffering, the tendency is to make the struggle your fundamental identity. For example; My name is Dave and I am a divorced person. Or, My name is Olivia and I am a depressed or anxious person. If that is your starting point, it will lead to a distorted identity and impact your ability to move forward due to the guilt and shame associated with those issues. Instead, Dave and Olivia are both children of the living God, in Christ, forgiven, loved, empowered by the Spirit, a new creation in Christ…..who struggle with anxiety or have been through the challenging experience of divorce.

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Grounding your identity in Christ is the first step on the journey to change. It has been true in my own life and in the lives of those I counsel. As you reflect on this first step along the pathway to change, take a moment to give thanks that your mis-steps, sins, weaknesses, and sufferings do not define who you are, the risen Christ does!

"Unstuck" Available for Pre-Order!

Unstuck: A nine-step journey to change that lasts

By Timothy Lane

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This book has been brewing in my mind for over a decade.

The ideas were forming as I counseled, traveled and spoke to churches across the globe. My primary goal was to find a way to encourage people that change was possible and what they needed was a way of connecting the lines between their daily struggles and their relationship with God.

In the fall or 2016, I was invited to teach a class on worry at Carriage Lane Presbyterian Church. Near the middle of the class, I had been mulling over Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan and the thought occurred to give the class “steps” they could take to grow in grace. Soon after that class, a series of blogs began to take form that eventually shaped this book.

In late 2017, the final stage came as I reconnected with The Good Book Company and pitched the idea of a book on change that was short, accessible yet nuanced enough to capture more complex struggles. They accepted and provided an excellent editor, Rachel Jones, who gave wise feedback through every iteration of each chapter.

My hope is that this short book would be read by individuals, couples, families and churches. But I would also love to see it used in one-on-one discipleship relationships, as well as a foundational supplement for counselors as you seek to help others grow in grace.

Thank you to each and every person who had a shaping influence on this book.

Tim Lane

Google Life

In January of 2010, my wife and I traveled to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to do some teaching in various local churches. Prior to going, I had no idea where it was. In order to get my bearings so that I could see just where we would be traveling, I got my tablet and opened Google Earth. Immediately, I was located in my home. Then I typed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Slowly the view of earth began to rotate. It seemed like it spun forever. Finally, it landed just over the country of Malaysia. I was pretty shocked. It took me half way around the world. I started rotating the earth and began to get a sense of where I would be traveling; what bodies of water and countries we would pass over to get there.

With that simple example, I started to draw some parallels between Google Earth and the process of Christian growth.

Destination

Sometimes, particularly when you are struggling, it is easy to lose sight of your destination. In the same way that I needed to get a sense of where I was traveling, the Christian needs to do the same. Why? Because it helps you calibrate your expectations for the journey. When the Bible talks about our ultimate destination, it does so by describing not just a place but a state of being. The Bible says that my final destination is a matter of character; I am being slowly transformed into the likeness of Jesus. That seems unlikely if I only have my current location before me. But that is what the Scriptures confirm. They say it in many places, but none is more obvious than I John 3:2,

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him (Jesus), for we shall see him as he is.

The pages of Scripture are replete with promises of God’s good work in us to make us like Christ. Ephesians 4:23 says that we are to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Galatians 5:22-23 clarifies what that will begin to look like in this life when it describes the fruit of the Spirit,

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

When you are traveling, what happens once you get a bearing on your destination? You can calibrate your expectations so that they are not too high or too low. When I thought of the two twelve hour flights that I would have to take just to get to Malaysia, I calibrated how I needed to prepare myself for a long time cooped up in an airplane. I was able to pace myself, try to rest, keep fluids in me, and eat properly. This was going to be a marathon ride, not a quick jump from Atlanta to Savannah. Because I was properly realistic, I was more optimistic. It was a long flight, but the destination would be worth it.

When you think about the process of growing in grace, you must lift your head up and see where you are going. And when you do, you will see what a glorious destination awaits you. That, in turn, will give you hope as you battle your way, by God’s grace, to the finish line.

Copyright © 2015 Timothy S. Lane