Dear Friends,

Last week, President Mark Labberton spoke to us on Philippians 2 in an Advent chapel. “We are shining lights, not whining lights,” he said. “There are the real difficulties, struggles, pain, and challenges to whine about. Shining stars tell the truth . . . It is not a denial of the challenges, but a capacity to live in the challenges in a different way—with the mind of Christ.”

I mentor students on how to be Christian in their public roles as psychologists. On the call to shine rather than whine, my students know I perform the latter rather articulately, whether the topic is managed health care, the lack of health care for the poor, or the constraints of secular psychology on our practice as Christian therapists. I can even whine with a scholarly accent as I write articles about the American obsession with the individual, the partisan politics of the church, or a truncated personal gospel.

But whining does not get the job done. The practical issue is whether we have trained students well to address the psychic injuries their clients present. At the end of the day, what will I do or say to the client incapacitated by guilt, depression, or paranoia that reflects my confession that Christ is Lord?

First, I seek intentionally for this confession to shape what I teach about the nature of being human. Second, we explore, teacher and student, how to make this confession evident—sometimes implicitly, sometimes explicitly—in our work as therapists. Third, we struggle to translate the wisdom and truth of the gospel for those not inclined to hear good news. Fourth, we will not be afraid to sit with those who experience the dark night of the soul. Fifth, we covenant to seek with our clients the light that is embodied in the person of Jesus Christ.

To shine, not whine.

Al Dueck

Professor of Cultural Psychology

School of Psychology