A Modern Fable

[Lisa]

A Modern Fable​

Yvonne sets down her half calf, non fat extra foam latte and presses the play button on her machine

Hi, Yvonne, this is Eve. You know how we’ve talked about what God said about the tree of life? Well, the serpent had some interesting and persuasive comments. I kind of think I better get your take on it. Um...call me back-hurry! Adam’s hungry...beep.

Yvonne, this is Noah. I just wanted to thank you for helping me and my family through the building of our ark. Ridicule is hard to cope with, which you understood and I think you understood us having to keep building the ark..I know, I know it’s desert here! Gotta go-the animals are in place-God’s closed the door, was that a drop?...beep.

Hey Yvonne-Moses-Thanks for helping me to find better ways to talk to Pharaoh. I agree, telling Pharaoh to let God’s people go like that was too confrontational and more likely to make him defensive and unreasonable. So, I toned it down a little listen to this..first Aaron and I bow down-O pharaoh we respect your rule, but we respectfully ask that you release God’s people..and um, your people too. We’re not trying to antagonize you and wish to come to a good compromise so there aren’t any hurt feelings. So, what do you think?....beep.

Hey its me, I’m so mad! Unity, we’re the 12 tribes, shouldn’t we be united in our thinking? But NO! We were sent out to scout the promised land, its fantastic—but too dangerous. So we come back and file our report and I thought we we’re all in agreement-but no, Joshua (Moses’ favorite) pipes up and says we can take them, and then Caleb says we can take em. So, Moses listens to those guys, not us. Had you been there counseling us, I know we wouldn’t be stuck wandering the desert till we die!...beep.

Yvonne it’s David. Pick up! Your supposed to be on call! Ok, the deal is, I just spotted this hot and I mean hot chick and they’re bringing her up here and.....(loud knock) gotta go..beep.

Yvonne, pick up, pick up Yvonne, it’s Gideon, I’ve got to make this decision in a hurry. God wants to pare down my army, how crazy is that? Doesn’t He want us to win? Anyway, do I pick the guys drinking with their hands, or the ones sipping straight from the stream?...beep.

Elijah here, Yvonne, God’s asked me to go up and confront these Baal priests but I’m scared for my safety, God wouldn’t want me to do it if I might get hurt, would He?...beep

Yvonne, I’m a prophet of God, so I want to remain anonymous, but um, God asked me to marry a prostitute and love her. I made the decision on my own to obey Him and now it’s a mess! She’s out prostituting herself and I keep bringing her back....there’s kids involved. God says it was to show Israel how He felt, but would He want me to suffer like that? I’m miserable, do you do family counseling?....beep.

Hi, I’m Esther, long story short, I’m wanting to honor my Uncle Mordecai, he’s been like a father to me, he wants me to go to my husband the king and help our people, the Jews. I also want to respect my husband because I’m not allowed in his presence unless he calls and he hasn’t called in a while and he’s pretty serious about his privacy. I could be put to death! I’m only a girl and I’ve been praying but it doesn’t seem like God’s part of this story...beep.

Hi, I’m John, Elizabeth’s son. From a very young age, I’ve felt called to God. People think I’m a little strange in the way I live, but I’m dedicated to God and the Messiah, the One who’s coming. I just baptized this guy today, I think it was Him, but maybe with your insight, we’ll be able to figure it out together?...beep.

I’m Mary, Elizabeths, cousin, ummm, I made this decision one night and well now people think I’m lying to protect myself from shame. I’m not, but maybe I can come and talk to you about it?...beep.

Hey Yvonne, this is James, you remember counseling John don’t you? Well we’ve been using I feel statement and I think its working. We’ve included the other guys, but Peter, mister stubborn, he just does what he want’s (Peter in background saying I would never deny You!)...beep

Y. I know we’re leaders of the church and all, but the other day Barnabas brought Paul into see us. Paul...hello! I recognized Saul of Tarsus right away! I know we discipled under Jesus Himself, but sometimes I felt like I didn’t understand a lot of things. So, I thought I’d call you and with your training and knowledge, maybe we could figure out something here...beep.

Yvonne, got your name from some other people in the congregation, they thought you godly in your counsel. Anyway, here at church some of us believe we should go with Paul and his Christ and some others...well I won’t get into names, but they want to follow other’s Christ. Then Paul, he just keeps telling us its all about Christ. I thought maybe you could help me see what Jesus would do...beep.

Yvonne smiles-no problem!

Fable Follow Up
Yvonne, after trying to deal with everyone’s problems, decided that maybe she was waaaay in over her head and decided to take a leap of faith and let the Lord have His way in her life.

 

[Lisa]

I wonder...if psychiatry wasn’t around, would we know to blame our sins on something or somebody else? Would we look to others to solve our problems? Or would we ponder the fact that we aren’t as good as we think we are?

I think a lot of Christianity, is that you see yourself as a bad person, a sinner. One must do so to be reconciled to God. One must take responsibility for their own actions, own up to them, and make things right. That’s hard to do, for sure! Yet, we have a God, who will help us with our sins and help us to own up to them and make things right...we are never alone with God.

Yet, if you go to a shrink..they are fallible human’s dealing with the same things you are..yet its their advice that is sought. Wouldn’t their advice be just as bad as your own? Just like Yvonne above, if she had to tell those people what they should do, would they have done what God wanted them to do? Would they have then done what the world says is ok?

God says that we walk by faith not by sight..sometimes that faith puts us out on a limb at the very least gets us out of our comfort zones and into a place where God can work through us, in His power not ours. Psychiatry, on the other hand tells us what the world thinks is right, you can do this on your own.
Christian psychiatry is an oxymoron.

 

[Vytas]

So do not give advice or do not take advice ? I'm not sure I understood the point...

 

[Lisa]

So do not give advice or do not take advice ? I'm not sure I understood the point...

The point was that advice should come from God.

 

[Lisa]

Yep, psychiatry babble strikes again...what woman doesn’t have prenatal stress? Maybe they can market this to help their case for abortion? Any woman who feels stress in their pregnancy can abort their baby and not have the risk of behavioral problems later on...

Women who become stressed during pregnancy are at greater risk of having children with personality disorder, research suggests.

Children whose mothers experience severe stress while pregnant are at 10 times the risk of developing the behavioural problem by the age of 30 than others.

And those who feel moderate stress are at four times the risk.

The research, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, is the first to provide evidence of an association between prenatal stress and personality disorders.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7432217/Women-stressed-pregnancy-likely-children-personality-disorder.html

 

[JoChris]

I wonder...if psychiatry wasn’t around, would we know to blame our sins on something or somebody else? Would we look to others to solve our problems? Or would we ponder the fact that we aren’t as good as we think we are?

I think a lot of Christianity, is that you see yourself as a bad person, a sinner. One must do so to be reconciled to God. One must take responsibility for their own actions, own up to them, and make things right. That’s hard to do, for sure! Yet, we have a God, who will help us with our sins and help us to own up to them and make things right...we are never alone with God.

Yet, if you go to a shrink..they are fallible human’s dealing with the same things you are..yet its their advice that is sought. Wouldn’t their advice be just as bad as your own? Just like Yvonne above, if she had to tell those people what they should do, would they have done what God wanted them to do? Would they have then done what the world says is ok?

God says that we walk by faith not by sight..sometimes that faith puts us out on a limb at the very least gets us out of our comfort zones and into a place where God can work through us, in His power not ours. Psychiatry, on the other hand tells us what the world thinks is right, you can do this on your own.
Christian psychiatry is an oxymoron.

I can see both sides to this argument.

There is a big difference between biologically caused mental illness and mental illness caused via unrepented sin and its fruits.
e.g. You can't put bipolar disorder and post "serious sin" depression in the same basket.

However I do know an interesting Christian website which shows how incompatible secular psychology/ psychoanalysis worldview is with Christianity.
http://www.psychoheresy-aware.org/mainpage.html

 

[Lisa]

I can see both sides to this argument.

There is a big difference between biologically caused mental illness and mental illness caused via unrepented sin and its fruits.
e.g. You can't put bipolar disorder and post "serious sin" depression in the same basket.

However I do know an interesting Christian website which shows how incompatible secular psychology/ psychoanalysis worldview is with Christianity.
http://www.psychoheresy-aware.org/mainpage.html

Thanks for the link, I’ll check it out.