I have the priviledge of preaching at my local church about once per year while our pastor is on vacation.  For the last several years, I have challenged myself to write one new sermon ( instead of cheating by dusting off an old one which I assume no one would remember).  This year, I set out to preach on the topic of joy, and in my preparation, I ran across a wonderful little book entitled, Champagne for the Soul, by an author named Mike Mason.  I had previously read his book, The Mystery of Marriage, which I still think is my favorite book on that topic from a Christian perspective.  So, I was anxious to see what Mason says about joy. This book resulted from an experiment in which he covenanted to focus on joy for 90 consecutive days.  The result is a collection of 90 short (1-2 page) meditations on this subject, each working off a biblical text with the word “joy” in it.  A few chapters into the book , I knew that there was no way that I could capture the essence of joy in one sermon, so I tabled that idea and preached on another subject instead- Maybe next year….In the meantime, I have thoroughly enjoyed this profound book, and highly recommend it to any and everyone.  Just as joy is a phenomenon that transcends rationality, Mason seems to produce an endless supply of literary allusions and metaphors to elucidate the many nuances of joy.  At first, I thought I could read the book easily in one or two sittings, but then quickly realized that there is so much to ponder in each of the 90 meditations that I could only handle one or two per day.

I won’t even attempt to summarize the book, because I could not do it justice.  Please read it for yourself.  I will mention just one quote that continues to stick in my mind:  “Joy moves pain along.”  By this Mike Mason means that because joy is so closely connected to the hope that we have in Christ, we don’t stay “stuck” in whatever pain we are experiencing.  Rather, by the gift of joy that only God can give us, we keep progressing towards God and a deepened awareness of His Presence – and that’s what’s propels us to survive pain until we finally come out on the other side.  This is what C.S. Lewis himself testifies to, when upon losing his wife, Joy, to cancer, he progressed through the standard stages of grief towards a calming awareness of God’s love.  And of course, Jesus, “who for the joy set before him endured the cross.”  (Heb. 12:2).  I trust that this Christmas season, we will all learn more about this Joy, which as Mason tells us, is not something we possess, but is indeed a Person.

Dr. Rick Sweitzer

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Over what is now my almost 30-year career, I have witnessed the coming and going of many trends in the fields of psychology and psychiatry. Like every generation of graduate students, I was exposed to the prevailing schools of thought regarding what makes us “tick” properly, what causes us to “tick” improperly, and how to restore our “ticking” to its originally intended state.

Now 30 years later, I am observing a new trend in the gradual movement away from separating the human person into distinct realms of physical, spiritual, and mental/emotional functioning and toward viewing the human person as an intricate integration of the mind, body and spirit.

The “spiritual realm” in particular has become of increasing interest in the mental health field. At the outset of my career, spirituality was still considered exemplary of one’s neurotic need to depend upon someone other than one’s self. Now, our field has apparently learned that we cannot lean entirely upon our own resources for healthy emotional and relational functioning.

The good news is that centers such as Charis are now considered by health insurance companies to offer a legitimate specialty in Christian counseling, whereas when I began in the late 1970’s, such an association would have been detrimental to acceptance in the psychiatric community.

The bad news is that now we operate in a climate in which anything that claims to be of a “spiritual” nature is accepted, and even promoted. While mental health professionals recognize the need for some sense of the “transcendent” in people’s lives, the prevailing attitude is that each person has the innate capacity to define for him or herself who or what constitutes their “god.” Related to this sentiment is the assumption that all such individual perceptions are equally valid and that the notion of what is “true” is determined solely by what “works” for an individual.

In actuality, what has happened in the mainstreams of mental health is a digression away from any form of orthodox beliefs (i.e., Trinitarian, Christ-centered understandings of human nature and its relation to the Divine), to a bias towards hodge-podge forms Eastern mysticism, which now dominate presentations at major trainings and conferences.

As a Christian, I do agree human beings are not just physical or just mental/emotional, or just psychological beings. I also agree that these components are interdependent and that a more comprehensive approach to healing must be considered. In my own thinking, I have moved away from assuming that physical symptoms of my clients are either totally unrelated to psychological problems, or the reverse—that their chronic pain or other condition must be purely “all in their head.” I now have a greater respect for the mysterious interplay between mind, body and spirit.

I am less quick to assume that a client’s chronic headaches are only stress-related, or that their anxiety condition is exclusively caused by psychological trauma in childhood. I have become more “wholistic” in my thinking, challenging clients to seek help from other professionals who expertise in the physical realm supersedes mine, while at Charis, we continue to work primarily upon the “psycho-spiritual” aspects of their functioning.

Allowing “spirituality” to become more acceptable in the healing arts has,  however, opened up “Pandora’s box.”  In my next post, I will speak more specifically about some of the techniques that have appeared on the scene and have become very attractive to mental health professionals and their clients.

For now, I will simply refer to a warning from the Apostle John: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.”  (I John 4:1) How do we perform such a test to determine the validity of any “new” technique or theory about human functioning?  John answers this question in the very next verse: “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.  This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.”

One year we each were assigned one of the seven last words of Christ. Another year, we were to view the trial of Jesus and the crucifixion through the eyes of a particular character, mine being Pontius Pilate. This year, we will be focusing on Luke 23.

My particular passage is verses 13-16, and has been entitled, “The Innocence of Christ.” By the way, the 3 hours includes more than just seven speakers pontificating (that would be a cross to bear in and of itself!). We are limited to about 7 to 10 minutes each.

In between our short homilies, there are periods audible prayer, silence and singing of hymns. The periods of silence may actually be the most profound. Living in a world with constant auditory and visual distractions, it takes some discipline to sit even for 10 minutes at a stretch and silently read, pray and meditate. However, many who have attended, including myself, have commented in the past about how such times of quiet have allowed them to contemplate deeply about the significance of Christ’s sacrifice.

Preparing my short talk each year is challenging because of the time limitation involved. I am sure this is true for my pastoral colleagues, who preach 30 -40 minutes every week. The trick is to narrow our remarks down to one main point. I will attempt to focus on the nature and meaning of Jesus’ innocence, and how it was necessary for our redemption and salvation.

One interesting side note that I came across during my preparation is this: Besides Pilate, there were four other characters mentioned in the various Gospel accounts who were also convinced of Jesus’ innocence. And, only one of them had any prior relationship with Jesus. Who were they? Judas had been, of course, a disciple of Jesus for the previous 3 years, so that even though he betrayed Jesus, he had plenty of grounds for eventually realizing that he had betrayed an innocent man. The other three, however, had no personal connection to Jesus – Pilate’s own wife, one of the criminals hanging next to Jesus, and the centurion at the foot of the Cross.

How do you think each of them became so firmly convinced that Jesus was an innocent, righteous Man, without any prior knowledge of Him?

Bill Bodio is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LHMC) and has a Masters in Education. He has worked at the main Charis Counseling Center in Middleboro, MA for 13 years. Sheree Harrington is licensed independent clinical social worker (LICSW) and an ordained minister, with a Masters in Divinity (M.Div.) from Gordon Conwell-Seminary. Sheree currently works in the Auburn, MA office of Charis.

Let’s listen in on this past interview…

What mental health contexts have you worked in before? and why do you now choose to work at Charis?

BILL: I have worked in probably every conceivable mental health context. I’ve worked with the chronically ill, I’ve done extensive work with addiction, I’ve worked in the public sector at an outpatient clinic… but its only been the last 12 years that I’ve worked in a “faith-integrated” sector.

I decided to come to Charis because I became really aware that the medical model (of psychotherapy) was really reductionist and had some real limitations. For example, it looked at all suffering as pathological and as something that we should try to get rid of as fast as possible. But as a Christian, I believe that some suffering can be a grace and that we need to find ways to find meaning in our pain, as well as joy.

SHEREE: Let’s see… I’ve worked in community health settings, I’ve worked at a children’s psychiatric hospital, and I’ve worked with kids who are physically challenged. What was missing from those sectors was the ability to express my faith and to work with people who share my faith.

What kind of cases do you find most fulfilling to work with?

BILL: The most fulfilling cases are ones that are challenging, when the individual is resistant to change, or the complexity of the case is high, but you hang in there and in the end, develop a genuine and authentic relationship with the individual that leads to growth and healing.

SHEREE: I like to work with women who are struggling to find their identity in Christ. Many of them come in with anxiety and depression. It is most fulfilling to see them move from not having an identity (in Christ) to claiming that identity and really realizing how much value they have in Christ.

What roles do prayer and Scripture play in your counseling?

BILL: I like to stress that all of what we do needs to be viewed as an instrument of prayer. All of our daily routines, all of the things we care about, can be approached through prayer.

SHEREE: For me personally, it is important to gear myself up for counseling everyday by praying and asking God to allow me to encourage people where they need encouragement, challenge people where they need to be challenge, plant seeds of faith in the lives of people who are not Christians, and build up those people that are (Christians).

During counseling, I typically open and close a session with prayer, but I always ask the client first. Not everyone is at the same place spiritually, not even among Christians. As for Scripture, I try to use it when appropriate. If it fits with what we’re talking about, or if I can weave it in somewhere, I will.

If I am working with someone who is not a Christian, I make an effort to meet those people where they are. I don’t proselytize or beat them into accepting Christ. I can weave Christian principles into my counseling without saying Jesus or God in every sentence. The client figures out pretty quick that I’m not trying to pedal something.

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