A box of chocolates....

I am a Teaching Assistant for a class that new Master's students in psychology take. And my students have to write response papers for the readings each week. It is starting to become apparent every year that there are some basic groups of students that emerge early in the semester.

The first group is a nervous bunch. Their papers mainly focus on not screwing up any people permanently once they become a therapist. They say such things as, "I am afraid I'll get sued and put in jail?" or "What if all my clients commit suicide because I say something stupid?" They seriously doubt that their clinical skills will ever develop. Most of these students recover nicely, gain some competence, and go on to do well.

Another group, every year, is very insightful, humble, and displays an appropriate amount of desire to learn, balanced with enough confidence to not spend the entire first year of the program in hiding. These students usually write such things as, "The reading pointed out this area of growth for me...yada yada something that makes sense."

But...then there's this other group. This is the scary group. This group says such things as, "How can I be a therapist and not convert people?" and "How is it unethical for me to share the Gospel with my clients, isn't that what they all need to hear?" Sometimes they take the outrage road: "These ethical guidelines say I'm unethical if I am looking to convert my clients. The World just doesn't understand."

Uh, yeah. This is the group of papers I usually set aside for the prof to review. You know, so we can identify which students might need to come in and talk to a faculty member about their..uh, conviction.

I just wonder, why do Christians come away with this idea that it is our job to save people? I know, the Great Commission:

Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

. Matthew 28:19

But does "training everyone you meet" mean ramming Jesus down their throats? When did the church become about that?

I feel that I am, in some way, training my clients in a "Christian" way of life. But I don't do it in the back of mind thinking, "Gee, how can convert them to Christianity?" No, I speak truth into their lives. I say the hard things that other people won't say to them; I hold their secrets in confidence without judgment.

I support them in their pain. I tell them when I don't know what to do. I point out when I mess up in the therapy room. I listen to them, most of all, with a perceptive and careful ear in a way that most people don't. I have a relationship with them that is focused and for a reason. I call them to task to stick to what they claim they want to change in their lives.

If they're Christians, then yeah, let's bring up our spriritual life. Let's correct our wrong beliefs about God, about each other, about Christ.

But, those that think God called them to "save" people have some growing to do. God doesn't need me. He just occasionally gives me the gift of letting me see Him work in someone else's life. Do I pray for my clients? Yeah.

But let them be drawn to Christ because they experience love in my office. More than love, let them be drawn to the grace that pours out from Christ in rare moments when God is letting me be a vehicle of His grace.

But my only goal when someone walks into my office (I use the term loosely, as I don't have my own...I just intern at a place that has several offices they let me use.) is to help them leave a more healthy individual through the relationship that we share for a brief time. Only when we take such a critical look at our self can we even get our own junk out of the way long enough to even glimpse the work that God may want to do with us.