How the Woven Themes of My Life Have Led to My Calling Into the Counseling Profession

My first name (Jesse) means “grace” and my middle name (Samuel) means “asked of God.” When I think about themes that God has woven throughout the course of my life, I think of his continuous grace that has unfolded from before I was born, to this present day. There have been so many blessings in my life. From an early age, I was blessed to have three older siblings to learn from directly and through observation. It is truly a wonderful thing to have parents who are both Christians and actively serve God. My parents and my older siblings who have gone before me have all inspired me to be the man that I am today. Even going through the process of divorce, I feel God’s sustaining grace, despite the very emotionally challenging aspects of it. I help lead worship at my local church and it fills me with such power when I recount the grace in my life. It is inspiring to point out God’s grace in the lives of those around me too. The hymn “Amazing Grace” is classic because the gift of grace never gets old, no matter how old you grow!

The second theme in my life is holding the power of compassion within my soul. When God gives people an extra measure of compassion, I believe that He always expects people to use the gift that He has established within us. His spiritual gifts always steer people toward the calling that He has placed on our lives. I feel a tremendous amount of compassion and empathy on a regular basis. On some days, it is a burden, however, it requires me to surrender to God. He promises to carry all of our burdens if we give them to Him. Matthew 11:28-30 is a great reminder, which says,

"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

For nearly thirteen years, I have been working in higher education, in various student facing roles. The most enjoyable aspect of the positions that I have had are the connections with people. Why is this? I believe that it is because I have dozens of people to disseminate grace and compassion to. I have received grace and compassion from God, so it drives me to want to extend these qualities to futuristic clients in the counseling profession.

Within the counseling profession, I believe that it provides a powerful space to gently lead people. I think that there is great opportunity to help clients see the grace and blessings that they have experienced in their own lives. All people crave some level of compassion and I want to be a vessel, used by God, to give a fraction of the compassion that people crave when they come in for counseling help. The concept of noticing people’s strengths and helping shed light on those strengths is empowering within the therapeutic relationship. Simply put, I want to empower people to be the best version of themselves that they can be, while helping them fight their mental health issues. For many people, their mental health issues are desperately trying to cripple them.

When I think about the past, and it being God’s will, it definitely brings a mixture of feelings, some positive feelings, and some negative feelings. The positive feelings stem from knowing that God wanted me to be a father of a little girl, who is now ten years old! The gift of parenthood is one of the greatest gifts that I believe that anyone could receive. I realize that God wanted me to experience a season of marriage. Where the more negative feelings start to slip in is the painful mental health challenges that I had to help my wife get through. There were many years, where very intensive treatment just didn’t seem to help her. It was very discouraging for me, as a man, who wanted to see her thrive in life, to see, what seemed like little progress. I feel sadness when I think about the marriage that slowly disintegrated. It is very sad thinking about my daughter not getting to have parents that live together. Despite the painful marriage, I know that God brought good out of it, and we are coparenting to the best of our ability currently. Separation needed to happen so that my daughter could have better parents. For our family, this is what was needed. I still struggle to understand why God wants me to be in a state of singleness though. It brings up questions like: Is there something wrong with me? Will there ever be someone else out there for me to get remarried to? How can I not feel so alone in life currently?

In conclusion, I see God’s masterful hand in my life, how grace and compassion have been beautifully woven into my soul. I know that grace and compassion will continue to be used in my daily life as an academic advisor and as a future counselor, after this graduate program is completed and licensure occurs. I understand that the past is not altogether defining of my future. It is refreshing to be reminded that God’s will is always best, even when we don’t understand as humans. I believe that the positive and negative feelings that I experience daily when thinking about past experiences are a gift. Honestly, to feel in the present moment, regardless of the feelings, is truly a gift! God has designed us to be emotional creatures and it is important to find gratitude for all the themes that emerge from our lives!