THOSE PESKY LITTLE GHOSTS

 4464

Pt. 1

My wife has been with our daughter in Massachusetts off and on for quite some time, as she has endured several surgeries over the past couple of years. As a result, we spend a lot of time on the phone. 

I had let our three dogs out into the backyard, and they were in the process of "barking their heads off," and were in the process of competing with a neighbor's dog behind their wood panel fence.

And although our glass sliding door was closed, and although 1,200 miles separates my home in central Florida from our daughter's home in Massachusetts, suddenly I heard one of the resident dogs "go to yapping." 

I laughed, and asked my wife which dog was barking, and Jean informed me that it was Otis; our grandson's pug. Apparently, his hearing was nothing less than acute; since I could just hear Max, Lilly and Toby myself. 

And as the day progressed, I began to consider the foregoing scenario from a counselor's point of reference.

Pt. 2

Disembodied voices

Or as I am prone to characterize them... the ghosts of the past.

Those pesky little ghosts which "come knockin' on our door" at the most unexpected moments. 

The trauma, trouble, trials, temptations, and triggers of the past

And while we are separated by time and distance, and while the former events are but fading memories, we have become sensitized to their "voices." And these disembodied voices can be more tangible, and can be more traumatic than anything we have the wherewithal to actually see and touch.

Post-script

As someone who has been in the counseling ministry for thirty plus years, I know the value of a trained mind, a listening ear, a caring word, and a loving God.

If you are troubled by what I characterize as the ghosts of the past, I would encourage you to enlist the services of a Christian counselor.

by Bill McDonald, PhD

"Counsel in the heart of a man is like deep waters, but the man of understanding will draw it out." (Proverbs 20:5)