Thoughts on life, love and faith by Plasticmind.

This weekend, my wife and I and several others from our church have been enjoying sessions at the National Association of Nouthetic Counseling’s Counseling and Discipleship Training conference. There have been a lot of practical advice given for those just getting started with biblical counseling. Here’s a brief summary of our sessions from last night and this morning, Key Elements in the Process of Counseling:

First, gather information. You’ll never be able to effectively help people if you don’t know what they’re struggling with. Don’t be afraid to probe extensively. Proverbs 18:13 says that a fool addresses a matter before hearing it; if you you don’t listen extensively, you risk giving out bad or ineffective counsel. Even giving biblical counsel before hearing the whole matter is foolishness. Also, be sure to pay attention both to verbal and non-verbal communication. Often how a thing is said (halo data) is more important than what is said.

Discern the problems. This is really about putting a problem up against the Bible. It’s important to use biblical labels when talking about problems. Words are important; using biblical terms to describe behavioral problems actually builds hope because biblical problems have biblical solutions. There are several different levels of problems people face: presentation problems, often emotional; performance problems, often factual; preconditioning problems, often behavioral patterns that have become habits; and heart-level problems, a revelation of a person desires most.

Build involvement. Part of this step is establishing a relationship. Ultimately, you want a person to be comfortable enough in the relationship to not only share their concerns but also to be willing to accept your counsel. This is really a matter of trust, and trust is established several ways. Be compassionate; imagine yourself in their position. Be respectful; don’t patronize and do take their problems seriously. Finally, be sincere; pretending to have it altogether just further discourages those who are struggling.

Give them hope. You cannot promise people that they won’t experience negative consequences from their actions; you can’t give false hopes that infirmities or tribulations will magically disappear. What you can promise is what God has promised: that He will bless those who follow His Word. Think back to the twelve spies who went into Canaan to bring back a report on the land. All twelve saw giants; but ten said they couldn’t take the land and two said with God’s help they could. Interestingly enough, the Bible says that the report the ten spies brought back was evil. Any “report” on our circumstances need to be full of faith and hope or else it’s an evil report.

Give proper instruction. Simply put, present practical solutions that are fitting to their condition. These solutions need to be two-fold: putting off the old and putting on the new. They need to be appropriate: specifically addressing their needs, factoring in their spiritual condition and geared towards their learning style. It’s also important to clearly distinguish between God’s commands and man’s suggestions: don’t let people walk away thinking that the practical suggestions you offer are on the same level as God’s commands.

Assign homework. It may sound trivial, but homework is one of the most effective parts of the counseling process. Nearly everything up to this point has been theory, but the Bible constantly emphasizes doing. Giving people something to do not only reminds them that the responsibility for change lies with them, but it also brings hope and anticipation of change. Talk alone is counter-productive to lasting, biblical change.

I know you’re not supposed to start blog posts with qualifications, but I honestly don’t know how to weave this all together. So, stream of consciousness is my medium of choice tonight. Beware.

Back in the early nineties, while everyone else was sporting New Kids on the Block slap bracelets, I was holed up in my basement with two gigantic speakers on either side of my desk, an old school 486 PC that I’d built from scratch and a Gravis Ultrasound pumping out the latest .mod files) from Europe. To this day, I’m not sure how they made it all the way round the globe and onto the mom-and-pop BBS I used to dial into; but there they were, the roots of electronica in all their 8-bit, 4-channel glory.

You see, for a long while, I’d been getting by on MIDI files. But you can only listen to an FM synthesized version of Beethoven’s 5th just so many times. The drums sounded like static buildup from an unshielded audio cable. Then I heard my very first .mod file: Space Debris by Captain (listen to it). It absolutely blew me away. Such rich sound coming from my computer?

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To be fair, I must admit I learned a lot from my dad about perspective and horizon in my artwork. And heaven knows I’d never be able to paint an evergreen without the help of Bob Ross.

But it was Mark Kistler and his show on PBS that most influenced my drawing. You remember, the guy with the afro and mustache who dressed up in jumpsuits and wore the Garth Brooks boom mic? Sure, he looks like he should be selling cigarettes in some convenience store or filling in as Cousin Larry on Perfect Strangers, but that didn’t seem to faze me back then. His “secret city” mural helped transform my doodles into fantastic worlds and taught me a lot about escapism in art.

You all know what that means…

For those of you that missed out, I got some people all in a huff when I played boy-who-cried-“Hackers!”. (I think Anil’s post probably applies in this situation.)

But I wish to argue that it was, rather, an exercise in the beauty and power of CSS. With a simple CSS include, I pulled in this tiny bit of CSS:

 body {
    background: black url(http://plasticmind.com/images/harhar.gif) no-repeat top left !important;
 } 
 #header, #content, #footer { 
    display: none !important; 
 }

And voila! Goodbye Plasticmind, hello Future Crew!

Rorschach no more, we’ve got ourselves a real, live baby!

The first ultrasound didn’t really affect me that much (Oh, that blob is mine? Neat-o.), but this one just about floored me (Its moving!!!). Our baby kept trying to put its fingers in its mouth and finally got hold of the thumb. I just love that picture up top. It’s almost like: “Hi dad!” I’ve also posted the obligatory thumb-sucking picture.

The little devil wouldn’t cooperate and uncross its legs, so we’re only at the “best guess” stage with the sex (i.e. don’t buy the paint) based on a few pixels. However, until our next ultrasound in two weeks when we find out for sure, mum’s the word.

And, no, I didn’t Photoshop the genitals out.

*Gender pending further review.

All this talk of creating a minimalist workspace has me thinking. Is it really possible?

Here’s a list of things currently on my desk. Help me decide which things to toss/relocate:

1. An empty orange juice glass
2. Several new Plasticmind Design business cards
3. Several old Plasticmind Design business cards
4. Greg Hoy’s business card
5. A jar of Vicks
6. A broken Xacto knife
7. Several pens
8. A Green and Black’s currant and hazelnut dark chocolate bar
9. Nail clippers
10. An unused Jawbone bluetooth headset
11. An empty heart shaped picture frame
12. Several pads of sticky notes
13. Tax stuff (shudder)
14. A Leatherman
15. A capo
16. An iPod
17. An external hard drive
18. A drawing tablet with respective pen and mouse
19. American Sign Language: The Easy Way
20. A spindle of blank cds
21. A list of email addresses from everyone in our YAM group
22. A flash drive that doesn’t work
23. SXSW badges
24. An empty Leopard case
25. A book of sheet music by Avalon
26. A typewritten story about two kittens I wrote when I was thirteen

This is a clutterbug’s desperate cry for help. Thoughts?

Well, if I could boil the last few days down into a word: DELAYED. Our flight was rerouted from Dallas to Louisiana, where we had to spend the night because of a ice storm. We finally made it to Dallas, but we missed the new connecting flight they scheduled for us. Finally got there, only to find that our hotel reservations were cancelled because we didn’t get there the day we were supposed to. Blame it on mother nature. They gave the money back and now we’re staying at the Hilton across the street from the Austin Convention Center… so it’s better off.

We’re checked in and now sitting in a pretty low-key panel with Doug Bowman, Liz Danzico, Jason Santa Maria, Jeff Zeldman and Erin Kissane. I’ll give a fuller picture when we get food in our bellies.