the proof is in the pudding
I meet with my wonderful pastor's wife (I am not sure why I call her that, as actually she is the associate pastor at our church and therefore my pastor within its own right!) once a month for a time of study, reflection and 'refining' (her helping to refine me, not the other way around!). This time is very precious to me and I really do feel enables me to run my race better.
One of my favourite 'mottos' is a phrase from the bible about pressing on. This is what I aim to do, and I love that my pastor's wife is willing to jig me further along my 'race' in lfe. We have a very complex family, a very 'unscheduled' life, multiple jobs and multiple job roles between Ludo and I, so we are certainly not an easy 'client' for Cathy and Graham (our pastors) to take on! Anyhow, one of my favourite verses is from Philippians 3: 13-14:
"forgetting the past and looking to the future to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us".
Just a wonderful, wonderful verse. It is all in the pressing on - working towards letting go of the past, including past behaviours, and running your race well. Finding out what your particular race is and running it well. This is what my ministry at Kadayer is all about. I love working with individuals and family units to help them to achieve this, and I am now in the extremely exciting position to have been asked by a rather large 'company' of churches to come on board their team to do just this for their pastors and interns. Wow! What a huge blessing. God had told me at the beginning of this year that I would be a church psychologist (that is no an actual position though!) and I was like, yeah God okay. Can you not see I have a family, a business, a ministry and a baby? So he was right. Again.
Anyhow, I digress. My assigment for this month from Cathy is to study James - in fact, we have been studying it for a while but she is teaching me to really study and meditate and apply the bible to my life all day, every day. It has been such a rich addition to my life, and my 5.30am starts are just when God wants me to be doing this with Him and learning from Him. Every strand comes together in the end!
This month I am studying James 2 & 3. What has really struck me is that the proof really is in the pudding. The more I learn about the bible, the more I see it proven in science. My work and my ministry is all about using proven strategies, research and behaviour analytic and psychological methods to help people to achieve their goals, be it individuals overcoming trauma, abuse, depression, anxiety, families healing and thriving as a unit (whatever that unit looks like), or teaching children with autism and language delays to talk, it all comes from the research and is 'proven'. We cannot and must not improvise or mess with behaviour - it is complex, it is messy and it is potentially dangerous. However, the more I now study the bible the more I see that the bible and science go exactly hand in hand. I am yet to discover a contradiction.
So, 'proof is in the pudding'. I always work with my clients to teach them how to overcome their past and press on to finish their race well, whether that be their past of not being able to talk, their past as a non christian, their past in an abusive relationship or just bettering themeslves to better their future walks. The proof is always in what they do and what they think and we take data and track patterns to prove things are working. The bible, in particular James, says just that. Faith and action must work together. We cannot just have faith and hope for the best. It is up to us to action what we need to in order to achieve our goals and our path God has for us. Sometimes this is hard and needs a professional or a team, such as www.kadayer.co.uk or www.networkinterventions.com to help you to achieve this. The key is that we must do this for ourselves, as well as in our deeds for others. If we are unable to help ourselves, how can we truly help others? We are very clearly called to press on, because a person is justified by what he does not just by faith alone. James says that faith without deeds is dead - harsh words, but true! If we cling to our baggage and our problems, we are not pressing on with our race.
True faith transforms our conduct as well as our thoughts. If our lives remain unchanged, we can't truly believe the truths we claim to believe. It is okay to ask for help to change our lives! Behaviour is impossible to change ourselves, without changing something in our environment - the research says! Now I am not saying that deeds (be it changing ourselves or doing good deeds for others, which changing ourselves allows) is a substitute for our faith, not at all. Paul teaches us very clearly on this. What I am saying is that a changed life is verification of our faith in Jesus.
Faith always results in a changed life. Faith always results in a changed self. Faith should always result in good deeds. My NIV study guide tells me that true faith is a committment of your whole self to God - I like this. In getting help, which I am a strong advocate of as you know, we are committing our whole self to God and to His change for us. My NIV also tells me that faith brings us salvation, but that active obedience demonstrates that our faith is genuine. I like this too.
Happy Sunday, everybody
Lu
