My guess is if you’ve been a Christian for a while, you’ve most likely at some point in your faith journey wondered why God allowed sin and suffering to enter the world.
Why didn’t he stop Eve from eating that piece of fruit? Why did he make the rule that Adam and Eve couldn’t eat from that one tree? Why did he create the tree in the first place if it could potentially ruin his relationship with the first humans?
Those are all questions I’ve had.
I don’t know the answers to those questions and I don’t know if I’ll ever have them, even when I meet God face to face (at that point, will I still care?). But I do believe that God is a loving God. And he wants a relationship with his people, which is the whole reason he sent Jesus to live among us and to die for us so that we can be reconciled to him, and spend eternity with him.
God loved us so much that he provided a way for us to live eternally with him (John 3:16). Not only does he care about our salvation, he cares for our flourishing here on Earth too. To list all the examples of ways in which God cares about our flourishing on Earth would be too lengthy to detail here. But just by looking at Jesus’ miracles alone, we see sick people healed (Matthew 8:16-17), hungry people fed (Matthew 14:13-21), and the widowed cared for (Luke 7:11-15).
We know that, not only is God loving, he is the Creator of all things (Isaiah 40; Job 38; Colossians 1:16), and he knows all things (Romans 11:33; Proverbs 2:6; Job 37:16). He’s revealed truth to us and provided ways that we can know things to facilitate our flourishing.
I think of science and research, for example, which unfortunately, have taken a hit recently for political reasons. But science has given us so much, like medicine – the diseases we would’ve died from a hundred years ago are no longer a threat because of scientific research and life expectancy is much higher now. It’s given us cancer treatments, recycling, sustainable farming methods, machines of all kinds. It’s hard for me to look around my office and not see something that was not created through the scientific method and research.
We’ve known for a while now that the therapeutic relationship between a counselor and client can be healing for the client in and of itself. And I wholeheartedly hold to that. We also know through research that specific forms of therapy are especially effective for OCD and anxiety disorders. According to the International OCD Foundation, research has consistently shown that Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) “can produce large OCD symptom reductions, which are often maintained in the long-term. On average, patients achieve a reduction of 60% of OCD symptoms, along with reductions in general anxiety, depression, interpersonal distress, and functional interference.”[1] Likewise, randomized controlled trials and meta-analyses have demonstrated the effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) across a wide variety of conditions, including anxiety, depression, and general stress.[2]
While generic talk therapy is helpful and effective, it’s beneficial to consider the modalities a therapist uses to treat anxiety and OCD in particular. While diving into our family story and understanding themes and making connections is valuable, anxiety and OCD require exposure to the thing(s) we are afraid of in order for our brains to learn that we can tolerate discomfort. It would be wonderful if talking ourselves out of OCD, or chatting with a therapist once a week who assured us (and/or reassured us, in OCD’s case) that our house wouldn’t burst into flames because we didn’t turn around to check the stove was off one last time before leaving, or tattooing Philippians 4:6 on the back of our eyelids worked. But in most true OCD cases, talk therapy without exposure is less effective in reducing symptoms, and may even make symptoms worse.[3]
Which brings me back to my initial thought: isn’t it cool that, even though God did not stop Adam and Eve from disobeying and ushering suffering into the world, that he provided ways through it? That he provided ways for us to know how to move through it?
That’s why I believe that science and therapy can work to benefit human flourishing and ushering in God’s kingdom. I see evidenced-based therapies for anxiety and OCD (ACT and ERP) as God-given ways through suffering until we are ultimately with him and suffering no more.
If you’d like to know more, check out my website at the link in the profile or www.abundantlifecounselingstl.com
[1] https://iocdf.org/about-ocd/ocd-treatment-guide/erp/
[2] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11837766/#sec2
[3] https://www.treatmyocd.com/blog/why-talk-therapy-typically-isnt-effective-for-treating-ocd#h-key-takeaways
