Mental Health Therapy: A Perspective of the Healing Process

I would like to present a perspective on the healing process we go through in our lives and in our walks with God. I won’t be writing from the perspective of us, but rather from His perspective. The perspective of our Creator who values us even when we get stuck in believing we’re anything but what He created us for, and is restoring us to.

As with all analogies or comparisons, this too will fall far short of capturing His true glory so I ask that you keep your heart and mind open and I pray it impacts you, or someone you know who may be suffering in their healing, for He is, always has been, and always will be good.

A wise, seasoned carpenter visits an estate sale. The family is one he knew and had worked with many times when commissioned to create one-of-a-kind pieces. This is a practice he’s done a few times; re-buying old works of his hand, sprucing them up for resale.

More often than not the pieces needed a bit of sanding, re-staining, and a fresh coat of varnish. Because its working pieces were typically in good order, not much invasive work needed to be done. Today, though, he’s shocked to find a memorable desk in severe disarray.

When he built it, he could have called it his magnum opus; a piece which challenged every skill he had acquired, and which forced him to learn new skills. He asks the price for it and is shocked at the amount. Surely no one would ever pay for this desk in as rough a shape as it is. In fact, they may be charging more than he originally took as payment for the commission.

However, without a second thought, he offers the payment to those hosting the sale, loads it into his truck, and takes it back to his shop. During the drive he experiences a pang of sorrow and intense grief, for the obvious mistreatment and misuse this memorable piece experienced to end up in its current state.

This desk was requested to have as few metal parts as possible, at the time challenging the craftsman to the limits of his skills. He knows it will be no easy undertaking to restore it to its proper dignity and value. Because he didn’t use any nails or screws during its creation, he knows there will be many places where he must either cut, pull apart, or seemingly create further damage in order to restore it.

So that’s where he starts; pulling and cutting apart all the broken pieces which can no longer match his expectation of greatness. Yet even though he can see the result ahead, every cracking sound, every piece removed stirs pain and sorrow in his heart. He fondly remembers that at the time he built this desk, it was the piece of art that cemented his career and future as a specialty craftsman. The disrespect with which others have treated it is immense.

Instead of focusing on the anger that wells inside, he channels it into his restoration, intent on making it even more of a spectacle than before. With all the rotted, broken, and unusable pieces removed from the main body the craftsman moves onto the curved, sliding cover which had become stuck from various liquids – likely soda or sugary adult beverages.

It requires careful and intricate carving and chiseling to allow it to even begin to move. Some pieces are also cracked and broken on this portion, but he doesn’t want to scrap the whole section; there are still valuable segments of great beauty in the grain of the wood.

It takes him time to find and position similar pieces of wood in order to maintain a sense of unity in it. With the major structural work complete he finally set his eyes on sanding and preparing the desk to be stained and varnished once more. Apart from repairing the sliding, curved cover, this is the most time-consuming and nit-picky portion of his restoration.

He uses an initial low-grit paper to remove the remaining old varnish and stain until he sees the color of sawdust from the original wood. Because not all of the desk was disassembled it requires him to painstakingly get into every crevice; not a speck of old stain can be left, or it will mar the end result.

As much as the initial work pained him, he was far enough along that his efforts were more energized and passionate; he could envision the result. He reveled in the challenge and care needed to satisfy his desire to restore this desk to even greater glory than before. At night he would even find himself dreaming of doing the work.

The movement of his hands, the feel and sound of the sandpaper roughing up the stained portions, and the smell of freshly sanded wood all permeated his mind and his focus. At the start, a few of his friends thought it a waste of time. Sure, they know how meticulous he is when making things brand new but this? Restoring something obviously beyond repair? Why bother!?

But he paid them no mind, his enjoyment and pleasure in seeing the milestones of restoration far exceeded his enjoyment from creating in the first place. So he continued, day in and day out, endeavoring to finish the work which he had started. He moved on to finer and finer grit sandpaper until it had a baby bottom smooth texture, ready to be blown off and stained.

He opted for a natural stain this time, choosing to accentuate the changes and differences in the other pieces of wood used in its restoration. He did not desire to hide them, but to showcase them as a testament to the time and effort spent choosing the perfect pieces to repair the desk. They would add to the story of this desk.

Finally, the time came for him to apply the varnish. He chose to use a satin varnish, requiring precision in its application to avoid bumps and unnecessary brush marks, but he knew the added time and cost would be worth it as it also protected it from future wear and tear. As the final coat of varnish dried his task was complete. This once decrepit and disrespected work of art was, somehow, even more illustrious and glorious than when it was first made.

He contemplated selling it again but the mere thought of it being misused again was enough for him to immediately decide it was his. Not only would he keep it to protect it, but he would use it properly, giving it purpose once again to not just look stellar, but to have meaning.

From that point on he made the restoration of his old pieces, and even of pieces he did not have a hand in making, his work and focus. The joy he experienced from giving them new life was all he could think of.

He would either choose to keep them or give them to his immediate family, knowing that they would have a purpose and that his family would care for them. His family could see the joy on his face as he made progress and completed his work and even assisted in finding pieces for him to restore.

I hope you can see the parallels here. You may feel, or believe, that God is ignoring you or does not care about you in some way because it’s taking so long for you to feel healed, whole, and complete. New things keep popping up that you didn’t even realize were there in the first place and it hurts that much more.

Like many of the Psalmists and those in the Old Testament, (Ps 13:1; 35:17; 79:5 89:46; Hb 1:2) you may be wondering “How long, Lord? How long must this suffering continue? Do you not care for me?”

My hope in sharing this perspective of Him is for you to confidently step into your suffering and invite God into it. To invite Him into it by sharing exactly what is hurting and ailing you. For I promise you He has not left you, nor does He not care for you. But, like the desk in the hands of the craftsman, He is paying deep, critical attention to your pain and healing. He knows that breaking off broken and old parts of you is painful and that attaching new pieces will show.

He knows all that you experienced to bring you to these moments of healing with Him. But like the desk, He desires to bring you to newness. He understands the you that you can’t see yet but that he is expertly, carefully, attentively bringing you to.

Now, a challenge I give to you. The enemy desires you to continue seeing God as uncaring or aloof. My hope is this can encourage you to encourage yourself like David; to give charge to your soul, (Ps 42:5-6,11), that God is good, and that the time it takes is His desire to not leave any blemish, tender wound, or past hurt untouched.

If this resonates with you and you’ve been wanting, maybe needing someone to assist you in this process or to have someone walk with you on this healing journey, I encourage you to consider seeking professional counseling/therapeutic services.

Along with professional training, Christian therapists bring their own God-given gifts and insight to the counseling relationship. If we’re looking at it from the perspective I presented before, you could say we’re like the carpenter’s family trying to find and assist Him in bringing new works to restore.