Five Keys to Mental Health

And I really appreciate these pieces of special music that are put together. I appreciate Courtney Givhanis for her work in selecting these and to the people who write and perform these. These are pieces written by people inspired by God's Spirit and I just think it's very, very moving.

Well, today I want to revisit a subject that I've spoken about before because I think it's a subject that's important to keep a top of mind as we head into this coming winter. A number of years ago, my daughter attended the funeral of a fellow high school student, a high school student named Walker Eberwine. Walker was 16 years old when he stepped in front of an oncoming Caltrain in Menlo Park on the afternoon of October 14, 2013. Walker was a bright student, brilliant in math and in music. He performed in stage productions and he came from a wonderful family, a very stable family. And yet his thoughts of depression and suicide had plagued his thinking for many years. He had already tried to commit suicide once, actually, and his parents had taken him to Stanford seeking medical attention. I didn't attend the funeral service for him, but I was told there were nearly a thousand people there in attendance as it turned out my boss knew the family, just coincidentally, you know, being in the community. And even though I never met Walker and I didn't attend his funeral service, I struggled with grief for him as I looked at his picture on the memorial brochure and I saw the dates of his birth and death. It wasn't 76 years or 56 years or even 26 years, but 16 precious few years. Such a short time. And when I reflected on Walker's death, a flood of thoughts came to my mind as they do even now. I remembered visiting the Suicide Prevention Hotline Center for Los Angeles County as an 18-year-old student doing a project on measures being taken to reduce suicide rates in Los Angeles. This visit was prompted after my uncle had killed himself and one year later my grandfather killed himself.

I remember the pastor of the congregation here in San Francisco in the 1980s who ended his life by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge.

I remembered when I would travel to Tokyo for business and I noted the large doors, just enormous doors, that were placed in front of the step onto the metro systems to protect passengers from stepping in front of trains. The suicide rate among Tokyo businessmen being so high that they would just step in front of those trains so frequently they had to put doors up to reduce that risk. I considered the state of our modern world and the increasing rates of mental illness, depression, and suicide. I wondered why we don't talk more about mental illness and the reality and the risks of suicide. I have shared portions of this message before and if you've heard it, I hope you'll listen to it again because I think it's something that we need to keep top of mind because we make prayer requests and I appreciate your prayers for my surgery. We think about prayer requests in terms of physical issues. We've got people even now struggling with coronavirus, as you've seen on email. Richard Guardado, who I talked to this week, who tested positive for coronavirus. We saw a prayer request or a follow-up just come through from the McEland family and we're so thankful for God's intervention for Mr. and Mrs. McEland and protection of email.

And so we think about prayer requests in terms of these physical things, but we often don't make prayer requests for the mental health issues. And I think I know why, because I recall my grandmother lying about my uncle's death, her son's death, at a family reunion telling people that he had died of a heart attack when he actually had shot himself. And I was 17 years old, but at the time when I listened to my grandmother just lie through her teeth about how her son died. And I just could almost feel the shame coming through her that if she were to tell the truth, it would reflect on her and it would reflect on the family. And I think that shame often holds us back from sharing some of these things. And you know, it's not something we want to just send out necessarily, but sometimes we just have a stigma associated with mental illness, whereas we don't have that same stigma associated with physical illness. And I think there may be shame in God's Church on these issues that if we were to share this suffering, we would be branded as weak or unable to cope with life, oh, poor person. And of course, we live at a time now where there's much more discussion and openness about this, and yet sometimes even that is kind of mocked as kind of overly vulnerable or so forth. We might think that, you know, as God's people, we shouldn't have those thoughts. We shouldn't have those problems. Now, I'm not an expert on this topic, but I'm a longtime student of these discussions, and like I said, I've witnessed it firsthand, the devastating impact of untreated mental disorders in my own family. And thankfully, I don't have to be an expert in this area. The Bible has so much to say, and we'll read about some of this today. But I think if there was ever a time when I would want to stand behind the Scriptures and let them speak, it's on a topic like this. So today, I want to talk about some principles. There's many. I'm going to share five with you today. They're going to be brief because it's a split sermon. And I think more than anything, as opposed to listing some cliched responses to a complex topic, I want this method to stimulate discussion, to stimulate reflection, prayer, and meditation. Whether you're coping with mental health issues, or whether you have family that is, or whether you're aware of friends, or even you're wondering about yourself.

The five points I want to cover here are Jesus promised physical and mental healing.

The very specific mental healing that he described. Secondly, that we should reach out and connect with people. And this is a point whether we're suffering or not from these issues.

Thirdly, that we should gain rest and perspective.

We'll talk about self-control, but really I want to talk about that within the context of standing on God's promises. And finally, the fact that there is no shame in professional health, or even sharing a little bit about our struggles. Let's talk to the first point here. Jesus promised physical and mental healing. Let's turn to Luke 4 verse 16. And let's read where he describes this.

In fact, I would say that our physical, mental, and emotional health is at the core of Jesus Christ's message. We talk about how Jesus came preaching the kingdom of God. Well, what is the kingdom of God about? Well, the kingdom of God is about access to the tree of life. And what does it say in Revelation about the tree of life? It's for the healing of the nation.

The leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations.

And as time goes on, I feel more and more drawn to this Luke 4 and these powerful set of verses. Let's look in verse 16. It says, so he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up.

Look for verse 16. As his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up, and he read. And it's like, we're here on the Sabbath day. And you can imagine if, you know, we were sitting on that Sabbath day listening to this, and we're just, you know, hearing these words for the first time. He said he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah, and when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written. And so he's connecting us back to this great writing of the prophet Isaiah. Verse 18, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

Preach the gospel to the poor. Why is that the first thing he says? Because, you see, in this life, the deck is stacked against the poor. It's been said it's better to be rich and guilty than poor and innocent, because the rich can afford the fancy warriors, but there's no one to defend the poor. But Jesus Christ came to say, I'm going to defend the poor. I'm going to preach the gospel to the poor. He came preaching another world, a world to come.

You know, if you're rich, why do you need a new world to come? Your world's cool, right? You've got everything you need, but not so for the poor. And at that time, a person's chances of rising out of poverty were zero. Many of this room have grown up in an environment where we've had certain things. You know, we might say we're poor, and indeed there are terribly poor people in this country. We have a poverty line. We have people who have little. But even in this nation, we have access to things which other nations in this world don't have. But many in this room have grown up in an environment where, you know, there's a formula, and I've shared this formula before. Hard work plus time equals success. And whether or not we've thought about that formula, we've articulated, we've thought about it, it's kind of what a lot of us operate under. You know, we work hard, and over time we will achieve something. But it's not that way with everyone, even in this country. When our daughter was a senior in high school, she worked on a service project, and the parents were invited to attend the orientation session of this program at the beginning of the school year. She worked on it at the end of the school year. The project she was on was working out of a homeless shelter in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco for a week.

And the students who were going to be on this project would be talking with drug addicts, prostitutes, and others who have fallen on hard times and were trying to survive.

And they would be going door to door through apartments in the Tenderloin, delivering food and offering words of encouragement. Now, people who don't know the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, it's one of the most densely populated areas in the United States. As people are struggling to survive, they're crammed into these tiny apartments because it's still one of the cheapest places to be, or they'll sleep on the streets. And in this orientation, the director of the program wanted to share with the parents what their student was going to be getting involved with because this was not just something, let's say, you know, that you would normally deal with.

And the program director talked about working on Skid Row in Los Angeles, which is sort of the equivalent of the Tenderloin in San Francisco. And he shared this formula with us about this time plus effort equals success. And he said, you know, that formula doesn't apply to those who have lost hope. The depression, the anxiety, the helplessness has overwhelmed the psyche, and that doesn't work anymore. And Jesus Christ came, first of all, to preach good news to the poor, to those without hope, those without resources or help. This is his message. It's the first message that he gave. He came to help those people. And we see those people all around us, frankly, if our eyes will be open to them. And that is a type of mental illness. It's a crushing of the psyche. It's a hopelessness. And when you're in that hopelessness, it's hard to see beyond it.

Now, if we continue in Luke, he says next, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. Wow, who are these brokenhearted? These are people who have been damaged emotionally and mentally and physically, that their very being, as I said, has been crushed. The word for heart here is cardia, not a surprise. We understand a cardiac arrest, cardia. And according to Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament words, this word cardia is used to describe the innermost mental and emotional being. It's a spiritual concept.

Christ came to heal those whose backgrounds and circumstances have been scarred, shattered, seemingly irrevocably destroyed. But he has come to heal that. This is not about economics or opportunity. That was previous when we talked about the poor and how that's led to, frankly, mental illness or mental depression or anxiety or just hopelessness. He's talking about something of the psyche. And yes, we can talk about access to clean drinking water or food or shelter. These things are important. But what we're really talking about here are emotional issues. It's about suffering from trauma. Sometimes before we even know we were suffering from trauma.

Why is it that people can live 18 years with their families growing up and then spend the next 60 years trying to overcome the trauma that occurred in their childhood? Jesus was sent and he came to heal the brokenhearted, those for whom no medicine existed in 31 A.D. and does not exist today in 2020. These are people who suffer from serious mental trauma and illness.

We continue here. He says to preach deliverance to the captives, those who were in slavery physically and, I believe, mentally, those for which no escape exists.

He's there to provide a way of escape. We have to listen to that way of escape and we'll get to that.

He is the Logos. He's the Word, or as Jordan Peterson says, the Articulate Word. This very crisp, just these kernels of truth. These words he speaks, they are truth and they are life.

And next he says, and recovery of sight to the blind. Next he came to give sight to the blind, literally to give sight to the blind. He healed the blind and so he healed those with physical infirmities and we can seek healing through prayer and we see that and we see these prayer requests and we see the encouragement that comes from that intervention because he's there by his stripes were healed. And lastly, he says to set at liberty those who are oppressed to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. He came to sit at liberty those who live under oppressive masters, who lived under the tyranny of a world ruled by this great adversary. I believe these verses show we must begin with the premise that Jesus Christ came to address our physical, mental, and emotional trauma.

He came to address our depression and our mental anxiety. Let's turn to Matthew 11 verse 28 and see this almost a plea if it wasn't a promise.

Matthew 11 verse 28. I hope we can just memorize this verse.

Matthew 11 verse 28. He says, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Now, if this is true, then why do we still suffer from depression and mental illness? Why doesn't God remove these things from us? Well, first and foremost, we cannot escape the reality of a world filled with dysfunction, violence, and pain. And this pain is passed down from generation to generation, and we are on the receiving end of that pain. This is the core of why we pray Thy kingdom come. If we could solve these problems, we would, but we can't. We must live in the world, which means we must bear our cross and follow Christ from whatever state we are called into.

We can sit around all day long and be resentful about why we got stuck with this. You know, what our life circumstances are. We can ask all day long, why me, why me, why me? We can curse the darkness, or we can light a candle, as has been said many times. Let's see how the apostle Paul came to terms with this pain in his life.

Look over at 2 Corinthians 12 in verse 9, because I think we have to come to terms with whatever it is in front of us. And we're dealing with 2 Corinthians 12 verse 9. He says, unless we'll start in verse 7, actually, he said, unless I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations a thorn in the flesh was given to me. What a kind way of putting it. A terrible trial for which I was greatly frustrated and I wished I didn't have to deal with. A messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure, concerning this I pleaded.

He pleaded, and how many times have we pleaded, perhaps, about our issue with the Lord three times that it might depart from me? And he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, most gladly will I rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Kind of funny, even as I read that verse, and I appreciate your prayers for my eye surgery, I see my Bible words in double.

It's hard to read, and it's that issue with my eye. So it's kind of weird to read here. It's kind of ironic. Anyway, the infirmities. And he said, verse 10, therefore I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches in needs and persecutions and distresses. In distresses, he says, for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong. I can't answer the why of mental illness, but I know God exists. I know he loves his creation, his purpose. Just as Paul's suffering had purpose, and that purpose is that when we are weak, then we are strong. When we are in our knees, we are the most powerful.

And with all this being said, God, through his word, shares specific things which we can do. Let's only go to the second point here, which is that we can reach out and connect with our brothers and sisters. And I want to say that I want to say that I want to say that I want brothers and sisters in God's Church. We're not alone in this fight. We are part of the body of Christ. Look over in Ecclesiastes 4, verse 9 , and let's read 9 through 12.

It's interesting we go to Ecclesiastes which is written by Solomon. I think it was Bill Bradford who once said, I'm just depressed. And there's a lot of sarcasm and, you know, eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we shall die. And vanity, vanity, all is vanity. There's a lot of that in the book of Ecclesiastes. So I think it's not surprising that from this sort of coping, we have come to us, these words from God.

Verse 9, two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him, woe to him who was alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. How can one be warm alone? Though one be overpowered by another, two can withstand him, and a three-fold cord is not quickly broken.

Why is there a suicide prevention hotline in Los Angeles? Why is there a phone number listed on sign on the walkway over the Golden Gate Bridge? And why does Solomon write to be part of a community? Because we are social beings. That is how God created us. He created us for relationships. Relationships with him, first of all, and relationships with his creation are fellow brothers and sisters, children of God. And if we are not connected to others daily, we're going to lose perspective. All of us, God's people, we need not suffer in silence with depression and mental illness. We need people. If you are alone, you need to reach out to others. If you see someone alone, you need to reach out to them. Unfortunately, many times, specifically in the Church, we're kind of too afraid to admit we're lonely or we need help. We don't want to appear weak. We don't want to show our vulnerability. I would very much like to tell you I'm not moody. I don't get depressed. I'm perfectly calm all the time, but should I be lying? It's not true. I'm not perfect, and neither are you. It would be great to think and believe that because we come to church every week, in this case we're on Zoom, and pray and study, we won't have mental health problems. But that's a lie. I want to say this again. We might believe, because we come to church and we pray and study, that we won't have mental health issues. And that's a lie. It's a lie, and it's pride, and it's hypocrisy. The fact is we all suffer some sort of anxiety, fear, or depression, and the sooner we start to be able to share our feelings openly with a friend and putting this verse here, these verses into practice, the sooner we're going to start going in the right direction.

God said it is not good for a man to be alone. And so what do men do today? They delay marriage. Right? It makes no sense. Men and women were created to complement one another in marriage, to build families together, and to form the backbone of civilization. But today, marriage rates are on the decline. And this isolation impacts us in the church, too. Now, I'm not saying everybody go out and get married. There are processes and things we need to do. But I'm just saying, this is just sort of an indication of what's going on in our society. You don't have to turn there for the sake of time, but Proverbs 27, 17 says, Iron sharpens iron. And we tend to think about the Scripture, perhaps, in terms of a sharp sword, sharpening another sharp sword. But that's, yeah, often our sword's pretty dull, and it needs to be sharpened. And that's why we have sometimes just strange ideas about ourselves, or what's best for us.

And we need to bounce those things off of others. We need to open up and say these things out loud. We need to verbalize these things, because often, just when we verbalize things, we hear ourselves say those things, and we can connect the dots and say, that doesn't even make sense. And yet, it's sitting in our head, making sense in our head. But when we say it out loud, it doesn't make sense. And then the person listening is like, you know that doesn't make sense. You're like, yeah, they're right. That doesn't make sense.

Well, what's going on? And then you start peeling back, as we say, the layers of the onion, and we start getting to what's really going on. We need to learn to listen to others, like our spouse or our parents or our children or our brothers and sisters in the church. Sometimes we just don't have perspective on our lives, and sometimes this can lead to disastrous consequences. Let's go to the third point. We need to take the time to rest and gain perspective. You know, God crafted a calendar, and Jim Chance gave a message recently on the calculated calendar. And you know, you can go through the month and the year and the day and hours and blah, blah, blah. You know, there's only one concept of time that has no connection to the sun and the moon and so forth, and that's the week. The week was given to us by God. Seven days, six days we work, the seventh day we rest. It was given to us by God, and it's a universal concept on the earth that humans have. It's an ancient concept, and God gave it to us. Rest. Rest. Now, we've had sermons on the Sabbath, and that was created for man and not man for the Sabbath. I won't go into that further. I think we know that. But we also know that God created seven annual Holy Days and three Holy Day seasons, spring, summer, and fall, to break the routine of our regular weekly pace, to say, wait, let's stop. Get perspective here. The Feast of Tabernacles was set aside as a time to rejoice. And today in God's Church, you know, the Feast is, you know, where are you going for the Feast? You ask that question even right after the Feast is over. Like, you're just looking forward to that next Feast. Just break the routine. You know, and when we're at the Feast, I don't know if you've had this experience, sometimes you don't even know what day it is. You're just like, oh, this is great. Oh, is this a Wednesday, a Thursday? I don't know. It's just like, it's so great to be out of that routine. We know that this Feast of Tabernacles is going to be celebrated in the Millennium. That's what Zachariah 14 tells us.

After Jesus returns, all nations are going to keep the Feast of Tabernacles because the human condition needs that break. Besides the Sabbath and the Holy Days, we should take time to get away. Let's turn over Mark 6, verse 31. A lot of people are like, well, I take my vacation during the Feast. Well, you know, the reality is sometimes that's what we have to do because we only have so much vacation time, right?

We can't just be taking time off without pay. But if we are blessed with a little bit more vacation time, or frankly, just taking a Sunday, just something, we need a break. We need rest. And if we look at Mark 6, verse 31, we can see the example of Jesus Christ. You think Jesus Christ? Oh, he's perfect. Yeah, he doesn't, you know, but he needed rest. Somebody says, Mark 6, verse 30, Then the apostle gathered to Jesus and told him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. And he said to them, Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest awhile. For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. He heard what they were telling him. He's like, you know what, guys? I think we need a break. I think we need to get a little perspective. You don't even have a chance to eat right now. And so they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves. When you say you don't have time to take a break, then you know for sure you can't afford to not take a break. I really encourage all of us to follow this example. If you haven't taken a moment to drive up to the Santa Cruz Mountains or walk in an open space there or go to the beach, go with a friend, walk, talk, look at the ocean, breathe, just be thankful that you can breathe. You know, sometimes we just have to step back and be thankful for the little things. Go to the beach. Go to the mountains. Go to a park. Just take a moment. I'll look over in 1 Timothy 4 verse 8 because I talked about rest. There's an element to rest, too, which is interesting, and that is physical exercise. 1 Timothy 4 verse 8. A lot of times we focus on sort of the core aspect of this verse, but there's sort of a lesser aspect that we don't want to lose sight of. 1 Timothy 4 verse 8. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. Now, we should focus on the larger message of Paul about godly conduct. That's the point he's trying to make. But let's not forget the lesser message. He says, bodily exercise profits a little.

Our resting should also include exercise that helps get ourselves out of our heads and connects us with our physical bodies. Regular exercise and rest is well-documented to regulate moods and behavior. Even in a pandemic, which we're in right now, we can go out on a walk just 30 minutes a day. Decide that you are going to go out and walk for 30 minutes tomorrow. It's going to make a difference. Jesus set us this example. Let's follow it. We're going to feel better. Let's go to the fourth point. We can exercise control over our thoughts, but let's stand on God's promises.

Notice that self-control was not my first point. On my second and on my third. Self-control is what we want to go to when we're depressed. Oh, if I can just have more self-control, if I can just, if I can just, if I can just. We say that as if we could wave a wand and solve our problems, but we can't. Self-control has a place, but it must be put into perspective.

Let's go to 1 Corinthians 9 verse 25. 1 Corinthians 9 verse 25. We must exercise self-control. But if this is the first thing we go to, and when we fall down and we lose that and we just say, Oh, there I go again. I'm a failure. I can't do this. I have no control. We have to put the self-control concept in its right context with a lot of things the Scripture says. 1 Corinthians 9 verse 25. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Temperate is this, is this, is this concept of self-control. Is temperate at all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore, I run thus, not with uncertainty. Thus I fight not as one who beats the air, but I discipline. That's a self-control concept again. I discipline my body and bring it into subjection. 1 Corinthians 9 verse 25. Lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. This is really a warning very much to the ministry because he himself is talking about how he has to bring everything into subjection.

Self-control is one of the fruits of God's Holy Spirit. We know that from Galatians 5 22. And he expects, God expects, Jesus Christ expects us to exercise self-control over our mind and over our body. We need this to limit and control the defeatist's talk, self-talk, the brain chatter, the negative emotions that can sweep over us.

And from this self-control should come the power of knowing that God's promises stand. We do our part, and God does his part.

And sometimes we fall down, but God isn't going to fall down. God is going to be there even when we fall down.

In Deuteronomy 6 verse 8 and 9, God commanded ancient Israel to bind the law as frontless between their eyes.

And we also know that we should write the law in our hearts. How do we do this?

Well, we can print some Bible verses and we can place them in our home. I mentioned this before, and I've seen this as I visited people. You know, there's that Bible verse on the mirror, you know, as you get ready, or there's a Bible verse here on the fridge, or, you know, there's different places.

We should be memorizing key Bible verses, and we should be having those Bible verses there to encourage us to provide that support, to remember that God is there, and there are promises for us. And as we exercise self-control, God is going to be there to help us carry us through.

Now, we don't have the time in this message to read all these verses. It's very encouraging.

But I challenge you to take these verses, to write them down if you're taking notes, and if you don't have a pen and you don't have paper, I challenge you to go get a pen and go get some paper and write these verses down and do a Bible study on these verses. Just read these verses and think about what verses really touch you, encourage you to move forward in self-control with whatever issue you are dealing with.

Psalm 34, 17-20. Psalm 34, 17-20. And, by the way, these are great verses to read in some more current language versions. The Phillips translation, the New Living Translation, the English Standard Version. These can be very encouraging verses. Psalm 34, 17-20. Philippians 6-7.

Philippians 4, 6-7. 1 Corinthians 10, 13. I just want to read this one because this one touches me here. 1 Corinthians 10, 13. I'm going to read it in the Phillips. You can turn there if you want, but I'm just going to read it from the Phillips translation. It says, Isaiah 41, verse 30. Isaiah 41, verse 30. You can write that down. Jonah 2, chapter 2, verse 2. Psalm 23. Wow. How many times have we talked about Psalm 23? Psalm 23, verses 1-6. I mentioned Philippians 4, 6, and 7, but you really should add 8 and 9. I probably should have mentioned that earlier. Paul makes clear that we must meditate and focus on the positive, the noble, the true. This is our part, and these scriptures can really, really, really be encouraging. My final point, my point number five, is that there is no shame in professional health. Everything I shared thus far can all seem well and good in the light of day, the safety of church services.

But when negative moods and feelings sweep over us from time to time, that's when God's mercy envelops us. And we can trust that God will guide us through those dark moments, leading us to a friend or opening a door. Years ago, I was in Israel on a study tour, and I got sick. I have shared the story, and people can hear the story, but I'll share it here because I think it has a bearing on this mental illness issue.

I was very, very sick, massive temperature, over 106 degrees, and I was in a hotel room on the Sea of Galilee. We were right on the Sea of Galilee there. I could walk out and see that. And the pain and the shaking from the chills and the heat of the fever sent me into a strange consciousness that led to a delirium and a paranoia.

Over the course of about two hours, I convinced myself that paramedics would come to take me to the emergency room, and I would be evacuated back to the United States. I was hurting so badly, it was some kind of defensive mechanism that my brain created, and my roommate had no idea what was going on. He had no idea how to deal with me. He was like, what are you talking about? I was getting upset with him. Like, well, where are the paramedics and when are they coming? And I thought you told me they're coming. And we nearly got into a fight in the room before he left to go get help. And thankfully, he did get help, and God had mercy on me, and he guided me through the remainder of the trip. And I got help, and I got back to the U.S., and I was hospitalized and suffered various effects of the disease and so forth. But I'll never forget the feeling of panic and helplessness that afternoon. And thankfully, there was a friend there who recognized there was a problem, and he got help. How we view mental illness in ourselves and our brother is important. And I feel like, as I said, a student of this topic, but I think we need to consider our mental model about mental illness. A fairly well-known Christian blogger, Frank Viola, in his blog Beyond Evangelical, shared three mainstream Christian views about mental disorders. This is a blog from April 13, 2013. I'm going to quote from him. He says, So the anecdote is for the person to repent and get right with God. And three, mental illness is a physiological disorder. The brain is a physical organ, just like the heart, the thyroid, the joints, etc. Thus, if someone has panic attacks or bipolar disorder or schizophrenia or chronic depression or ADHD, they have a chemical imbalance in the brain, not dissimilar to hypothyroidism or high blood pressure or arthritis. He says, I cut my teeth on the movement that promoted one, that is, there are demons. I met many people who believe two, that's just sin, but I believe three is often the case. Yet it's not so simple. That's his quote. It's not so simple. And I think Frank Viola's comments here are very much on point. I think we understand that there is a spirit realm that exists, and we do have an adversary, but I think we tend to fall into the trap of attributing all mental illness to spiritual forces and ignoring good research on mental disorders or throwing up our hands and saying it's impossible. Let's turn to 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19. We should be very close there, just one page back. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19-20. We quote this, and in fact, I gave a sermon on principles of health. We often talk about physical health as we think about the Scripture, but I want you to think about mental health.

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. We must be good stewards of our hearts and minds. And I think we need to consider carefully how we think about mental illness.

I got help for my fever. A friend came and got help. And that help actually ended up being four days in the hospital with a bacteria that was controlled through IV over the course of four days, and then six weeks of antibiotics at home. In that case, I had pteratiphoid fever, and I was anointed, and people prayed for me, and I asked for God's healing. But I also believe that God expected me to do what I could do to seek medical treatment. And I think if we think about mental illness sometime in those cases, there shouldn't be shame in going to the hospital when we have a fever. You know, if we have coronavirus, there shouldn't be shame in seeking help. And if we have something that's causing us problems, there shouldn't be shame in seeking help for that either. Let's be proactive. If we're suffering, let's seek help. If we see someone suffering, don't ignore it. Go and get help. You know, I grieve for Walker Eberwine of the King's Academy High School and his family. I grieve for all those who have taken their lives and the families who have lost loved ones and those who suffer in violence with depression and anxiety and a whole range of mental illness.

There is a reason that we sigh and cry and we pray Thy kingdom come. There are no easy answers here. But God is merciful. And as we've read, there are many promises that we can stand on. There are biblical principles that we can hang onto. There are actions that we can take, and we can reach out for help.

Now's the time for these principles to work as we go into this summer season, this winter season. Let's stand on God's promises and let's consider these things.