God and Mental Illness
Part 8, The Help God Provides
Last post in this series.
The two big points I've made, in thinking about God and mental illness, is that Christians need to embrace our embodiment and beware of when we are importing soteriological expectations into our mental wellness journey. Specifically, our journey toward health, especially with chronic mental illness, will be slow, incremental, faltering, effortful, and embodied. And none of that implies that God is not with us or helping us.
If that's so, what can we expect from God? If we shouldn't expect to pray mental illness away -- expecting an immediate, complete, permanent, passive, and Gnostic "cure" -- what can we look forward to? As I've pointed out in this series, although we groan inwardly, awaiting in patience and hope the redemption of our embodied souls and ensouled bodies, we do posses the first-fruits of the Spirit. God is with us and helping us.
How so?
The sketch I'm going to provide isn't going to be complete or exhaustive. Whole books could be written about each thing I mention. But here is some of the help God provides:
Presence
Power
Hope
Community
Meaning in Life
By presence I mean that you are not alone. God accompanies us. In the deepest desolation and darkest despair many of us have felt consoled by the presence and love of God.
Concerning power, while I've been hard on overly triumphalistic expectations about healing in this series, I do want to admit that God gives us power, a supernatural courage, peace, joy, endurance, and strength that we would not otherwise possess. Many people who have struggled with chronic mental illness will point to the power of God in their lives as the only thing that has kept them alive and sane. Just ask the recovery community. "But God" is their refrain.
Related to this power is hope. Hopelessness is fatal, and God's promises keep us future-oriented and hopeful. Hope keeps us taking it one day at a time.
God also provides us love, care and support in our communities of faith. God comes to us in faces of other people.
Finally, God provides us with story, purpose and worth, the three ingredients that psychologists have shown make up meaning in life, one of the most robust predictors of mental health. Your life is meaningful. Your life has purpose. You're here for a reason. And as I describe in Hunting Magic Eels, your life matters, no matter what. You are worthy.
Again, so much more could be said or added here. This is just a sketch to show, as we struggle with mental illness in patience and hope, how God is with us, giving us gifts we would be lost without. The testimonies of Christians who have struggled with mental illness are a great cloud of witnesses who point us toward the faithfulness of God.
This has been a great series and very apropos. One thing I would have liked to hear your thoughts on more in depth is the power our minds have over our physiology. It’s well documented that mental attitude can change body chemistry. The problem, as I see it, is we are so reluctant to ever change our minds, or even attempt to. I think that’s what Rom. 12:1-2 is getting at - the “renewing of your mind” is one of the keys to transformation, and indeed, good mental health. How that happens is a much longer discussion but one that is important I believe.
What we do know is that our society is contributing to the decline of mental health. Loneliness, isolation, judging worth based on success, inequality, unregulated tech, and a lack of social programs contribute to depression, anxiety, and our rise in depression... to name a few. Church and christians are generally silent on these matters, and maybe not willing to look at the evidence of what we need to build in our societal communities for wellbeing. The church should be a voice in these matters, a model, and instead the evangelicals and conservative churches are applauding our capitalistic and individualistic country and want more of it, even cutting out all social programs and embracing the trickle down cruel economic system. The more liberal churches are not heard. Building the Kindgom of Heaven on earth concerns these matters.