Page 44 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 23

this one. The thorn embodied that theological paradox: a man with divine
power s�ll needing divine mercy. In doing so, it helped Paul form a sense of
humanity, which anchored his authority in weakness rather than domi-
nance. Lastly, the thorn was ‘given’ to Paul to restore his homeostasis and
maintain his spiritual and psychological equilibrium amid the extremes of
success, pain, and calling. The most fundamental func�on of the thorn, ar-
guably, is homeosta�c. Homeostasis in drive reduc�on theory is the body’s
ability to maintain internal stability amid external change (Goldstein, 2019;
Stagner, 1961). Paul was a man in mo�on; he was plan�ng churches, endu-
ring persecu�on, wri�ng epistles to the church, undergoing imprisonments,
and naviga�ng both divine ecstasy and social rejec�on. In such extremes
(e.g., visions and bea�ngs, miracles and sleepless nights) Paul could have
become psychologically imbalanced, swinging between euphoria and de-
spair. The thorn became God’s tool for calibra�ng Paul’s soul and mo�va�-
on, keeping him from spiritual and emo�onal burnout.

Therefore, the thorn func�ons as a form of divine regula�on, a way to an-
chor Paul’s will to God’s mission through his struggles, not despite it. Rather
than disengage, Paul reframes the thorn as a portal for God’s power to be
revealed through him. We see here a voli�onal homeostasis at work. In
other words, there was a spiritual regula�on that not only mo�vates Paul to
focus on God but allows him to persist in his mission even when personal
strength is depleted.

This vision is founda�onal for missional psychotherapy (Counted et al.
2024), which seeks to integrate the challenges of personal history into the
greater arc of God’s redemp�ve story. I have proposed a framework of mis-
sional therapy, which unfolds within a fourfold process that mirrors this
transforma�on: Personalize, Locate, Engage, Apply (PLEA). This process
starts with personalizing the story of God. With the help of the Chris�an
mental health professional, clients begin by naming their experiences, inclu-
ding wounds and ‘thorns,’ while recognizing that these are not outside the
scope of divine a�en�on. And like Paul, they are invited to see their strug-
gles not as disqualifica�ons but as doorways into greater divine missional
purpose. Second is to locate ourselves in God’s grand narra�ve. At this task,
clients explore where their story intersects with the larger missio Dei. The
thorn, rather than being erased, becomes a theological and existen�al coor-
dinate that locates them within the divine narra�ve of grace. At the third
task, the client is encouraged to engage their struggles through the missio-
nal story of God. This starts ul�mately by engaging the Will of God. With this
engagement phase, clients are guided into voli�onal ac�va�on. At this pha-
se, they can develop spiritual prac�ces, goal-se�ng habits, and psychologi-
cal flexibility to enact God’s call through suffering, not in spite of it. At the
final task, the clients are invited to apply the missional story of God to their
story by living out their faith by turning outward, e.g. through serving, lea-
ding, witnessing. Their pain becomes tes�mony, their weakness becomes
strength, and their story becomes part of the redemp�ve healing work of
God in the world.

In this light, Paul’s thorn became more than a metaphor. It was actually a
model for how God uses afflic�on not to silence our calling but to regulate
it and shape us into instruments of grace. Missional psychotherapy echoes

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