Thanks, John Parks

My friend's obituary is in today's Lexington paper, i.e., John Parks, M.D. John was a psychiatrist, who prior to coming to Lexington, worked among the people of central and southwestern Arizona. Judy and I met John and his wife in the marriage enrichment efforts in central Kentucky. Later, he asked me to be in his peer learning group as he was training in spirituality with the Shalem Institute. We met in our home for several years. He introduced me to Psycho-synthesis and involved me in their work. Sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s, he began a dialogue group between Christians and Muslims. He involved me and later our group included Jews, Hindus, and all "religions", even a couple of "agnostics." We met monthly in his home. In 1995, I diagnosed myself (not a wise thing to do) with depression and burnout. I went to John. After a couple of sessions, he discerned that I wasn't depressed or even burned-out. I thought that being Pastor of the same church for 21 years qualified me for both depression and burned-out. John suggested that the Lord had "dried me up" because there was another direction to which I was being "called." That sounded like both a relief and a cop-out. My Spiritual Director, a Jesuit Priest, said this was a time of acting on faith and I probably wouldn't know the new direction until I resigned and trusted the Lord. I could have puked. Nevertheless after a period of time, I resigned the Church that summer. I had nothing to do. No church ever contacted me to do anything, not even to fill a pulpit. I painted the windows in our house and became a fan, via the radio, of the Cincinnati Reds. I was certain that I'd made the dumbest mistake that could ever be made. In December of my "nothing to do" period which by now was in its 6th month, I was contacted by Lexington's Calvary Baptist Church to see if I might have any interest in helping them begin a faith-based counseling center. Why not, I had nothing to do. It is now 23 years since that period and the Interfaith Counseling Center is a significant ministry (check out our website, i.e., Interfaithcounselingcenter.org). I will always appreciate John Parks and his awareness of the Lord's presence and moving in the lives of others.