I have known for some time that I have a mental health challenge, and I am learning to confront it on a daily basis. That's the good news. The bad news is you have the same mental health condition, but the good news is that you can deal with it just like I am. Let's examine this "problem" together as we begin our series Unlocking the Power of Your Thinking.
THE PROBLEM
Here is a definition of mental illness I retrieved from the National Alliance on Mental Illness:
A mental illness is a condition that affects a person's thinking, feeling or mood. Such conditions may affect someone's ability to relate to others and function every day. Each person will have different experiences, even people with the same diagnosis. Recovery, including meaningful roles in social life, school and work, is possible, especially when you start treatment early and play a strong role in your own recovery process. A mental health condition isn't the result of one event. Research suggests multiple, linking causes. Genetics, environment and lifestyle influence whether someone develops a mental health condition. A stressful job or home life makes some people more susceptible, as do traumatic life events like being the victim of a crime. Biochemical processes and and circuits and basic brain structure may play a role, too.
Notice the first line: "A mental illness is a condition that affects a person's thinking, feeling or mood." I agree with most of what the rest of the paragraph says is true, but I would disagree with one point. The experts say that "a mental health condition isn't the result of one event." I would argue that it is and that one event is known as the Fall of man. When Adam and Eve decided to eat from the tree of the knowledge of God and evil, they unleashed the cause of my mental condition (and yours).
Even when my mental condition may be caused by genetics or faulty brain function, I can trace that problem back to the Fall, for God did not create man with any defect (remember, He kept declaring that what He made was "good"?). Sinful thinking was my problem, is my problem, and will continue to be my problem, and I dare say the same is true for you. My thinking has been so wrong for so long that when I confront it, I am often facing a lifetime of accumulated wrong thoughts. The good news is that the Spirit is with me when I start to rebuild my thought inventory:
Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ (Romans 8:5-9)
(I realize there are some genetic defects that hinder or prevent normal brain functioning, and I am not addressing those. My point is that the main function of our mental capacity is to think and that function has been deeply impaired and the problem reinforced by wrong thinking, which has impacted my moods and behavior.)
MY THINKING, YOUR THINKING
Isn't your thinking the source of your feelings and moods? Isn't your thinking the source of yours (and my) addictions to shopping, anger, fear, and/or anti-social behavior? Paul wrote an interesting passage in regards to our thinking in 2 Corinthians 10:4-6: "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete."
In those verses, Paul introduced another possible cause for my mental condition and that is demonic activity! My thoughts that lead to my moods and behaviors can have their origins in supernatural powers that want to keep me enslaved and prevent me from obeying God. All this wrong thinking requires some measure of resistance on my part, as our definition above stated as well: We must play a "strong role" in our own recovery process. Paul would agree and say we must take every one of our thoughts captive to the obedience of God's word in Christ.
For me to play a role in my recovery, I must be aware of my thoughts—I must think about what I am thinking about. I must put my thoughts under the microscope, send it off for lab results, or put it through a series of x-rays to determine if they are the source of my mental condition that is hindering my effectiveness and relationships with others. When I find they are, then I must wrestle and fight to change those thoughts. If I take a "strong role" in the power of the Spirit, I can reverse this mental condition, which seems to be a lifetime process as I walk out my faith in Christ.
I am not fighting the diagnosis of my problem, and I urge you not to resist yours as well. I am the source of my own problems, but I can hasten my healing by not fighting the diagnosis or the cure, and that cure is aligning my thoughts with God's thoughts, thus unlocking the power of my thinking as God intended. The Spirit came to give me the mind of Christ, and I must be aware that this does not come naturally or easily, but only through spiritual effort free from my tendency to control the process. I must stop eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and feast on the fruit from the tree of life. When that happens, my diet of right thinking will deliver me from my condition, and it will do the same for you. Have a blessed week!
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