THE CRISIS OF DEATH

The Crisis of Death

The Crisis of Death

Introduction

A crisis is any situation for which a person does not have adequate coping skills. Therefore, crisis is self-defined. What is a crisis for one person may not be a crisis for another person. Crises may range from seemingly minor situations, such as not being prepared for class, to major life changes, such as death or divorce. Crisis is environmentally based. What is now a crisis may not have been a crisis before or would not be a crisis in a different setting? In this paper we will analyze Crisis of Death intervention and Bible perspective about this.

Death crisis

Death is an event that presents a crisis to the family system. Conceptualizing death as a stressor event and recognizing the variety of coping resources present in and available to bereaved families and individuals, along with the meaning attached to death, can help interventionists to perceive strategies for providing assistance in time of grief. Pastoral counselors are often needed to interpret death from a faith perspective, yet they may need to interpret the family's reaction to the death crisis in order to facilitate their readjustment (www.brief-therapy.com).

Biblical Perspective on Crisis Intervention

Biblical counseling and crisis intervention are both subjects with which all of God's followers should be accustomed. In an exceedingly secular world, the need to remind those in suffering of the love and guidance of Jesus is ever present. With the rise in technology, people are more aware of the numerous crisis events that occur daily. The need for Bible-based guidance is growing (www.brief-therapy.com).

Biblical crisis intervention and biblical counseling rely on the Bible and God to help an individual through a difficult situation. M.L. Carson explains that “the standard approach in pastoral care [is] to cultivate empathy and try to enter into a relationship with the person” (Carson, 2006, 232). Phil Monroe further elaborates that “Biblical counseling focuses on how to live faithfully, to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly in the circumstances we find ourselves in” (Monroe 2007). Using the Bible and a relationship allows a counselor to aid the individual in coping with precipitating events (Winfrey, D. 2007).

Most individuals have “two main needs- first to be able to speak the unresolved pain… and second, to be reassured that they are children of God's love” (Gould, 2006, 266). These needs manifest themselves in any difficult situation and must be attended to. Especially for a believer, the need to be reminded of God's love is paramount. Although Phil Monroe reminds readers that there is not any one specific model of biblical counseling (Monroe 2007), it is important to reestablish the faith of the individual. If the individual is not a person of faith, or has since lost their faith in God, the crisis, once dealt with, may be a good opportunity to bring the individual to Jesus. However, counselors must be careful not to take advantage of a suffering individual (Fitzgerald, ...