Welcome to The Hotline
I’ll be 42 years old in about a month. My advancing physical age belies the youthfulness I feel inside. I suppose that’s the paradox of aging. I’m getting too old to have kids and would need a wife to do that anyway. I used to have a wife, but we divorced several years back. Divorce is very hard, but it did not permanently scar me. Because the Bible is my ultimate authority, I now live according to the apostle Paul’s teachings on marriage in 1 Corinthians 7:32-35. Sometimes I am self-conscious about being single, yet I am mostly content living this way. However, I often think about what kind of dad I would be. Having a nephew and two nieces (soon to be three), I feel a strong desire to shepherd the souls of younger people. Moreover, my own upbringing has shown me the dangers of raising fragile souls without fully teaching them and preparing them for the temptations, pitfalls, and lies that abound in this world. (That is not to say that I did not have a wonderful childhood in so many ways. I simply struggled to find my way for far too long and could have used a little extra help.) But God uses our challenges for His glory! My life experiences have equipped me to help others.
God has put a call on my life to be a counselor. (You may call me Mr. Mackey, mmmkay?) I love and care about people — getting to know them, learning from them, and being a big brother or father figure to help guide them. As an individual, I have been wired with a lot of self-insight, and I spend a fair amount of time thinking about and processing my thoughts and feelings. I have plumbed the depth of my own psyche to such a degree that when I go into that void, I can find little nuggets and treasures to share with others. I feel that my life has doled out extremely hard lessons that have strengthened and prepared me so that I can stand firm while meeting others at almost whatever level they wish to self-disclose. I have had to learn to master my mind to a high degree, so I am neither intimidated nor caught off-guard by the challenges posed to others who are seeking truth, which I think we all are. That is not to say that I understand everything because I have not endured everything. To name a few of my blind spots, I don’t know what it’s like to lose a biological parent, sibling, or child; I can’t relate to someone who has experienced rape or physical abuse; I struggle with getting to the heart of serious addiction; I have little tolerance for those who do not genuinely want to get better or cannot admit that they have a problem; and marriage counseling would not be for me.
You may be wondering why I’m sharing all this. I want you to know that if you need someone to listen, I can do that non-judgmentally and without offering some crappy platitude or bad advice that will only leave you more frustrated. Americans are currently more isolated than in the brief history of this country, and human beings were not made to live that way. As separate as we may feel, the issues we all face are universal at their root in the sense that we need to fill the absence of certain psychological archetypes, I theorize. However, each unique individual has a different way of processing and articulating those underlying needs, primarily by some combination of expressing through words, translating the inner world through creativity, and exhibiting certain behaviors. I am willing to be an open book for you so that you do not feel like you’re the only one being vulnerable, but I promise I won’t make our conversation about me. This is going to sound so cheesy, but I know firsthand through my experience with my current therapist that over the course of long-term counseling the patient is like a budding flower: it starts out dense and closed and slowly opens up, revealing more and more of its beauty and complexity.
I’m hoping someone will take advantage of this offer, although the chances are slim. If you need a vital lifeline or just find yourself bored and lacking human connection, CALL ME*: 713-213-3689.
*I am not a licensed therapist, but I will do my best. Be patient with me as I am patient with you.
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