I want to start today by telling you what my success rate was for healing mental illness when I was a counsellor. Zero! I never saw one person ever get cured of a mental illness, and I am pretty sure not many others have either. These are not diseases that can be cured, they are mental and emotional patterns that lead to living in a way that strengthens the thoughts and feelings. It’s like a big feedback loop that continues to deepen the problem until it becomes debilitating.
The fact that medication can help in some people some of the time simply shows that we can treat the symptoms like taking pain killers for a broken leg. The medicine doesn’t heal the leg, and medicine does not cure mental illness. I am also not saying that people didn’t get better, but that was more because they learned strategies to live and think differently despite how they felt, not because they no longer had any bad feelings.
The truth is that we are all mentally ill. If you can show me one person that has complete contentment, inner peace, and security all the time, you’ll prove me wrong. God created us that way, but we’re not that way anymore. The major mental illnesses in our time are anxiety, depression, bipolar depression (which is just a weird combination of anxiety and depression), and schizophrenia.
We have all experienced some of these at one time or another, and many of us struggle with some of them regularly. Even schizophrenia which is basically being delusional and creating a different reality because of extreme anxiety, is something we all do sometimes when life gets overwhelming, we create mental fantasies, we’re just able to snap out of it easier.
How many of you have read the Pilgrim’s Progress? This is a classic allegory of the Christian journey.
The main character Christian, is on a journey from the city of Destruction to the Celestial City, and along the way him and all the other pilgrims come across various obstacles that can’t be avoided. One such place is the slough of Despond where pilgrims can find themselves sinking in the mire, and depending on the amount of burden they have on their back, can find it very difficult to get out.
Christian had this problem until a man named Help (the Holy Spirit) came and pulled him out. Christian asks help why has this place not been fixed so that this journey might be easier and more secure for the pilgrims. Help responds that this place cannot be mended. The point being that places like these are inevitable and no matter how mature we are, no one is immune to these places. But these places cannot be mended, only travelled through.
As you can see from this story though, it’s not by our own effort that we get through them, but by the grace and help of the Lord. These places, these mental and emotional rough spots are there to get us to seek the Lord. They aren’t necessarily tests, or punishment, but simply God’s way of trying to get us to seek Him at a deeper level, to get us desperate for Him because he so wants to take care of us and have intimacy with us.
Someone once said, “Peace is that calm of mind that is not ruffled by adversity, overclouded by a remorseful conscience, or disturbed by fear.”
I think good mental health is the absence of what the modern world has piled into our minds. You don’t see mentally ill babies or toddlers. You also don’t see mental illness in primitive tribal cultures. Mental Health is a removal of all the thoughts and feelings that keep us from being what we were born to be, as God created us. Mental illness is a product of the fall and did not exist in the beginning and will not exist at the end in Heaven. What you are left with then is contentment, security, and peace.
So it’s no surprise to me that we humans cannot cure mental illness. We were never meant to. It’s something we are given to help us find and get closer to God. Thomas Szasz was a not so well regarded Psychiatrist who basically said that no mental illness is a disease, but we want to call it that so that we can change these people who go against social norms. Here are a couple of his quotes:
If the dead talk to you, you’re a spiritualist; if God talks to you, you’re a schizophrenic.
If you talk to God, you are praying. If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia.
He even believed that if we didn’t interfere with Schizophrenics, they might actually lead us to God. That may be a little extreme in some cases but nonetheless, I think he was one of the wisest psychiatrists of our time.
Poor mental health is caused primarily by ongoing anger, anxiety, fear, worry, feeling helpless, hopeless, and shame and lack of self-acceptance. All of these feelings start in the mind and end in behaviour.
I want you to hear this very clearly because it is what research, my observations, and the Bible say is the core emotion that causes all disorder, and is the opposite of Love. It is fear. At the core of every mental illness, and all human emotional discomfort is fear with its cousins anxiety and worry. Fear is behind every other negative emotion.
The Bible says perfect love casts out all fear. And of course perfect love is only available through Christ, no mortal human has ever done it. So we can really simplify what poor mental health is, too much fear, not enough love. The opposite of poor mental health then, is peace, contentment and security.
Therefore optimal mental health can only be provided by God, never by the world because these three things cannot be found in the world. There is nothing in the world that can provide perfect peace, contentment, or security. Everything in the world is temporary and risky.
I believe there are two primary Scripture passages that summarize the God ordained treatment for poor mental health. The first is Matthew 11:28-30 read. Here Jesus is talking about the burden that the Law, the Pharisees, the world has put on people to be a certain way. Sound familiar?
Then he says, “come to me”. This is an invitation. The world says “Do”, but Jesus says come. In other words trust in me. It brings to mind the person trying to lure the deer to come eat from your hand. Jesus is gently coaxing us saying come on, it’s OK, you don’t have to be anything special for me to treat you kindly.
In Jesus hand though is not food per se, but rest. Come to me and you can take what I give, something truly only I can give. This word rest, can have the same meaning in the Greek as the word for peace, where Jesus says in John, “my peace I give you, not as the world gives. Let your hearts not be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
He says take my yoke upon you. Well take a yoke, not take a joke, in those days meant become a disciple, and the word “easy” here means well-fitting. So he has the perfect yoke for our lives and circumstances, and the burden of following him and doing his will is not a heavy one.
And do you see why this is true? Because he has the perfect yoke, the perfect blueprint for our lives because he created us. He shows us the perfect way to live to have mental health. Not that life will necessarily be easy, or trouble free, but that we will have perfect mental health, peace, contentment, and security in spite of what life throws at us.
Notice he doesn’t leave it at taking the yoke, becoming a disciple, he also clearly tells us to learn from him. Not just from his words in the Bible, but from how he lived as an example for us. We see that he had emotions just like us, yet he often tells us, don’t be afraid, don’t be angry, don’t be sad. Is that a contradiction? I once thought so, but then I realized he never to my knowledge said don’t feel those emotions, he said don’t be those emotions.
But even that doesn’t seem to fit. He seemed to be angry when he turned over the money changer’s tables. He certainly seemed to be afraid and anxious when he was sweating blood in the Garden of Gethsemane before his arrest. He be’d sad when he saw Lazarus’ sisters after their brother’s death, he wept. Does he think we want to feel these negative emotions? Does he think we should have complete control over our feelings when even he didn’t?
In Philippians 4 I think we see through Paul, how God wants us to deal with our thoughts that bring emotions other than joy and peace. He knows the truth that all emotions come from thoughts first. Verses 6-9 of chapter four say,
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me (Paul) – practice theses things, and the God of peace will be with you.”
Let’s break this down. The very first thing again is don’t be anxious. The Greek word for anxious means pulled in different directions. We want something but our fear pulls us in another direction. The old English root word for worry literally means to strangle. If you have ever experienced real anxiety, you can relate to that.
Now Paul doesn’t just say don’t do it, he gives very specific instructions on how. The first is to pray, but he doesn’t just say pray about it. He says pray with supplication or spiritual earnestness just like Jesus did in the Garden when he was afraid, and with thanksgiving, knowing that he is there and will answer. There’s the faith part.
Notice how when Jesus prayed in the Garden, he went from sweating blood to a peaceful surrender which never seemed to leave him even until his last breath on the cross? Jesus had emotions, but he always, immediately took them to His Father who instantly gave him peace.
What about driving out the vendors and overturning tables? Well it doesn’t ever say he was angry, but he always did what the Father instructed him to do. Could it be that he was just showing them what the Father was going to do if they continued to disobey Him and defile the temple?
But getting back to Paul, he’s smart enough to know that we can’t pray properly unless we are thinking properly, so he gives us specific instruction on how to think peacefully with a mind guarded by Christ. He starts with things that are true.
Studies show that 92% of what people worry about are either imaginary, never happened, or are things that are completely out of our control. Making 92% of our worry a complete waste of time. Satan on the other hand corrupts our minds with lies to get us to doubt and worry. So we must focus only on truth.
He also says do not focus our minds on anything that is dishonorable or unjust. This doesn’t mean we deny that there is anything disgusting or unfair in our world, just that we should not focus our minds on these things.
But we are to focus on things that are pure, lovely, commendable or worthwhile, or anything that is excellent especially in God’s eyes. Focus our minds on everything that brings praise to God and people. I believe in essence he is saying, yes there’s lots of garbage to think about in this world, but we can choose to focus on the negative or the positive.
Again this is not denial, it’s just where we choose to let our minds settle. Unfortunately I know many Christians who always seem to be talking about the problems and faults of the world and the church, and their fellow Christians. Not only should we think these better things, we should also express these thoughts to others to help and encourage them. Again we will probably be ridiculed because we are not going with the flow of complaining and fault finding, but that’s a good thing, we’re supposed to be different.
Then Paul says, you have heard it, learned it, and seen it from me, now practice it and not only will you have peace, but the actual God of peace will be with you, because you are making your mind more like His.
Jesus says we are to hunger and thirst for righteousness, this means not only in our actions, but in the thoughts and attitudes that dictate our actions. If you need any more proof we can look to Isaiah 32:17-18, “The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever. My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.”
How about Psalm 119:165, “Great peace have they who love your law.”
Or Colossians 3:15, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.”
Coming to Christ is not just declaring your belief in Him, it is desiring to be and think like Him. Jesus didn’t have any mental health problems, yet he experienced all the emotions we do. Why was he immune? Because he was completely submitted to the will and thoughts of God the Father.
He was never concerned about how the world operated and trying to fit in or make his life work in the world, therefore he was never burdened for more than a few seconds at a time. He had complete faith in God and was completely free from ongoing fear. We will all be frightened or startled by things from time to time, usually we laugh about it a few seconds later, but the fear that causes mental unrest is ongoing fear that is more a construction in our minds than anything legitimate in the moment.
Jesus wants us to bring it all to him so that he can give us the perfect love that casts out fear and gives us his peace, the contentment that Paul felt in all circumstances, and the security that Jesus felt even when he was being tortured and crucified.
That brings me to one final statement on all this. Mental Health is not needing to be concerned about ourselves. Ongoing mental unrest is almost always a product of thinking about yourself too much. Obviously fear is absolutely a self-centered thing. If you’re trying to save your child though, it’s funny how fear seems to disappear. But this self-centeredness is true of anger, depression, loneliness, everything else that underlies poor mental health.
When Paul and Jesus were suffering they were always focused on others, and/or God. Jesus was being compassionate and forgiving while being tortured. Paul was more concerned with his friends, churches, and even the jailers when he was in prison.
Peace, security, and contentment allow us to relax, to take ourselves for granted because we trust that we are in God’s hands, and focus on others. What we are feeling, what problems we have, no longer have any power over us, God is bigger than all of them, and he is in us, so we are completely free to be there for others, and share the secrets to this unusual peace that we have that is so obviously different from the rest of people.
Now let me clarify something here. I am not saying to just deny that we have any problems and hide behind always being focused on other people. People that do this usually end up sick and depressed. This state I’m referring to is a place of peaceful confidence, knowing we are Ok and completely upheld by Christ.
You have gone to the Lord, you have truly given him all your problems, and he in exchange has given you peace, confidence, and security that allows you to not worry about yourself. You are coming from a state of freedom in Christ, not avoiding your own issues by filling your mind with other people’s problems.
So what do we do now? I think we should honestly identify our deepest fears, then “come to Christ” with them and see what he says about them. Then we take all that junk and leave it at His feet emptying our burden. Then we follow Jesus instructions, focus on all the things Paul tells us, and we learn as much as we can about how he and Jesus lived, and we practice being like them all the time.
We trust, have faith that Jesus will take care of us as we live for Him and others.
