Understanding People - Softcover

"My burden in this book is to lay a foundation for accepting the simple (but rather radical) idea that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life without falling into shallowness or irrelevance. To reach that goal, it is necessary to see how psychological disorder is really the product of the sinful pursuit of life apart from God." "Let me try to reduce this profound longing for relationship to a simple definition: Each of us fervently wants someone to see us exactly as we are, warts and all, and still accept us. Because no other human being can ever see all of us, a nagging doubt clouds even the best relationship: what would they think of me if they knew that . . .?" "We must relieve ourselves of the pressure to 'feel good' when something legitimately painful happens. Hurting Christians must embrace their pain, not deny it out of guilt. Bereaved people should sorrow. Parents whose children rebel should ache. Wives whose husbands are weak should feel disappointed and angry. Children whose parents provide authority without involvement should feel betrayed . . . Every emotion can be used to push us on to a deeper awareness of our dependency on God." "People who are designed to know the joy of relationship feel only the pain of separation and loneliness."

Much contemporary counselling focuses on an individual's need for security and significance, but there are deeper longings in the human heart, argues Larry Crabb. These are for relationship and impact and only God can satisfy such needs. With this as his starting point, Larry Crabb offers a practical model of biblical counselling which falls into three parts: 1 - understanding how the Bible can speak to human problems; 2 - Understanding people - can we truly change?; 3 - growing towards maturity - the essence and evidence of healed relationships.