Dis-ease: What do I "do"?

There is a piece of me that wants to be here…still and present, but we have to ask, “how long”? Is it loving or helpful to remain in pain when there is hope of joy, restoration, and healing?

Isn’t the hope of healing worth it…a different approach?

Are you willing to stay where you are even if there is the slightest chance that there might be joy just beyond doubt?

Someone does not need to be an expert on a subject nor hold vast experience to possess true empathy or love. 

Can conviction transcend ignorance? Can their be confidence in what is known & softness to all there is yet to learn?

We don’t need to understand or figure out every emotional, psychological, or physiological intricacy to apply the gospel to a specific situation. That is the beauty of the gospel— it doesn’t have technicalities or warrantees. It requires you, or rather, it unavoidably draws you to gaze upon the person and work of Jesus Christ rather than your own situation. It asks not how much you are lacking or how great the divide is. God made a way through Jesus. The only way. In order to fill, replace, and restore the design he intended for us when he created us in his image & for his glory. Don’t be deceived—his glory is our good.

I am not saying, “just trust the lord and all your issues will be fixed”.

I think it is usually debilitating to think all problems must be fixed.

I am not saying, “just pray and you will be healed”.

I don’t think the action of prayer is to reach a specific outcome.

I have encountered several conversations with people who suffer from chemical/ physical dis-ease that look a little bit like this:

“it’s not a spiritual problem”

Great, let’s go to church! 

“I can’t sit in there”. 

OK let’s meet up with a bible believing community! 

“I don’t feel up for it.” 

Understandable. Let’s have a conversation about spiritual realities and viewpoints. 

“Let’s talk about something else.” 

Am I missing something? 

“You don’t understand, this is a chemical imbalance I need pills not preaching.” 

We could debate about the origin of a dis-ease for days. Did the biological problem come and effect the mental & spiritual or the other way around? I don’t know. Why defend either? In both cases there is need. When we see dryness we need to offer water no matter what the cause of drought is. 

Would you feel better if I told you you had nothing to do with this? You neither caused nor prevented. You are a product of this broken world, subject to cruelty and change…a product of the elements.

OK, now what? We need help all the same. A redeemer all the same. If we focus less attention on the disease and more on the remedy we may come to different conclusions.

Even the one who has accepted the reality that God is the source of health, wellbeing, and transcending love will inevitably face brokenness continually. What changes? The context. He won a long time ago, is renewing all things, and is working for his glory and your good. 

Is his glory truly your good? your greatest joy? I question it most days. But Christ died for that too…my questioning. if he is enough. I need not continue to measure my ability to trust or my capacity to surrender. The gospel offers freedom from measurement, diagnoses, and guilt. Freedom from the weight of weighing and validating. Freedom from mourning the loss we feel every day. The loss of union with the one we were designed to be unified with. 

I think we might be missing the greatest part, the single piece that will re-contextualize this and EVERY situation…God. His character, his work, and, in turn, who that makes us. 

You feel anger or resentment toward God? Be attentive to mistaking the substance of brokenness with the use of it. He does not allow pain, destruction, and suffering for the sport of it. God’s word says 

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” 

—John 16:33

“being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light."

—Colossians 4:13

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

— Isaiah 40:28-31

We also have a warning…

“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

— John 3:18-21

 “The ‘god’ of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

—2 Corinthians 4:4

The gospel is simple but transcends all labels, diagnoses, addictions, failures, and longing. The death of Christ and the eternal weight of glory have EVERYTHING to do with how you handle this situation. Regardless of the cause of disease how you react to disease speaks volumes. The pressure of disease exposes the dependency of the heart. I’m not saying there is a perfect standard for action, but I am saying there is a single, clear lens with which you can see the big picture and every decision along the way. When we see through this lens (that true redemption and restoration happens through Jesus Christ) we can stop defending, analyzing, and prescribing. We can use our full energy, emotion, and intellect for the praise and worship of God. 

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

—Matthew 6:33

Im not saying the result will be complete detachment from methods, substances, or techniques. By all means, use what is available to find healing but do not underestimate our great God. Once we seek first to know and be close to God (through his written word/fellowship with others/ repentant & joyful before the throne of grace) we may find additional means to facilitate balance. But It is just that… additional… add ons. Don’t mistake it for the sole solution or defining component. Without spiritual truth each and every practice or prescription will be void, temporary, or, at worst, deceptively successful— like a bandaid over cancer.

People often say “church doesn’t help, prayer doesn’t help, and talking about it with others doesn’t help”. To that I say, I agree! those things, in-and-of themselves, don’t do diddly-squat. It’s the object, substance, & focus of those things that does. Are you going to a church that worships and draws close to the God of the bible? Are you praying to seek and know the God of the bible—not a genie in a bottle? Are you spending time with others who say it’s no longer them who live and speak it’s Christ who lives in them?(Gal 2:20) 

If this does not “help you” then what are you seeking help in?

If you are completely secure in your own (or another’s) salvation but there is avoidance, lethargy, or indifference to things, people or places that remind them of the gospel then what is your definition of SALVATION…or of spiritual health? 

The gospel says you aren’t bound and held hostage to the thoughts you have, to the circumstances you are in, or the “cards you’ve been delt”. The gospel offers an alternative way to suffer and struggle, not a magic way to erase all struggle. It says although you are not as you should be, living in a world that is less than it should be, God made a way for you to access all that you need, want and more. That access allows relationship—Relating to God. We can live in the present joy of what HE graciously offers in the midst of all our imbalance, struggle and confusion.

We, as children of the living God, have the opportunity to… 

1 Peter 5:7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 

Philippians 4:6-7 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God”

In other words…get our eyes off all that we are (and aren’t) onto all that HE is.

We get where we are today in all sorts of different ways. Things happen to us, we choose things, we are both victim and participant. We need rest all the same. We need restoration all the same. Temporary “means” create temporary “results” and unless you go to an eternal physician you will be fighting a losing battle.

There are a multitude of things outside our control. However, no matter how much is out of our reach there comes a point in time when we are given some type of choice. No matter how little that choice is, that small (or large) act of will is representative of our heart and how we see ourselves, the world, & God. It could be a choice to act, to receive, or simply to frame what is happening a certain way.

Tim Keller writes,

“While we can't fall into the reductionism of believing all problems are chemically based and require medication, we also cannot fall into the reductionism of believing all problems are simply a matter of lacking spiritual disciplines. Schizophrenia, bipolar depression, and a host of other psychological problems are rooted in physiological problems that call for medical treatment, not simple talk therapy.”

We don’t have to reduce anything to be fully physical or fully spiritual. the acknowledgement that the two are often intertwined allows for deeper perception.If you are placing ALL your security or hope in things apart from God & his will you may discover results that lack in some way.

Dont rely on your Faith, you will fail.

Dont rely on upbringing and teaching, that will be rejected and fail.

Dont rely on statistics, they fail

Dont rely on medication, it fails.

We have all been born into & fall victim to depression, hopelessness, fear, or anxiety of varying degrees. Somewhere along the journey and relationship with these things we have the choice to give life to these things, to validate them and identify with them or (only By grace) seek our relationship to the King of the universe first and in spite of those competing relationships. Thats why we pray because it’s not something you can convince someone of, or intellectualize, or just make happen. It is grace upon grace. When you are pointed to pray in these trying situations you find that it’s not really about the situation or “fixing” its about the act of YOU praying. It is about you coming to God and ascribing him full authority and glory. His will, not your will, be done.

A good Book resource for prayer: Timothy Keller’s Prayer

Francis Chan “Praying till it works”

My Name is “Beloved”: Finding Identity in Mental Illness Desiring God

Reductionistic views on life and wellbeing (Tim Keller)

May you seek Mental, physical, & Spiritual health today and everyday!

Rachel