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William Gaultiere, Ph.D.

Executive Director of New Hope, Clinical Psychologist with ChristianSoulCare.com

God wants you and I alive with His life.  Right now He is speaking to us, pouring out His love into our souls.  We can overcome our trials and pains and be blessed by God to be a blessing.  You and I have gifts from God that other people need.  So open your heart with me and listen.  God has called me and He is calling you too!  He's calling us to follow Jesus on an adventure of glorious living, a journey of living and caring with God's pleasure. 

The Bible says, "The Lord will take great delight in you.  He will rejoice over you with singing (Zephaniah 3:17, NIV).  He fills you with joy in His presence, with eternal pleasures at His right hand (Psalm 16:11, NIV).  Yes, the joy of the Lord is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10, NIV).  For in his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  For you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls (1 Peter 1:3,6,9, NIV).  So let's rejoice!  Rejoice in the Lord always! (Philippians 4:4, NIV)  It's only in Him that we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28, NIV).  Truly, the Lord has his eye on us and has designs on us for glorious living! (Ephesians 1:12, Message)  So continue with others for their progress and joy in the faith, so that through them being with you again their joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of you." (Philippians 1:25-26, NIV) 

A little over a year ago I realized that I wasn't living my life and caring for others with God's pleasure.  Now I can see that I was like a can of soda pop that had gone flat.  The fizz wasn't there.  The sparkle in my eyes was missing.

What went wrong?  I had neglected my First Love and lost my passion for serving Him.  Slowly, over almost 20 years, I had forgotten the lessons that God had taught me.  I had become somewhat bored with being a counselor.  Stressed by managing the New Hope Crisis Counseling Center.  Tired of working mostly to pay bills.  I was spiritually flat and going from day to day without the energized focus I needed.

I'd like to share with you how I'm learning to live and care with God's pleasure and invite you to join me.

Last year I went whitewater rafting on the Kern River with my 11-year old son and his by Boy Scout trip.  What a thrilling adventure!  And scary too!  Driving on the highway along the river we saw a sign that said, "264 people have died in the Kern river since 1962."  I thought about turning around.  If that wasn't bad enough, I learned that just one-week prior someone died in the river at that very spot. 

This was on my mind at the roughest section of the river when our guide yelled, "High water hard!" which he had taught us meant, "Lean forward into the high waters and paddle hard or else we'll flip over!"  Being one of the two front paddlers, I knew my role was crucial so I leaned out over the tip of the raft and into the splashing waves and paddled furiously through about a five foot dip, screaming, "Ahhhh!  Ahh!" and then finally, "Yes!  We did it!" 

My son and I, and I think the others too, gained something important from prevailing in our battle with the roaring whitewaters - trust.  To avoid the jutting rocks and to crash through the turbulent waves we had to trust our guide, who knew the Kern River like the back of his hand, was right in telling us to lean into the rough waters.  That's like trusting God when He says: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."  (James 1:2-4, NIV)

It takes a lot of trust in God to find joy in our trials!  It's the opposite of what we tend to do.  We lean away from life's turbulence when we complain about our problems or avoid other people's pain.  That's what I found myself doing a few months ago when my raft crashed into a series of pre-adolescent rapids with my son.  Disobedience, defiance, negativity, bullying his younger sisters were threatening our raft.  But underneath it all he was pressured and depressed by schoolwork, added responsibilities, and feeling like he wasn't appreciated in our home.  

And I'm supposed to be a psychologist!  It's tough to be a psychologist and a parent.  You don't believe me?  The other day my daughter complained, "You don't even care about how I feel.  You shouldn't be a counselor for other people!"

"Lean into the rough waters Bill.  Rejoice in your trials."  To live with this attitude I have to remind myself of this again and again.  This is an opportunity to teach my son to respect authority.  I have the chance to show him that my love (and God's love!) for him doesn't change even when he's difficult.  All our trials are an opportunity to learn and to grow in love for God and others.

Befriend our Pain and Others' Pain

Later I heard that Tommy had graduated; then a sad report, I heard that he had terminal cancer.  Before I could search him out, he came to see me. When he walked into my office, his body was very badly wasted, and his long hair had all fallen out as a result of chemotherapy. But his eyes were bright and his voice was firm when he said, "For the first time, I believe.  When the doctors removed a lump from my groin and told me that it was malignant, then I got serious about locating God. And when the malignancy spread into my vital organs, I really began banging bloody fists against the bronze doors of heaven.  But God did not come out. In fact, nothing happened." 

"Well, one day I woke up, and instead of throwing a few more futile appeals over that high brick wall to a God who may be or may not be there, I just quit. I decided that I didn't really care... about God, about an after-life or anything like that.  I decided to spend what time I had left doing something more profitable.  I thought about you and your class and I remembered something you had said: 'The essential sadness is to leave this world without ever telling those you loved that you had loved them.'"

"So I began with the hardest one: my Dad. I said, `Dad, I love you.  I just wanted you to know that.'  Then my father did two things I could never remember him ever doing before. He cried and he hugged me. And we talked all night, even though he had to go to work the next morning. It felt so good to be close to my father, to see his tears, to feel his hug, to hear him say that he loved me.  I was only sorry about one thing; that I had waited so long.  Here I was just beginning to open up to all the people I had actually been close to."

"Then, one day I turned around and God was there. He didn't come to me when I pleaded with him. I guess I was like an animal trainer holding out a hoop, 'C'mon, jump through.  C'mon, I'll give you three days....  three weeks.' Apparently God does things in his own way and at his own hour. But He was there. He found me. He found me even after I stopped looking for Him." 

Tommy was scheduled to share his story in John Powell's class, but he died.  But the story lives on for you and I, just as Tommy asked for.  When Tommy accepted his terminal cancer and his broken relationship with his father God showed up.  He finally experienced God's love.  He came alive!  And when John Powel entered into Tommy's dying and his pain with him he too experienced the love and joy of the Lord.

Probably there's some turbulence in your life too that you need to lean into with God's help so that you can press forward in the adventure that God has for you.

Reach out to Give and Receive God's Grace in the Body of Christ

The summer before my senior year of college I worked as an apprentice butcher.  It was one of the most painful times in my life.  Certainly a chance to "lean into the turbulence!" and "Befriend my pain." 

The butchers butchered me!  They criticized my mistakes.  And I made plenty since I was just learning their trade.  They harassed me at every chance they could because they resented that I was there to make money for college, not to become a butcher.  They persecuted me for being a Christian and a moral kid, cussing at me, spewing out filth, and laughing at me.  I held back tears.  I tried to be strong.  I worked my hardest to do everything right and to be a good Christian.

But they got the best of me and before the summer was over I quit the job and walked away from money I needed for college.  I was exhausted, broken, and believed I was a failure.  I went home, feeling like a dog, licking my wounds.

At the beginning of the summer I had planned to take a 3-day retreat right before going back to school.  I needed to make decisions about my future.  What would I do with my psychology degree?  I thought I'd go to graduate school, but where?  So I had these days set aside for solitude, fasting, meditation, and prayer.  But then I got beat up in the meat market.  I didn't want to go, but I went anyway.

My experience at the monastery was meaningful, but not revolutionary.  The next day was a turning point though.  I was in church singing, "How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news.  Good news.  Announcing peace, proclaiming news of happiness.  Our God reigns!  Our God reigns!" 

Suddenly, in my mind's eye I saw myself at the bottom of Mount Sinai, where Moses got the 10 commandments.  I wanted to climb to the top to meet with God, but I felt dejected, exhausted, and incapable.  I felt the sense of shame and isolation that I felt in the meat market.  But I was telling myself that I had to get up.  I had to work at it.  I had to try harder and do better.

Then my anxious, self-critical and self-demanding thoughts were interrupted by the sight of Jesus coming down the mountain.  He was looking at me with eyes of compassion.  He stopped when he came to me and picked me up and put me over his shoulders.  He started to carry me up the mountain.  A crowd formed and people started to insult him, spit at him, yell at him, and beat him.  I realized that I was like the cross on his back.  He was taking on himself the persecution I experienced and my sins.  He carried me all the way into the presence of God, to the top of the mountain.

And all I could see where his feet.  "How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news!"

After that I learned that I needed God's grace more than anything.  I was tired of isolating myself and working so hard to measure up.  Instead I was going to feel my feelings and to ask for help.  So during my Senior year of college I started to open up my heart. First, to one of my psychology professors who was my mentor.  Then, to a support group, my roommate, and other friends.  Finally, to a girl named Kristi who I started dating.  (She later became my wife!) 

I learned that the gracious acceptance I received for being honest was so much better than the praise I got for being ideal.  These support people were like God with skin on to me.  They were the "Body of Christ" for me.  They helped me experience the grace of God that touched my heart so clearly in my vision.  Ever since I've been going back to God's people for more and looking for opportunities to give grace to others.

If you haven't learned to rely on the Body of Christ for God's grace and to be a grace-giver then I urge you to do so!

Listen to God with our Hearts

There are so many ways that God speaks to us - the Bible, prayer, sacraments like communion, wise Christians, friends, nature.  But there's only one way that we hear what God is saying - with our hearts.  This is exactly what David told us in Psalm 18:6, "I will praise the Lord who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me."

Few Christians today understand this.  You've probably been told that your heart is bad, untrustworthy, or that is not so important compared to your thoughts and beliefs.  Maybe you've had Jeremiah 17:9 misused to bully your heart, "The heart is wicked and deceitful..."  Without the influence of Christ that's true, but even Jeremiah foresaw that God would give his people new hearts that would be responsive to Him.  Ezekiel (Ezekiel 11:19, 18:31, 36:26), Paul (Ephesians 4:24, Colossians 3:10), and so many others in the Bible said the same thing.  This is why Jesus urged us to have good and noble hearts that respond to God's Word, like the good soil that receives seed and produces a bountiful harvest (Luke 8:4-15).

As Christians our hearts are being made good and trustworthy.  So with David, the man after God's own heart, we can delight ourselves in the Lord, knowing that He will give us the desires of our hearts (Psalm 37:4).  What this means is that God isn't going to call you to be a missionary in Africa if you would hate doing that!  He's going to lead you to do things that you love!  Yes, some of the things he has us do are difficult and painful, but always they are good for our souls.

To live and care with God's pleasure we need to hear God and follow His lead.  Listening to God is a moment-by-moment experience.  It's being aware of his presence in the here and now.  It's how we experience God's joy and it's how He guides us.  The Apostle Paul calls it "walking in the Spirit."  Brother Lawrence called it "practicing the presence of God."  Alcoholics Anonymous calls it "making conscious contact with God."

It's like wearing a Miner's Hat.  You know the hats with lights on them.  God gives us the light we need for one step at a time.  Take that step and we have the light we need for the next step.  And so we follow Him one step at a time.

Recently, I was talking with a priest who meets with me for spiritual direction.  He told me about an experience he had when he was preparing for a mass that he was to lead.  He was busily and methodically going through his routine of getting the eucharist ready.  When all of a sudden, he heard the meow of a cat.  He stopped what he was doing and looked toward the side door.  There stood an adorable black and white cat purring at him.  Then it crept right up to him and snuggled against his leg!  In a flash, my friend sensed God saying to him, "I'm here with you.  I love you.  You're blessed to be a blessing."

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised that God spoke to me through a stray cat," my friend chuckled.  "Afterall, God spoke to Balaam through a donkey in the Old Testament (Numbers 22).  I was tuned out when I needed to be tuned in.  I had forgotten the most important preparation for the mass - myself.  God used the purring and snuggling of that cat to love on me and then I was able to share His love with those who came to the service."

Receive our Mission from God

God has a wonderful, glorious purpose for us who have put our faith in Christ.  He wants to live his life through us - a life of joy, delighting in Him and His will, passionate about walking with Him and sharing his life with others.  And He has a specific, distinctive way for each of us to do that.

The Apostle Paul says in Romans 12:4-8 that God has given each of us different gifts by his grace so that we might encourage one another and share God's love with those in need.  He's made each of us with our own personalities and abilities.  In this passage Paul gives us a helpful list of seven service gifts.  Identify the one or two of these that are your gifts: preaching God's word, serving, teaching, encouraging, leading, giving help to people in distress, and caring for those in need.

Using your gift is central to your mission.  A life mission statement is like the rudder in a sailboat.  When you know your purpose you can steer the boat of your life in the right direction.  It doesn't mean there won't be storms to toss your boat around.  There will.  You may even get blown off course.  Nor does it mean that you won't flounder at times.  Waiting for the wind to catch your sail.  That'll happen too.  But if you keep sailing and keep your hand on the rudder then God will guide you on the adventure that you're meant to live.

A year ago when I started to come out of my lull what helped me more than anything was deciding that I needed to focus my life on a mission statement in the form of a Bible passage, a "life verse."  After a number of weeks of prayer and reflection my heart settled on 2 Corinthians 5:20: "We are therefore Christ's ambassadors as though God were making his appeal through us.  We urge you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God."  This verse seemed to be God calling out to me saying, "Bill this is my plan for you.  You are my ambassador and you're to show my people that I am their Friend."  My heart leaped at the thought of this!

Having this mission statement helps me to stay on course.  Now instead of being determined to be successful I'm determined to be Christ's ambassador.  Whatever I do, as a husband, father, friend, psychologist, teacher, New Hope Director, even in my hobbies, I can ask myself, "Am I being Christi's ambassador?  Am I caring for souls in Jesus' name?"  If the answer is yes then I know I'll be living and caring for others with God's pleasure.

What's your life mission?  Do you know the gift and purpose God has given you?  Maybe you'd find focus and encouragement from God as I have by picking a life verse that you deeply want to be true of you.  Reflect on the verses or phrases from the Bible that have inspired you.  See if your heart won't settle on a possibility.  If that's hard for you then do what I did and pray that God would show you a life verse from the Bible and keep meditating and waiting for your heart to settle on a verse.

When we Run our own Race we Feel God's Pleasure

The Apostle Paul described following God's calling as like running a race.  He trained hard for his race and he ran to win eternal gold! (1 Corinthians 9:24-26).  He was compelled by God and experienced the joy of the Lord in using his gifts of teaching and preaching to share the gospel with as many people as he could (1 Corinthians 9:17-18).

In the movie "Chariots of Fire" we see that Eric Liddell lived like that too.  He was a student at Oxford and training for the 1924 Olympics in France.  His sister was frustrated with him because she thought he should have joined her on the mission field in China instead.  Eric made the Olympic team for Britain and was selected to run the 100-meter race, but when he found out that the race was on the Sabbath he refused to run in order to honor God.  Another English runner so badly wanted to see Eric run that he decided to give Eric his spot in the 400-meter race, which was later in the week.  The other runners in the quarter mile were sure that Eric would run out of gas since he was a sprinter.

When the starter's gun sounded and Eric started racing everyone was amazed.  He ran like no one has ever run - with terrible form for racing, but wonderful form for living.  As he ran he clutched a note, "He who honors me I will honor says the Lord."  His head was thrust back, looking toward heaven as he laughed and flailed his arms in the joy of the Lord!  And in his mind as he ran he talked to his sister, responding to her guilt trip, "Jenny, I believe that God has made me for a purpose and he made me FAST!  And when I run I feel his pleasure!!"

Fill in the Blanks to Live and Care with God's Pleasure

Oh to live and care in God's pleasure like that!  That's a picture of how I want to run my life's race for God and others.  It's what you and I long for.  To come alive with the life of God.  To live with purpose and passion inspired by God.  To use our gifts to bless others. 

I've discovered the secret of how I can live and care with God's pleasure.  For me it goes like this: "God has made me to be Christ's ambassador and he's given me His wisdom.  And when I teach others about God I feel His pleasure." 

How about you?  How do you fill in the blanks for what it means for you to live and care with God's pleasure?  "I believe that God has made me to ______________ and He's given me _______________.  And when I _______________ I feel His pleasure."