Mental illness and Jesus

So I've been seeing a lot of posts about depression and suicide since the death of Robin Williams.

It's got me thinking about mental illness and the church, or more importantly, mental illness and Jesus.

The Bible says it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. The Bible says Jesus went to the lowest in society, the outcasts, the sick, the unclean, the sinners, and loved them. Jesus said that in this world, we would have trouble.

We know for a fact that Jesus does not heal every person who accepts Him and is saved. Christians still die of cancer, heart attacks and a variety of diseases. Christians live with paralysis and a variety of diseases as well and are never healed.

But what about the mind?

I have heard Christians say that a Christian should not suffer from any kind of mental illness because since it's mental, that should be able to be easily healed by Jesus, that Christians should not take medication for mental illness, that if a Christian continues to suffer from mental illness, it's because they lack faith. (Okay, some claim that for physical ailments as well.)

Any honest Christian will say that even after accepting Christ in our lives, we struggle with sin. We will until the day we die or Jesus comes back and takes us home. Sin can be sneaky and affect how we think without realizing it, or it can be bold and obvious and tempt us to do things we know are wrong.

Paul wrote in detail about his struggle with sin, writing that the good he wanted to do, he did not do, but the evil he did not want to do, that he kept on doing. He also talked about having a thorn in his side that he pleaded with God to remove, but God would not, saying His grace was sufficient for Paul. The thorn could have been temptation. Perhaps it was an illness. Perhaps it was mental illness. We really don't know, Paul never elaborated what this "thorn" was for him.

But going back to Jesus going to the worst in society. It stands to reason that people with mental illness are going to be drawn to Jesus because Jesus runs to people who are suffering. And knowing that accepting Jesus is not a ticket to healing in this world, it stands to reason that people who suffer from mental illness who accept Jesus will still suffer after accepting Jesus. They are not hated or despise by God for lack of faith or sin in their lives. It may simply be their thorn that God allows in their life to remind them His grace is sufficient.

And Christians who do not suffer from mental illness should take on the mindset of Jesus and love and serve those who suffer, especially in the body of Christ, without passing judgment on them. We are all weak and in need of grace. And like the song says, "Everyone needs compassion."

Vulnerability

I gave my life to Christ when I was 12. I saw adult Christian leaders as people who had things together. They seemed perfect, like they didn't struggle with sin, and I assumed that by becoming a Christian, I would be the same way when I grew up.

As an adult, I continued to see Christians who acted like they had no personal struggles and they were perfect. All my life I have strived for that perfection and never felt it and this has led me many times to question my relationship with God. Does He really love me if I struggle, because it seems other Christians don't struggle.

I think as Christians we often have the misguided idea that maturity equates perfection and that we don't struggle. I think more, we are either not honest about our struggles or we choose to hide them from others and thus put off this persona of being perfect.

But the Bible tells us to confess our sins to one another.

Why? Why should we confess our sins to one another? This question was asked in our small groups at CIY and my answer is this - because when we confess our sins to one another, it encourages others to know they are not alone in their struggles and if we confess our sins, we can hold each other accountable. Temptation can lose its hold on us when we hold one another accountable. I think God desires us to be vulnerable, not act perfect. When we are vulnerable, He can use us.

I am not perfect. I have PTSD, I struggle constantly with self-worth, I'm always afraid I'm disappointing God, I feel I deserve punishment more than grace, but through the grace of God, He has brought people into my life who are honest and vulnerable, who remind me that God sees me of great worth, that He sees me as His little child whom He cherishes, and thankfully I grew up with a great dad that I can understand that kind of love. I need encouragement daily and God knew I would. That's why He says in the Bible to encourage each other daily, as long as it's called today, so that sin does not gain a foothold.

We need to be honest with each other. We need to be vulnerable. We need to encourage each other that we understand sin, understand pain, understand the struggle between our sinful nature and the new creation Christ is making us to be.