The Art of Language
I’ve read some good counseling papers the past few weeks about unpacking languaging. It talked about seeing beyond the situation and feelings that people share and to see the heart issue. Revelant information going in to Lock-in.
So at Lock-in, there’s a time to pray with other people. I’ve slowly begun to learn the art of unpacking what people share and trying to figure out what to pray for them about. Most people share external struggles and difficulties. They share their reaction to specific events and the emotions that follow. It’s good to pray for these things but the crux of the matter is their heart. Their reaction – the words they use, the emotions they feel, are an overflow of their heart. In the five minutes that they share, I try to see the heart issue, the sins that they are struggling with. You don’t weed by wacking off the stem. You have to pull it out by the roots. Same with praying and counseling people. You don’t address the situation, you address the heart. I’m slowly learning to be more surgical and see the core issues behind the words that they don’t share or see themselves.
Here’s an example of how it was done to me. I met up with Steve Choi, my mentor, last week because I have issues. I was sharing with him my struggles in a friendship that I have. I was struggling to fight the selfishness of wanting all my friend’s time. Towards the end, Steve cuts through all the words, all the masks and delivers the surgical cut that exposes sin. “You need to stop showing favoritism toward your friend and learn to love other people just as much.” BAM! That’s why I was still struggling though I saw my selfishness. That was more of a surface issue, the deeper issue was favoritism.
Even for myself, I need to continue to break down all my external fruit to see the heart inside that’s producing it.