Wake Up, Wake Up!

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I have just finished an online conversation with a friend who I have not contacted for a very long time... In fact, I was surprised when he approached me on MSN to ask if I do counselling.

Apparently, he is going through a rough patch in his relationship and I thank God for sending him to me. He has in fact have thoughts of hurting himself and had tried before. I thank God for guiding our conversation and I was amazed at how my social work training came in handy, including a bit of the suicide counselling skills I learnt during my attachment, despite haven't been able to use them for a while now. But frankly, I found it difficult to counsel this friend and several times I just wanna "shout" in his face to ask him to wake up and see how the other party is just manipulating him. He has lost so much to this taiwanese girl who is making so much financial demands on him and now he is in debts. I really find it difficult to balance between being an empathic counsellor and a concerned friend and kept oscillating between them.

In fact, I feel so burdened after talking to him. Even though I am not close to him, knowing a friend who is thinking of hurting himself is no small thing. I was so lost and was on verge of crying and I started to look for prayer warriors online (at this unearthy hour). I eventually found a friend and thank God he agreed to pray for this friend even though he did not even know him. I am just so sad and very lost now... all I can do is pray for him and maybe check back to see how he is doing.

And I am very angry with this lady and just can't understand how there can be such kind of manipulative people without conscience?

Dear God, please watch over this friend of mine and give him strength to persevere through it all. Give him wisdom to make the right decisions and guide my conversations with him.

Oh no, foresee I am going to dread going to work tomorrow... surely going to have difficulty waking up.