Ron's pastoral care 4) Restoring value

After his 5 signs of devaluation Ron went on to give 5 ways in which to restore value.
Salvation is Jesus restoring the value of a sinner. Swindler Zacchaeus is told he is 'a son of Abraham' (Luke 19:9)  Pastoral care takes up the theme: 'You're worth caring for, so we won't abandon you to your suffering....loneliness...guilt ...fear'.

Quality care will depend on the value placed on the person expressed in:

• Time - ungrudgingly given as a gift of oneself.
• Interest - genuine concern about the PERSON, not just the problem.
• Name - calling them by name brings a person out of the crowd and acknowledges identity.  The Good Shepherd believes that's important (John 10.3).
• Practical help.
• Prayer - that lifts a person beyond our own resources into the grace of God.  Prayer dares to claim that the eternal God.

Spending time on each of these he summed it up:  All this is LOVE in action.

Continuously he asked us to reflect.   'The debt we owe':  In Romans 16:11-16 Paul names some of the many people who touched his life and to whom he owed a debt. Reflection on our own journey we might be surprised by the number of people who have touched our lives along the way, not always in crisis. We haven't come alone.

Sadly, I only have notes of one more session but this really focuses on the 'in action' aspect...next time.