September 7, 2008
Rev. Kip Gilts and Dr. Celeste Riley

         I believe there are three kinds of stories: great stories, TMI stories, and NEI stories.  NEI stories are Not Enough Information.  That’s when someone begins in the middle of a story with, “I told her that we would stop by on Friday night.”  This story teller left out who, where and probably several other important items of information.  TMI stories are those with Too Much Information.  These are those stories that include so much minutia that the storyteller never gets to the point.  They extend the story by asking, “Was it Tuesday night or Wednesday night?  Did I order the spaghetti or the lasagna?” Before the story is at its much anticipated point you find yourself ready to scream, “It doesn’t matter!  Get on with the story.”  I am afraid that for some people faith seems to be an element of one’s story that doesn’t seem to matter.

Several months ago we were asked to rate on a scale of 1-10, “The degree to which your faith impacts how you live your life.”  This one question simply won’t leave my mind and soul.  I believe that the number has been on a steady decline in our country for my entire life.  I have seen it in the way we schedule our lives, compartmentalize spirituality, and make behaviors relative.  Faith and religion have been referred to as crutches for the impaired and opiates for the masses.  But what if faith is essential to life?  What if faith is the intangible factor that separates life with meaning from life without meaning?  What if faith is part of the divine plan and divine destiny for our lives?  If this is the case, shouldn’t faith impact how we live to a large extent?  If this is the case – faith matters.

One of the more interesting intersections of faith and life is where faith meets psychology.  There have been cases where one’s faith has seemed to almost feed one’s psychological pathology.  I served as a chaplain on a psychiatric wing of a hospital for two years and witnessed firsthand such instances.   On the other hand, I have witnessed times when faith has been an integral element in one’s mental health and healing.  I think David was an individual for whom faith mattered a great deal.  But his faith was not the inspirational repression of which I have heard some mental health professionals refer.  His was more of an inspirational expression.  His faith allowed him to explore the depths and ascend to the heights of life.  Listen to two writings ascribed to the shepherd, poet, musician, and king.  The first one is more familiar.  It is Psalm 23.  Hear now the word of the Lord:

¹The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. ²He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. ³He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. ⁴Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. ⁵Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. ⁶Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

What a beautiful expression of confidence and well being.  This is the place for which we all long.  But if you read the Psalms in numerical order, you have to read Psalm 22 before getting to Psalm 23.  Hear a portion of this expression of the soul:

¹My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? ²O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest…⁶I am a worm, and not human; scorned by others, and despised by the people. ⁷All who see me mock at me; they make mouths at me, they shake their heads; …¹¹Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help…¹⁴I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; ¹⁵my mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death… ²³You who fear the Lord, praise him! …²⁴For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted; he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him.

This is the word of God for the people of God.  In these two psalms we hear cries of despair, hope, and the faith that bridges them.  Faith matters.

I have invited Dr. Celeste Riley to share with us today how faith matters in her profession as a counseling psychologist who specializes in the treatment of anxiety, grief, and depression.  There are few professions that people more on edge than those represented this morning.  I cannot tell you the number of times when I have been on a plane, at a ballgame, or even in line at the store and someone asks me, “What do you do for a living?”  You can see it in their body language that my response does not bring immediate comfort as they quickly review the conversation to remember what it was that they have already said. 

My guess is the same thing is true for the psychologist.  I have a quirky cartoon in my files that has two psychologists getting into an elevator.  One says, “Good morning.”  The other responds, “Hello.”  The thinking bubble above each of their heads reads, “I wonder what he meant by that?” 

Psychologists are known for being able to see beyond the manifest message to the real issues.  Celeste is someone that I heard of before I actually met her.  Her father-in-law, John Riley has been my mentor throughout my ministry.  He and I were visiting one day and he told me about Celeste, Hayden, and their son, Corbin, moving back into the Bryan-College Station area.  I have had the opportunity to visit with her several times since then and have found her to be ever as competent and compassionate as John described her.  Celeste, please come and share with us how faith matters in your life and career.

When Kip asked me to speak in the middle of one of his sermons, I felt very honored and quite humbled. When he mentioned that it would be something of a personal nature, like how my spiritual life and career were intertwined, I became a little intimidated and, quite frankly, a little incredulous. I’m not a pastor after all, so the connection is not as obvious, and how I use my faith at work…. that’s kind of personal territory! That’s role reversal for a psychologist!

When I first thought about the link between my spiritual life and profession, admittedly, the first place my mind took me was all of the little 911 prayers that I lifted up during my training. They usually started the double please for emphasis… “God, please PLEASE,” followed by a strong request for God to allow events to fall my way. For example, as an intern prior to a therapy session, “Please, please don’t let me utter anything completely ridiculous. Please just close my mouth if it looks like it’s coming to that.” 

When I thought a bit more about how my profession is intertwined with my faith, though, my mind went to what my job requires of me, and how my faith supplies things like my motivation, my hope that people can change and my ability to form meaningful relationships. I think that very often, these are the core things that people need from a psychologist. It is my faith that supplies these critical intangibles I think I need to even show up at work: faith, hope and love.

I think one of the most common things people are seeking when they initially come to therapy is hope. Often people I see are not able to hope for themselves at first, and they need someone to hope for them. To be honest, my faith usually works behind the scenes here, meaning that my faith is what supplies me with hope so that I can hope for others. There is a verse I rely on to remind me that the human spirit is strong, and therefore always deserving of hope. 

2 Timothy 1: 7 for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.

To me this says that God designed each of us to face things we fear, to change ourselves, to be in relationship with others and to grow in faith.  I discovered this verse in grad school while I was studying for an oral exam, and to me it’s a concise statement God’s intention for our spirit, or our emotional well-being. It is this description of how He has emotionally equipped each of us that allows me to hope for anyone that walks into my office.

One of the other intangibles that I like to think I offer, or at least encourage, is faith. Usually when I ask people what they would like to accomplish in therapy, one of the most common first answers is usually ‘to feel better about myself,’ sometimes phrased as ‘to feel more confident.’ In my mind, I’m usually decoding that answer into something like, ‘to have faith that I’m a worthwhile person, or to have faith that my life has a purpose.’  Often these discussions are where my own faith is on-stage rather than behind the scenes, because people start sharing their own faith experiences with me. Besides ‘How old are you,’ ‘Are you religious,’ is probably the most common personal question I answer for clients. I think, rather naturally, that people want to know what I believe because it is then easier for them to explain where their own source of faith comes from.

The other intangible that people should get out of a therapeutic relationship is just that…a relationship. One of the most profound things that therapy offers, even if the therapist does not say exactly the right things or foster the deepest of insights, is to remind people that they deserve good relationships. In other words, clients hopefully remember that they are worthy of unconditional love. Part of really experiencing and believing this is receiving that kind of caring from someone who knows your story…the good, the bad and the embarrassing. As this process unfolds, I sometimes think about the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well who gave Jesus a drink. Even though she meant to hide her past from Jesus by saying, “I have no husband,” Jesus already knew her story…. a little more thoroughly than she had anticipated. He said, “You are right in saying ‘I have no husband’ because you have five.” His response essentially caught her in trying to cover up her real story. I can’t help but think about how his shedding that pretense affected how she felt about her potential to be loved. Eventually Jesus told that woman who he really was as well. She left the well that day knowing that the Messiah had known her past, and had reached out to her in love anyway. That story, to me, is a critical reminder of how relationships, in the context of being deeply known, change how people view love.

The Bible is chocked full of stories in which people experience the very range of emotions that we do today. The stories of Job, Moses, Jonah and the disciples are just a few the people who mirror our own turmoil with despair, fear and avoidance. The 23^rd Psalm that Kip chose for reflection today are some of the most eloquent and relied upon words that we turn to when we are facing similar turmoils. To me though, the fact that we also have these stories of despair and hopelessness  and wrath and fear…. the fact that we have the 22^nd Psalm preceding the 23^rd Psalm sends us a powerful message. First of all, that God cares about the range of emotions we experience. Also, the fact that these troubling emotions are described in such detail indicates that God understands our stories. The context of being deeply known by God is set for us. Finally and thankfully, these stories mean that each of us is also equipped with intangible characteristics that allow us to cope when we find ourselves becoming one of those Biblical ‘head cases,’ ….even if you happen to be a psychologist.

Faith, hope, and love.  These are offered behind the scene and on the scene.  I have witnessed expressions of faith that discount the care of psychologists and counselors.  I have witnessed psychological care that has attempted to exclude matters of faith.  I think each of these falls short of that which God desires.  Celeste mentioned that the key element of counseling is a healthy relationship.  I see this as the constant in Psalm 22 and Psalm 23.  In fact, I believe that it is only after one has been through Psalm 22 that one can clearly proclaim Psalm 23.  It is only after one has been through the valley of the shadow of death that one can say, “The Lord was with me through that time.”  I see the bridge between the despair of Psalm 22 and the hope of Psalm 23 to be found in Psalm 22:24, “For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted; he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him.”  The relationship with God is what makes all the difference.  Regardless of where you are on the spectrum between Psalm 22:1 and Psalm 23:6, I encourage you to connect with God relationally, because faith matters.  Amen.