The Positional Shift in Helplessness and Vulnerability

The third example where dialogical conversation may need to take place between the pastoral caregiver and the client in clarifying meaning is helplessness. Uncertainty in life is an experience everyone will feel from time to time. However, in some situations individuals may come to a place where crisis gives a threatening blow to meaning and purpose. Indeed, even the believer who lives life under the administration

of the Gospel may experience their faith system being threatened and helpless as a result of crisis. When the effects of vulnerability overwhelm the person, the desire is to find answers (See Diagram 3 Position A). Certainly, the cognitive need of any individual that feels helpless is to feel that someone cares and notices the worth of their dignity.

The problem of helplessness is its regressive nature. When an individual experiences threats of uncertainty in life, the debilitating emotion pulls the person into previous experiences or patterns of conviction. Therefore, the negative emotions of the client find meaning and, furthermore, are built on previous unfavourable forms of emotions. The result pulls the person into deeper withdrawal in life (See Diagram 3 Position B).

Often, in order for the person to cope with the helplessness of life, the only way to find meaning is through withdrawal. However, in this attempt to cope the individual often manipulates their circumstances. This type of manipulation is the process in which the client’s helplessness attempts to be exerted as an act of power play. To expand, the compulsion is because of the desire to control areas of life that feel unknown. Furthermore, the intention of the person is to control one’s circumstances and by doing so, influence it and increase their power in the situation. However, the problem in this act of thinking unfortunately positions the person to stay in the shadow side of life and thus bring a lack of meaning to life. It results in hostility toward others and to self. Helplessness, just like anger, causes resistance toward acceptance and belonging culminating in deeper hopelessness.

The client seeking pastoral care when in a helpless state, perhaps unknowingly, has already taken the first step of reflective healing. To expand, helplessness cannot be overcome in resistance to connecting with others. In addition, the regressive nature of helplessness will only facilitate deeper alienation when retreating into withdrawal. Thus, the need of the individual is to feel care and compassion. The care of the pastor is to help the client to understand that there are alternatives in a seemingly helpless life. Indeed, helplessness may feel like being paralysed but action must be taken against the idea that there are no more alternatives. Thus, helplessness can only be exchanged for other possibilities of hope when the noetic dimension of life moves away from a power play of manipulation toward the supportive care of life. Healing can only be realised in terms of the theological understanding of life being celebrative.

Helplessness results in the vulnerability that faith is not meaningful. Therefore, why celebrate a God who does not seem to care? It may seem to the client that God has threatened them with His wrath and will never allow them to feel content. What exactly, then does a celebrative life mean? In its most simple definition, it is the ability to be creative within circumstances that seem meaningless. It is a decision of action, as a person of faith, to believe that living in the Kingdom of God means a celebration of life. Such a sacramental move is based on the action of Christ on the cross. We celebrate life in remembrance that when we were utterly helpless Christ came at just the right time and died for us as sinners (Rom 5:6). It creates the expectation that one must move away from helplessness to progress toward a position of sacrificial service (See Position C). Indeed, God is not threatening us. In addition, it is not God that is necessarily forgetting

the promises of His Word over us. For how can His sacrificial acts of forgiveness in His Son be one of enmity toward His creation? Rather, in our helplessness the creativity of sacrificial service is in a noetic understanding of living in God’s kingdom. The pastor is to challenge the cognitive understanding of helplessness in terms of the gratitude we find being a part of God’s kingdom.

When the individual, seeking a sense of belonging, understands life as more than one’s own immediate problems, the healing process becomes more apparent. The reason is that seeking after God’s kingdom helps one understand that God is in control of those whom He loves. Therefore, as God loves us we are to love others. Such a focus is beyond oneself and is a priestly involvement for the client to connect in meaningful ways. For example, in Christ’s death and resurrection our sins are forgiven and our hope is turned toward others’ suffering and not only our own; indeed, we are humbled, joyful and experience gratitude because of God’s righteousness. This makes one aware of others needs and their vulnerability in the same way as the helplessness that the client has experienced. The position of helplessness, understood in terms of care and compassion toward others is by shifting to a place of fellowship with others (See Position D). It is only when one becomes vulnerable in terms of Christ’s death does life become meaningful.

In summary, Christ reveals to us the extreme vulnerability of what He did in fulfilling the will of God. God’s will is a covenantal love that reveals His identifying with our helplessness and vulnerability yet overcoming it through His resurrection. Therefore, the relational dynamic of life is that we be aware of one another’s weaknesses by fellowship of care and compassion. In this way the noetic conviction moves the individual toward the wholeness of gratitude in serving one another. Next, the positional shift in anxiety will be discussed.