Do You Want Help?

    “Do you want help? Do you really want help?” I often ask those two questions in counseling.
    I will sometimes follow with something like this, “Or do you just want someone to fix your current crisis? Because real help is going to require changes in your life and the choices you are making that have led to this crisis.”
    When a couple is looking for marriage help, they want their husband or wife fixed. Parents want their kids fixed. People who are feeling guilty because of their sin, want their feelings fixed. But it is a rare occasion when people look to a counselor with a willingness to make personal sacrifices and long-term lifestyle changes on their part.
    Yet I hear things like, “I’m willing to do whatever it takes.” But sadly, that is not often true. Had they been willing to do whatever it takes to fix their problem, more often than not, they wouldn’t be in their current predicament. Again, that is often said in order to alleviate a current crisis, but it is rarely meant for the long term thinking patterns and behavior choices that have brought them to their current predicament.
    If you are paying attention to the oil spill crisis in the Gulf, you know what I mean. While our government keeps claiming that everything that can be done is being done, it doesn’t take a lot of investigation to find that is just not the case. Thirteen governments with expertise and equipment capable of dealing with off shore disasters such as this offered to help, all within two weeks of the explosion that led to this devastating spill. Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, The Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United Nations as a whole were all turned down by our administration, despite the claim that everything that can be done is being done. The help they are offering is not merely a matter of courtesy. A few of these countries have technology and equipment for this kind of clean-up that far exceeds what the US government or British Petroleum possess. “We’re doing everything we can,” is simply not a sincere statement.
    So as we are spending the summer at The Bridge talking about problems and their solutions, ask yourself if you really want help. Not, Do do want to talk about your problems, have other people feel bad for you because of your problems, or even admit that you have any problems. The real question you have to ask yourself is, “Do I really want help?” Because if you do, that will mean applying Biblical principles to making difficult changes in your lifestyle and the choices you are making. If you really want help, you’ll be looking to the Bible for the things God wants to change in you! And you will be actively making those changes!