Where did THAT come from?
The April 24, 2010 edition of World magazine offers a follow up feature on artist Makoto Fujimura. As a once-aspiring artist myself, the article’s subject matter caught my attention. I was pleased to see how Makoto’s work as an artist–particularly as a Christian–impacted his craft. One paragraph in the article stood out as I completely identified with his experience in my own work. When asked how creativity led him to Christ, Fujimura said,
If you are gifted in the area of the arts, you’re doing something very transcendent in your work. You’re creating works that may contain more beauty than you’re ready for. You might be an opera singer and you just did a performance that you knew you weren’t capable of. Those things can haunt you if you’re honest about it, because backstage, you sit there feeling empty, because you can’t account for the very transcendence that you possessed (p. 20).
Effective counseling also requires a degree of creativity in dealing with the particulars of individual cases. It’s been my personal experience as a Christian counselor that when I’m consciously depending on the Spirit of Christ to be present and working on behalf of counselees I often find myself conveying thoughts and concepts that I had not previously thought through or even considered in concrete form. Where the unbeliever that Makoto describes feels “empty” afterward because he cannot account for the “transcendence that [he] possessed,” the Christian feels humbled that a personal, transcendent God would stoop to help a creature in need. Despite all the years I spent in obtaining my education, and despite any creative giftedness I may (or may not) innately possess, it is the enabling of the Holy Spirit that allows the counselor to go beyond what is innate or learned in order to carry forward the work He desires to accomplish.
As valuable as education may be, as helpful as personal gifts and abilities may be, the Holy Spirit’s work in counseling is the real difference maker. He takes the counselor and the counselee to places they hadn’t planned on going; He gives a wiser wisdom to the counselor so that the counselee might better see and comprehend both the nature of the problem as well as the Solution. My apsiration is to consciously depend on the Holy Spirit for each counseling session, and my expectation is to experience His presence at work in both my life and the life of those who come to me for help.
If you are in the process of becoming a Christian counselor, let me encourage you to pursue your formal education with zeal and enthusiasm; however, realize that even more important than the academics is a vital, growing relationship with Jesus Christ and His Spirit.
If you’re already working in the field and you call yourself a Christian counselor, then let me encourage you to make time in your day to feed your own soul with Christ. Knowledge, technique, and experience all have their place, but it’s the intervention of Christ’s Spirit that moves us to places we would not otherwise go. He alone is the agent of change. With that approach, God gets the glory and we get His grace. We should regularly have those experiences in our counseling sessions where we walk away asking, “Where did THAT come from?” The true Christian counselor knows the answer to that question and is quick to remind himself.
