A few weeks ago we discussed what it means to speak the truth in love and how we do so with unbelievers and how we love those who embrace immorality. Today we're going to continue to speak the truth in love for another group of folks that we don't talk about much. This is what we want to discuss today, "How do we love those who suffer from mental illness?"
We don't talk about mental illness much in church. I don't think I've ever heard anyone preach a sermon about it. According to the National Alliance of Mental Illness churches are not speaking much about mental illness. The National Alliance of Mental Illness even placed sermon ideas on their website to help churches talk about it.
There are probably a lot of reasons why we don't discuss mental illness in church. I didn't do a lot of research on this, so I'm just going to tell you why I haven't talked about it much. Because I don't know a lot about it. It's really that simple. The arena of mental illness, the science, the medicine of it, is all fairly new. We haven't been talking about mental illness as a culture or a society for very long, probably because of the same reason.
In medicine we've figured out how to do some very complicated things. We can take a bad heart and replace it with another one. We can transplant several organs, we can even re-attach severed limbs in some cases. If you look at the history of surgery and medicine over the last 50 years we've advanced in techniques and skills. The cancer that our son Jared was diagnosed with last year, Osteosarcoma, was the same cancer, in the same location as Canadian hero Terry Fox. Our doctor told us the only difference between Jared's cancer and Terry's was that the tumor was in Jared's left leg while Terry's cancer was in his right leg.
Back in the late 70's the only thing they knew to do was to amputate. But today, they can take the part of the bone that is contaminated and replace it with a rod, this process is called bone salvaging. Back in the 70's they were only about 20 years into experimenting with chemo therapy. What they know now about chemo therapy more than likely would've saved Terry's life. Terry died in 1981. According to The National Center for Biotechnology Information, "The 5-year survival rate (of Osteosarcoma patients) from 1980-1989 was 36%, whereas in the 1990s, it was 60% and 67% from 2000–2004." And the survival rate continues to climb, today, according to Jared's doctor, it's about 70 percent. Those who are diagnosed with Osteosarcoma today have a 70 percent survival rate, but, in Terry's day, the survival rate was about 36 percent.
The reason I bring this up is that even with all the advances in medicine and science in the last 50 years, the medicine and science of mental illness still remains a mystery. While we can replace lungs and limbs, we haven't found a way to replace a brain.
When it comes to the brain there is a lot yet to be discovered. And this is one reason we probably don't talk much about mental illness, because the brain is still such a mystery to us. But there are things we do know, and there have been some developments through research and therapy that we can talk about, and obviously, in our case, we want to know what the Bible says about how we love people, all people, no matter what they are dealing with.
You might be wondering why we need to talk about this in church? According to The Canadian Mental Health Association one in five Canadians will suffer some kind of a mental disorder at some point in their life. According to Health Canada, "Every year close to 3,700 people in Canada commit suicide. Many of these deaths could be prevented by early recognition of the signs of suicidal thinking and appropriate intervention, and early identification and effective treatment of mental illness."
Here's some more information from Health Canada, "About 11% of men and 16% of women in Canada will experience major depression in the course of their lives. Depression can limit your quality of life, affect relationships, lead to lost time from work or school and contribute to other chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart diseases. Sometimes it leads to suicide. Fortunately, for most people, depression can be treated effectively."
Nova Scotia Mental Health Services says, "One in five Nova Scotians, or about 188,000 people, will experience some form of mental disorder this year." That's a lot of people. So, here's what I'm thinking as a Jesus follower. I'm told by my Boss that his most important directive for me is to love God and to love others. How can I do that if I ignore the significant and silent problems of almost 25 percent of the people around me?
So we're going to talk about it. At least get a conversation going. What I want to do today is identify three specific things that will help us love the mentally ill.
First, we must recognize that mental illness is just like any other illness.
When we're sick we go to the doctor. We understand that if we suffer a heart attack, or we're diagnosed with cancer, diabetes, or any illness that the doctor is going to prescribe medication, hospitalization, surgery, or any other treatment that is necessary to fight and overcome the illness.
Mental illness is the same. Just like there are varying types of heart problems, cancers, diabetes and the like, there are different and varying types of depression, schizophrenia, learning issues, and other brain disorders. The difference between mental illness and other physical diseases, is that the brain, as an organ, is still a mystery to scientists and doctors. But just because we have a long way to go in understanding and treating mental illness, we need to understand that there is no difference between illness of the brain, or illness of the heart, or any other organ in our body.
The great news for those who suffer mental illness is that there is help available. And, as a church, we're here to provide the support and encouragement you need. There is no reason to suffer in silence here. Paul tells us in Galatians 6:9-10, "So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith"
We will not give up on each other. We will not give up doing good for others, especially for those among us who suffer from mental illness.
Second, we need to understand that spiritual warfare has nothing to do with mental illness
The church doesn't have a great track record helping people with mental illness. Part of our problem is that we take spiritual warfare out of context. Spiritual warfare has nothing to do with mental illness. Nobody blames Spiritual warfare on heart attacks. We know what causes heart attacks. The end game for Satan in waging spiritual war on our heart is sin. Satan wants us to give in to our sinful nature. Jesus wants us to deny our sinful nature and follow Him. That is our spiritual war, not mental illness.
We may not know what causes mental illness, in the same way, we don't know what causes cancer, but, to suggest that someone suffers depression because of spiritual warfare is as ignorant as suggesting that spiritual warfare is the cause of cancer. Jesus tells us to love people. This is our simple goal. When it comes to loving people with mental illness the worst thing we can do is blame something, rather than love them. We love people by being patient, and kind, by being generous. We reveal the results of living with the Spirit when we love people the way Jesus does.
I think I know the root of our misunderstanding about associating mental illness with spiritual warfare. I believe that we we have mistakenly attributed mental disorders with the stories we've read about those who were demon possessed. Probably the most popular demon possessed guy in the Bible was named Legion, "because" as he put it, "there are many of us." It's true that Legion was consistently engaged in activity that we can attribute to serious mental illness. He was cutting himself, howling and yelling all the time, and he lived in a cemetery. But, the question is, "why?" If Legion suffered from a mental disorder then after Jesus expelled the demons, he would've still harmed himself. The Bible never says that Jesus healed someone of a mental illness. But this account, as the other accounts of demon possession in the New Testament, reveal that after the demons are expelled, the person is functional. Healed.
Now another sermon would be to talk about demon possession, which we're not talking about today, I'm simply pointing out that demon possession should not be associated with a mental disorder.
And third we can all relate in some way to mental and/or emotional problems
Many of us can remember how we felt when we were rejected, made fun of, were bullied, or mistreated. We understand what it means to have a depressed day, or to feel down. We can relate to feelings of inadequacy, sadness, anger, and loneliness.
We can relate to feeling frustrated with our loved one because we've been hurt, or ignored. Most of us, maybe even all of us, can relate on some level to what feeling depressed is like. There's no way to know how many people contemplate suicide, but, many people at least give it some thought at some point in their life. If we think about it, how many of us have struggled or are now dealing with addictions of all kinds including pornography? How many of us suffer from learning disabilities? The thing is that everyone has some sort of mental or emotional problem they deal with.
Those who suffer from mental illness they feel these things all the time. It's not just a bad day for them. While we can relate to some feelings of depression, the mental illness of depression is not comparable. Imagine intense feelings of inadequacy, sadness, and loneliness for months, maybe even years. Imagine your brain not being able to process a conversation with your spouse, or your child, because you can't concentrate on what they're saying. Imagine consistent headaches and body aches for hours on end.
What would it feel like to hear whispers in your ear, constantly whispering suicidal thoughts, or demeaning words, like, "you're not good enough, strong enough, or nobody loves you, you're not worthy of love", and other such thoughts. I can't relate to what that would feel like, but, I can imagine how dark and terrifying the night could be. And for those who suffer mental illness this is their existence. If we love them, we can't ignore their pain. If we love them, we must open up a dialogue and publicly open our arms and say, "Please talk to us." If we love them, we won't judge them, blame them or suggest that they are simply suffering through a spiritual battle. If we love them, we will help, we will listen, we will accept them.
We all have this one thing in common, we are all in desperate need for Jesus. He loves you. Jesus gave us eternal life through his death and resurrection. Jesus also provided us with His church. And His church is here to bless those who suffer from mental illness. James 5:14, "Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord."
And while prayer for healing is imperative for our sick, if we love people, we'll do more than just pray. Let's get this conversation started.
