Crisis - Downcast, Not Defeated

BIBLICAL APPROACH TO CRISIS INTERVENTION

Down Cast, Not Defeated

Crisis intervention has been a field of intense evolution since the recent rise in terrorism with the attack on the Twin Towers on 9/11 propelling it into the fore front of the religious community.  With a world in a constant flux of terrorist threats along with unimaginable disasters, mass shootings, and rising murder-suicides, the religious community has been challenged to create a system of response to a “community in crisis.”  And they have been forced to make this response a part of the overall structure of community response teams.

     It is this very motivation that has compelled all religious communities to create a balanced approach to crisis intervention by using both religious and secular understanding in the establishment of a crisis response protocol.   With the growing number of crisis programs and crisis training evolving since 9/11 three major factors emerged that if applied and understood will help to create an effective and inclusive response team for the religious community:

1.having a biblical perspective of a crisis,

2.understanding the process of crisis, and

3.recognizing the purpose for crisis. 

In Phillip Keller’s classic, a shepherd looks at PSALM 23, he provides the divine perspective needed for the crisis worker in a crisis intervention found in chapter 5, He Restoreth My Soul.  In this powerful section of this classic work, he provides a glimpse into the passion of the shepherd’s heart for his sheep in trouble.  He labels the troubled sheep a “cast” or “cast down” sheep when they have rolled onto their back and their rumens have filled with gasses not permitting them to stand upright.   Let’s listen in on this shepherd’s heart as he encounters a cast down sheep.

"As soon as I reached the cast ewe my very first impulse was to pick it up. Tenderly I would roll the sheep over on its side. This would relieve the pressure of gases in the rumen. If she had been down for long, I would have to lift her onto her feet. The straddling the sheep with my legs I would hold her erect, rubbing her limbs to restore the circulation in her legs. This often took quite a little time. When the sheep started to walk again, she often just stumbled, staggered, and collapsed in a heap once more.

All the time I worked on the cast sheep I would talk to it gently, “When are you going to learn to stand on your own feet?”—“I’m so glad I found you in time—you rascal!”

And so, the conversation would go. Always couched in language that combined tenderness and rebuke, compassion, and correction. 

Little by little the sheep would regain its equilibrium. It would start to walk steadily and surely. By and by it would dash away to rejoin others, set free from their fears and frustrations, given another chance to live a little longer.

All this pageantry is conveyed to my heart and mind when I repeat the simple statement, “He restoreth my soul![i]"

The responder to crisis must always keep in focus that their approach to the person in crisis should emulate heartfelt tenderness, divine compassion, and considerate correction as they assist in restoring souls to live again set free from frustrations and fears instilled by catastrophe.

       [i] Phillip Keller, A Shepherd Looks at PSALM 23, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1970), p. 63