And yet, the moment I stood up to pull three books off my shelves, these three titles immediately came to mind. And interestingly, each one addresses a different “sphere” of life; they were formative for me in different ways, but each has had a significant impact on who I am as a person, as a counselor, and as a scholar. I’ll list them in that order.
I cannot think of a book more formative for me in my Christian walk than Donald Whitney’s Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. I read this book for the first time during my first year in seminary. As a counseling student, the requirement at that time was to be a discipleship group leader for Southeastern’s college students, so it was my job to walk through this text with a group of ladies and to encourage them in their own practice of the spiritual disciplines. Perhaps this was the aim all along, but I think I was more challenged by this book than any of these ladies were. It was certainly formative in how I “practiced” Christian living. It taught me that not only should I read the Scriptures and pray regularly, but even things like silence, solitude, journaling, and learning were vital parts of what it meant to live the Christian life.
As I have gotten older, as I have gained experience through teaching counseling students, I have realized that it does not matter how skilled someone is at the work of ministry; it is their character that matters. Furthermore, education should be more formative than informative—in other words, we should care more about the person than about what they know or can do. And yet at the same time, I have struggled often to maintain these disciplines, particularly with little ones at home (can I get an amen?!). Often, I need a gentle, or not-so-gentle, reminder from the Lord that he cares about my walk with him. This text, over and over, comes to mind.
As a counseling professor, the most formative book in my professional life has been Paul David Tripp’s Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands. In his masterful way, Tripp reminds Christians that while we are called to care for our brothers and sisters by walking alongside them in their hardships, so too we need others to walk alongside of us. We are helpers in need of help. This book gives clear, direct, and immediately applicable wisdom on how to understand the Scriptures well and apply it to those who are struggling. Tripp talks about anchoring our help for others in the Lord, who is our Wonderful Counselor, and pushes his readers towards building relationships before seeking change. The book, although simple, is incredibly profound. Few other books in the biblical counseling world have been as impactful as this one, both to me personally and in the field at large.
Finally, as I’ve reflected on my journey as a scholar (though admittedly again, that word feels far too weighty), I regularly come back to a book by Vern Poythress: Redeeming Science. Though Dr. Poythress is a professor of New Testament, he has written numerous “Redeeming *fill in the blank*” type books, and this has been one of my favorites. It is theologically grounded and academically robust—it meaningfully draws the reader to worship.
As I was writing my PhD dissertation many years ago, I stumbled upon this book as I was writing on the role of science in informing our counseling practice. As I started flipping through the book, it captivated me. I stopped my writing and read the entire book through cover to cover. Although I do not recommend this course of action when writing a dissertation—it adds a lot of time to the process—I didn’t regret it. In words I could not have formed prior, Poythress wrote out what I believed in my heart: The beauty of science leads us to wonder, and ultimately to worship. Our good and beautiful creator made the world in such a way that it reflects his beauty, and its ultimate purpose is to bring glory to him. We should not miss the abundant majesty of what he has made, and we can rightly study his creation as an act of worship. These truths have been formative for me as I continue my academic study, in that I have the freedom to study any and all of God’s creation to learn more about him; all of it is “theological” in some way. The Lord, in his kindness, never ceases to draw our minds back to him.
Each person has a multitude of influences on their lives, whether those be people, ideas, books, or something else. And often, like these books before I sat down to write, those influences may go unnoticed. Might I encourage you today to reflect on what or who has formed you? Who has spoken into your life and shaped your view of some part of the world? But also, who are you forming? What words are you saying or writing that someone else may point back to someday? I believe this reflection is a worthwhile endeavor.
[MOU1]@Shurson, Andrew?
[SA2]Perhaps too strong of a dichotomy here. Maybe: “does not matter how skilled someone is at the work of ministry if they do not develop godly character’?
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