Help for the Hurting   

The world is a hurting place. The pain is all around us. And it can feel overwhelming at times.

I remember taking a walk through my neighborhood – just around a few blocks in our subdivision. As I was walking past doorways and driveways, I was struck by the thought that I had no idea what was going on behind those walls. I didn’t know if there was a family in that house, or a widower, or a single upwardly-climbing business woman. I didn’t know if there was pain in that family, if they were enduring heartache or physical pain or the struggle of a loved one. I had no idea. And all I could do was pray. Pray as I walked past each garage door, that God would touch those in that house with His love and peace. That He would bring someone into their lives – is it me, Lord? – to show them the love of God, the salvation that Christ brings to a hurting world.

The reality of living on this side of heaven, being “at home in the body” (2 Corinthians 5:6), on this earth, is that there is pain. Sin brought ugliness into God’s perfect creation. Sin brought death, and dying, and illness. Including mental illness. I’m not saying that I was diagnosed with a mental illness because I’m a sinner. No! I’m saying that mental illness can be a result of living in a sinful world.

I see so many of my friends and acquaintances in pain. Parents grieving as they watch their child struggling. Folks with memories that haunt them. Couples who’ve lost a pregnancy. Marriages full of fighting and strife, or no communication at all. People who are lonely. People who are depressed. Or anxious. The pain is great.

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.” Wendy Mass, “The Candymakers”

So what can we do when we’re overwhelmed by the pain of this world? Our own pain, as we struggle in our battle against our mental illness. Or the pain we feel as we watch our loved one struggle in this same way.

There are two things we can focus on – knowing God’s character, and knowing what God says about you.

Knowing Jesus – who He is, what His character is, what He’s done for us by His death on the Cross, and by rising again to eternal life – knowing these things about Jesus, not just in our heads, but believing them in our hearts, brings peace to the chaos of the world that sin has created.

And the Bible tells us that “The Son (Jesus) is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, …” (Hebrews 1:3a NLT). If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. Read the Gospels – the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and study Jesus. What delighted Him? What angered Him? Where did He show compassion and kindness? Who were His friends? What did He say? What was He passionate about? All of the answers to these questions will reveal who God is.

Then take it a step further. What does God say about how He feels about you? You are loved. You are cherished. You are redeemed. You are His adopted child. You are wanted. You are the apple of His eye. He delights in you. He rejoices over you with singing! (For more, look at “Who I Am In Christ,” Victory Over The Darkness by Dr. Neil Andersen.) These are truths from God’s Word – how He sees you – not in the pain of your sin, but by the redeeming blood of Christ in your life.

There are lots of daily practices we can engage in to help our mental health – we’ve discussed those many times in this weekly blog. But something that we can all do, and always do more of, is learn more about God, and more about what He says about how He sees us. A couple of things will happen:

• Our gaze will shift from our crummy circumstances to our Mighty God.
• Our thoughts about ourselves, and the words we say to ourselves, will slowly be replaced with the thoughts that God thinks of us. And these are true, not the lies of the sinful world or what our diagnosis wants to tell us.

Both of these will ultimately help us reframe our situation, and retrain our brains in the way we think. And that is good for our mental health!

Peggy has been involved with Fresh Hope as a Group Facilitator for 5 years and as the Hope Coach trainer for 3. You can reach her at peggy@freshhope.us