I just returned from the AAMFT conference in Atlanta, Georgia (October 5-8, 2017). The experience is not always like this, but this year, there was such a theme of spirituality at the conference that God’s message was undeniable. In one session,—“Sexual Resensitization for Christians Struggling with Sexual Shame”—the speaker, Andrew Mercurio, Professor of Marriage and Family Therapy at Nyack College in New York, spoke about the messages of shame and guilt associated with sex within marriage that have permeated the church for centuries. As an example, he quoted St. Augustine: “In marriage, intercourse for the purpose of generation [procreation] has no fault attached to it, but for the purpose of satisfying concupiscence [desire]…it is a venial sin.” Mercurio explained that as he works with clients, he hopes to fight those negative messages with the positive messages that the Bible gives us about sex within marriage: Genesis 2:25, Proverbs 5:18-19, Song of Songs 5:10-16, I Corinthians 7:4-5, Eph. 5:28, 31-32, I Cor. 13:4-7.
In another session titled, “Spirituality and Health Issues: Providing Clinical Experience,” Claudia Grauf-Grounds, Professor Emerita of Marriage and Family Therapy at Seattle Pacific University, discussed the importance of discussing spirituality with clients when they are facing health issues. She identified herself as a Christian and explained how clients are often open to discussing spirituality when they face health issues. Clients also want to engage in “meaning-making” around what they are going through. In addition, she had the audience draw our spiritual genograms, which also included people who passed away who left a spiritual legacy in our lives.
Last, I had the privilege of listening to the keynote speaker, Kim Phuc Phan Thi. You may have seen pictures of her when she was 9 years old, and running out of the fires ignited by bombs that had been dropped on her village in Vietnam, which killed several members of her family. She was severely burned and has spent much of her life recovering from what she experienced. What was so beautiful about her talk was that she shared—in a non-religious-focused conference, how Jesus made it possible for her to forgive the men who bombed her village and caused her so much pain. She talked about the freedom she experiences today because Jesus has helped her to forgive. It was a beautiful story. As I sat in the middle of the secular conference and heard the gospel, I praised God. There is no place where God cannot be found and where God cannot make His truth known.
Consider Psalm 139:8-12 “If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,’ even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.”
As believers—as Ambassadors for Christ—we should have confidence to be in world for Christ’s sake. God has reconciled us to himself; in turn, he has given us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18), and as Jesus sent us forth, he also promised: “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
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