Category: Very helpful

Of Adjectives and Disorders [Mental Illness]

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“Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.”

Ephesians 4:25, NIV

I catch myself using this strange new vocabulary quite a bit. There is a tendency to make adjectives where there should be nouns. There is an ‘in exactness’ in our thinking and speech.

Now we’re not the ‘policemen’ of other people’s grammar. We just should be aware of becoming too casual with mental disorders that can be quite debilitating to quite a few people. Do I ‘joke about’ having OCD when I try to do something precisely? (Sometimes.) Can I make light of being rather ‘retarded’ by some bone-head action I do? (More often than I’d like.)

I find I use terminology like this to explain ‘actions’ to give them a legitimacy as well as a medical reason to a situation. But when I do so, I can demean other people who actually are going through them for real. I also can label myself when I use these adjectives this way.

We really must be careful. We can use our language in such way that reveals our ignorance of the medical and psychological status of disorders. When we use words casually we start to ‘dilute’ them. They can describe a ‘reality’ of things that don’t really exist; we then end up speaking falsely and minimize the severity of a disorder.

“The true test of a man’s spirituality is not his ability to speak, as we are apt to think, but rather his ability to bridle his tongue.”

R. Kent Hughes

As a Christian believer, I also suffer from Bipolar disorder with delusions and anxiety. And yet, the Word tells me to always “speak the truth in love.” (Eph. 4:15). Listen to yourself, and let the Holy Spirit guard your words.

“Set a guard over my mouth, Lord;
    keep watch over the door of my lips.”

Psalm 141:3

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When Anxiety Becomes An Issue

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“ Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?”

Matthew 6:27, NLT

“And who of you by worrying and being anxious can add one unit of measure (cubit) to his stature or to the span of his life?”

Matthew 6:27, AMP

Anxiety can be described as “misplaced concern.”  Many are over-wrought and disturbed by the way life is developing for them.  They can’t make it work, and find themselves in a place they regard as perilous.  They are stressed and then try to imagine themselves to a place of success.  But a year from now, they will not have improved and find themselves in pretty much in the same place.

The evil of anxiety is that we become overly concerned with the future— today. 

Under a great deal of worry, we develop a deep tendency for fear.  Soon doubt filters in and we work ourselves up into a significant problem.  Seeking success we find ourselves in the chains of anxiety and worry.

Jesus declared that we should never ever be anxious.  He suggests that anxiety will never pay-off.  Our fear over our future can bring us nothing but spiritual poverty, and emotional crisis  We find a bag and we try to collect some security and certainty, but little do we know that our bag has holes.  It holds nothing, and leaks everything.

No matter what we think, we change a single thing.  Concentrating on wealth and success will in the long run, is futile and empty.  We can’t make an iota of a difference.

6 “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 4:6-7, NLT

Security for us is not what we can scrape up, but it is found in coming under the control of Jesus Christ.  We have an awareness that life is cruel, capricious and demanding.  We sift through our life, our eyes eager to find something, anything that will help us.  And, we find nothing. But faith in God will push the anxious thoughts out.

“An unpeaceful mind cannot operate normally. Hence the Apostle teaches us to “have no anxiety about anything” (Phil. 4:6). Deliver all anxious thoughts to God as soon as they arise. Let the peace of God maintain your heart and mind (v. 7).”

Watchman Nee

Anxiety seems to be a disturbing companion to those of us with a mental illness.  (We definitely don’t like his company.)  Anxiety shapes us and victimizes us, and we often find ourselves in a confusing place. But understanding the presence of anxiety is just a half-step towards freedom. We must shake ourselves of the fear and doubt that accompanies this sin.

We must trust our Father, and completely lean on his grace. We must learn to pray again.

Important to Know:

General Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is a seperate category of mental illness, and although similar to the anxiety experienced by many, requires the help of medical professionals.  We should not confuse the two. GAD is an illness and not just basic anxiety. Panic attacks can often accompany GAD. Get help if you think this might be an issue for you. 

Visit http://www.medicinenet.com/panic_disorder/article.htm for more information.

 

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He is the Master of Disaster

Peter and John Running to the Tomb

Peter is the epitome of reckless failure.  And I must admit that I love him for it.  We see him taking the plunge (Matt. 14:30) and almost drowning.  We hear that he is “Satan” (Matt. 16:22-23).  And of course the ugliest moment of all, Peter denies Jesus not once, but three times!

In baseball, at three strikes, you are out.  Completely.  But Jesus doesn’t keep score.  He doesn’t sit in the “dugout” and glare at us when we fail him.  There is not any punitive action directed at us for being a “spiritual basket case.”  We fail, but it is not a sin unto death.  It is a disaster, but never in an ultimate sense.

When we look on Peter, we discover forgiveness in an ultimate sense.  So much of his foolishness gets redeemed.  He pushes the envelope, and stretches God’s mercy to the point where we think we can hear it groan.  And creak– and yet, it holds!  We must learn and understand, for he makes provision in his thinking, to handle all of our sin.  You might say he has low expectations for us; but high confidence in his power and grace.

His is a grace that holds us.  We might flip out and commit gross sin.  But it is quite obvious from our reading of Scripture, that we will only find stability in his patient work.  He certainly forgives the failure.  Faith’s finest had to understand this point.

Peter imploded.  His choices and words have been disastrous.  He has re-defined failure, and he stretches that definition to about as big as you can make it.  When we look square at him, we find that he is nothing more than a sniveling weakling.  But!  He hasn’t experienced Pentecost yet.  It is there, at that moment, he is transformed into a veritable dynamo.  He suddenly becomes very strong (think “meek” Clark Kent becoming Superman!)

We need a trajectory of the Spirit which puts us into the place of understanding. We need to sink our roots deep into God’s mercy.  We have to come to the place where we start connecting with hope.  The place where we are energized  by his mercy.  We shouldn’t cohabit with disaster.  We don’t belong to the arena of the “failed ones.”  We stumble to him and he rushes out to meet us.  What else could we say?

ybic, Bryan

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“Thy Mercy Beams I See”

The Heavens Declare the Glory of God

Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies

By: Charles Wesley

Christ, whose glory fills the skies,
Christ, the true and only light,
Sun of righteousness, arise,
Triumph over the shades of night;
Dayspring from on high, be near;
Daystar, in my heart appear.

Dark and cheerless is the morn
Unaccompanied by thee;
Joyless is the day’s return
Till thy mercy’s beams I see,
Till they inward light impart,
Glad my eyes, and warm my heart.

Visit then this soul of mine,
Pierce the gloom of sin and grief;
Fill me, radiancy divine,
Scatter all my unbelief;
More and more thyself display,
Shining to the perfect day.

______

Wesley’s hymn resonates within.  Being of a sad and melancholic temperment I find a deep assurance in these words that describe my issues so clearly. But He is my light, He scatters my unbelief and doubt.  I will lean heavily on Jesus, as He leads me out of my darkness.

I pray that you would know His mercy and love for your soul. No matter what you’ve done or may do, His heart turns to you.

ybic, Bryan

 

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