frustration
Tuesday, January 11, 2005 by niebuhrian
I just spent the last hour or so setting up my new email accounts. My last email addresses lasted just about 8 years. It's hard to say goodbye to them, but it is also time to enter the 21st century.
This whole escapade reminds of some of the clients I see, and the things they choose to hold on to. It is hard sometimes looking from the outside in on a set of problems or psychic blocks in the lives that are laid before me. Sometimes I find myself able to empathize and meet people wherever they are; sometimes I can't ever get there no matter how hard I try. One of the most frustrating events is to get close to finding out who someone truly is, only to have them scamper away and slip from my grip.
Churches have this sense about them as well. Part of me wants to treat it like one big therapy group, with everyone acting out their particular neurosis at any given moment. Mostly, I am reminded of how hurt so many people are, and at how their lives, my life, is full of success and disappointment. Where can you go for support, if you can't go to your church? Where can you be real, authentic, and open, if you cannot be such a person within your community of faith?
This whole escapade reminds of some of the clients I see, and the things they choose to hold on to. It is hard sometimes looking from the outside in on a set of problems or psychic blocks in the lives that are laid before me. Sometimes I find myself able to empathize and meet people wherever they are; sometimes I can't ever get there no matter how hard I try. One of the most frustrating events is to get close to finding out who someone truly is, only to have them scamper away and slip from my grip.
Churches have this sense about them as well. Part of me wants to treat it like one big therapy group, with everyone acting out their particular neurosis at any given moment. Mostly, I am reminded of how hurt so many people are, and at how their lives, my life, is full of success and disappointment. Where can you go for support, if you can't go to your church? Where can you be real, authentic, and open, if you cannot be such a person within your community of faith?
