The Cross

Yesterday I had a conversation with a pastoral counselor. He is kind of a mix between a pastor and a professional counselor...hence the name pastoral counselor. I'm not sure exactly what the difference is between him and a Christian counselor. I do know that he said the words pissed off a lot. That is one of those phrases that depending on what church circles you run it is either looked at as cool and edgy or crossing the line. Maybe saying that phrase is the difference between him and a Christian counselor.

He said a great line to me that has been sticking in my head ever since our conversation. He said that "when someone experiences pain they either take it to the cross or they act out". His point was that when humans go through a difficult situation they either react by acting out...throwing a temper tantrum, over eating, crying, cutting, doing drugs etc, or they take their problem to the cross. He didn't elaborate at what it means to take your problem to the cross, but I think he meant that we give our concern, anxiety, issue over to God. I think His point was that in order to find healing we can either act out and try to deal with our problem on our own or we can find healing by bringing our issues to God. Psalm 68:19 says, "Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens".