The Second Wounded Soul bearing gifts from God.

The delicate Goth-Girl walked through the waiting area and settled into my office with a kind of quiet, nervous energy.

She wanted help getting away from her new friends. She said they were dabbling in satanic worship. She wanted to get back to her Christian roots. "I want to be like my Grandma again", she said. "Everything was so peaceful then".

I hedged: I commended her for wanting to resist the flow with her peers and instead striving to reaffirm her family traditions.

Then she upped the stakes:

She asked me if I would pray for her. I was both embarrassed, and honoured:

Embarrassed because I had no clue about how to pray for someone...My prayers were informal, unspoken, and just simple offerings of thanks. What she was asking for sounded really complicated. Maybe there was a list of steps that I should learn?

I was honoured too, that she would trust me with such a request.

I told her that she would probably be better off enlisting the help of a counsellor who was actively involved in a church, I had a few names at the ready but, she wouldn't hear of it.

"No" she said pensively, "I want you to be the one"

Somewhat reluctantly, I said "alright, I will pray for you, and I will help you with your friends and family".

I felt like I had jumped off a cliff.

What the heck was I doing?

Well, I thought: I didn't lie to her, I was honest about my limitations.
I told her she would be better off with someone churchy.

Then I wrestled with some old familiar beliefs.
I said to myself:

"This is just fluffy crap anyway."

Then I wrestled with some new and unfamiliar beliefs.
I said to myself:

"No its not."
"I want to learn more."
"I can pretend that its just for her, for work. Yeah, thats it."

Now I had an excuse to learn more.

Thank you God.