LIFE COACHING & ULTIMATE CONCERNS

Blog Discussion: LIFE COACHING PRINCIPLES
The Priestly Solution: Part One

Ultimate Concerns, Intercession, & the Efficacy of Earnest Prayer

"Who shall free me from the body of this death..?" --the Apostle Paul

"And you shall seek Me, and you shall find Me, when you shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you..." --the Prophet Jeremiah

The human personality is not a closed system--but an open system--and synergistic--made to interact interpersonally with others--and created to engage in the ultimate concerns of prayer.

One may infer from the symbol of Christ's Cross that horizontal communication, community, and communion hangs on the core truth of the vertical--every human being's God-bestowed ultimate concern for vital faith (the only saving faith --which clings to and trusts in its Object, Jesus Christ--because vital faith is not some metaphysical force--or even trust that one's chair will not break under him as he sits down) in communication , community, and communion with God the Father--in the wisdom, power, and love of the Holy Spirit.

Yet it is the rare Christian individual, couple, or family--who listens and responds wholeheartedly--when I prescribe a regular practice of intimate prayer timestogether every week.

I usually get a "Huh?" look--as they twitch impatiently waiting for me to get out of the way so they can watch American Idol, True Crime road chases, or listen to late-night-talk-radio conspiracy theories.

One-dimensional shallowness is pandemic.

And even among the so-called intellectual community, there is a rabid, mindless willingness to turn to Pop culture and then often on to Naturalism, Metaphysics, Eastern Mysticism, Middle Eastern Mysticism, Occult Mysticism, Pantheism--or even (within Christian aberrations) to Charis-magic--or cults like Peoples Temple.

"Demas has forsaken me--having loved this present world..." ---The Apostle Paul

Secular Naturalism (which rejects all supernatural implications or resources--when generating solutions for problems of living and problems of loving) is a closed system philosophically, psychologically, and, of course, spiritually. Naturalistic solutions can only be generated via the closed-system tools of Rationalism, Empiricism (truth is revealed by the five senses), Reductionism, Materialism, and Pragmatism (if it works--it's right).

Naturalism can only flail about in self-absorbed conspiracy theories, Collectivism, or some version of human and social engineering (because so many want to be taken care of by a centralized nanny or papa-fuhrer government)--reaching out for totalitarian and Orwellian solutions . Naturalism also appeals to Christ-rejectors who entrench themselves in any version of smug evolutionary theory--whether Darwinian or otherwise.

Metaphysics (Gnosticism, the mind sciences, EST, TM, Emersonian Transcendentalism, Transpersonal Psycholog y, Rosacrucianism, and their ilk) while housing many doctrines of devils--may appear to reach out beyond the solipsism of the human self --but hangs somewhere in the intellectual ghetto between navel-nuzzling Naturalism and tree-worshipping Pantheism...and remains a closed system--a bridge to nowhere.

Eastern Mysticism ( sacred cow worshipping gurus--with the cow's holy dung rubbed into their hair, Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, Korean and Chinese Folk Religions--and their ilk)--is a faux open system--in truth only a door to the Occult. (Hey--dial 4-1-1 and ask the Bangalor operator if I'm right and she'll tell you I am.)

Middle-Eastern Mysticism, another gateway to the occult--includes the Jewish Cabala, and--surprising to many, the Muslim Religion. (Islam--actually a psycho-social, interpersonally-reinforcing-modernity-resisting-atavistic-radical-ludite movement--also bridges across to a form of Pantheism--because Allah is actually considered to be the Moon God--a pantheistic entity--not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Occult Mystici sm (OM) is a 'bridge' to an evil somewhere with its lies of Spiritualism, Necromancy, Fortune-Telling, Palm-Reading. Tea-Reading, Tarot Card Reading, Ancestor Worship, Soul Travel, Ghost & Monster Quest, Astrology, Primitive Tribal Religions (put your Dream-Catcher Mitt on Chief Running Bare...), the American Hollywood Star System--ad nauseum. Albeit an open system--OM is a devilish back-door-left-open system--a gateway to the Dark Side.

Pantheism (held together by its own separate philosophical glue) is a spiritual detour (away from Christian theology) offered to the superstitious-but-ultimately-concerned soul. The latest come-on from Pantheism (after the heaven-through-chemistry drug, LSD, psilocybin, crank, coke, opiate movement) is the Earth Mother Worship (planet-saving-tree-hugging-Earth Liberation Front, Vegetarian,Vegan,Veggie Tales, Globalist, global warming , etc.) Movement.

Walt Whitman, the great American poet, was known to remark that if only one person grasped the meaning of one of his poems--that was who he'd written it for. Christian Life Coaching often fails to connect to the counselee's heart and mind because the counselee (client) may not possess the gravitas--the profundity of understanding--the substantive qualities of personality--the emotional, intellectual, and spiritual depth --which are the essential requirements of effective Life Coaching--in my approach. Not that failed attempts at Life Coaching is pearl-casting--or teaching pigs to sing--and honestly that's not necessarily why I don't do prison or drug-rehab ministry--but I do exit stage left as quickly as possible from the shallow and the insubstantial-of-spirit.

(excerpt: unpublished work-in-progress)
Life Coaching & The Psychology of Ultimate Concerns
Copyright 2009 by Philip C. Brewer
All Rights Reserved