The Dilemma....

....What to write about!

I have many thoughts swirling in my head. I'm reading 3 great books right now that all could prompt multiple posts:

1- Relationships: A Mess Worth Making. This is co-authored by my former pastor (Tim Lane) and Paul Tripp. Obviously, this book is about relationships.  The premise is since human relationships are designed to reflect the community the Trinity has then relationships are worth being involved in and fighting for...
2 - Competent to Counsel by Jay Adams. This is the classic book on biblical counseling. From the beginning I can see the difference in nouthetic counseling, that focuses heavily on sin and biblical counseling of CCEF variety - that seeks to first find the good and suffering in the counselee before addressing sins. (Obviously there are caveats to that, but in general the goal is to first build the helping relationship by developing the sense of togetherness / "we" and acknowledge the hard things in their life before addressing apparent sins.) Still, Jays book has a good foundation for why God and the Bible should be more central in counseling practice.
3 - A Shelter in The Time of Storm - Meditations on God and Trouble by Paul Tripp. This is about suffering of course, expanding and illustrated by Psalm 27.

Then there are posts on life or things from class and other lessons I'm learning OR what I'm confused about. There are the frustrations with how sometimes it seems communities don't want to be faced with a person's suffering. The injustice or shame of being silenced when wanting to share struggles and seek solace or healing through biblical relationships can be hard to swallow...

There's a lot to be shared. I'll just have to wade into things as they come to me and make decisions (yuck!) about when it's time for the posts that have already been in my head for some time. Until I get some of these posts out I'll have to try and be patient...That's hard! Stay tuned for a variety of things that may not seem connected at first. My hope is to tie it all together and show that everything is connected in big ways...ways that matter!