Arc of Distortion....

I know that as Counsellors we are often accused of waffling on, using “psychobabble”. However, sometimes you come across a word or phrase that sums up something so well – and this is one of those phrases.

An “Arc of Distortion “ is what happens when one person tries to communicate something, but the listener hears something very different indeed. It’s not always that I get to experience this so vividly, but this week I started counselling a couple, and although the problems they presented were very difficult (I guess if they weren’t, they wouldn’t need someone like me!), I thought the session had gone pretty well.

Well, I got into work yesterday, to discover that this couple had phoned in, asking for a different Counsellor. They then listed all the things I had apparently done wrong in session - Not easy reading.

My problem, though, is that whilst it seems that I had obviously pressed quite a few buttons for them, their specific objections are actually not true – they managed to distort what I had both done and said because of their underlying problems. In my work we have to be highly ethical, and also spend a lot of time and energy evaluating exactly what we do with clients – so the evaluation is not the problem. But this was deeply and intensely personal, and just, well, wrong. They have agreed to come back for another session, so I would value prayers.

Got me thinking, though… When we feel God wants us to do something – big or small – the temptation is to mis-hear. Usually it’s because we have a different agenda, or a different time-schedule. We delay, prevaricate, or fill our time with really good stuff – but it’s not actually what God has asked of us. Jonah is a great Scriptural example of this.

As I watched all of the poor people yesterday caught up in the chaos at airports, I wondered how many plans had been ruined, in just one day? And whilst I appreciate the importance of the security measures, I guess there were a lot of disappointed and frustrated people around.

But once in a while, I wonder just how frustrated God gets when His plans for our lives have to have a "built-in” delay factor”? We try and distort His plans, yet He is so very patient, waiting for us to just be quietly obedient.

Pat’s Thought for the Day:
In our desire to make sure we fully understand what God has asked of us, do we keep Him on hold? Sometimes I think He would rather a touch of what we might consider misguided, quick, enthusiastic obedience, than a lot of waiting and deep sighing, wondering if we heard right……