Strange Comfort

I have Obsessive-Compulsive-Disorder (which I was surprised to discover as I don’t fit the stereotype of someone worried about cleanliness).  A few years ago, I had a breakdown, which was followed by a number of weeks of deep darkness.  Those days were very hard, and I am thankful that I am much better now.  Maybe you struggle with anxiety and depression too.

The root of the problem

Why do our brains not function as they should?  Why do we struggle with anxiety and depression?  While there are many factors that contribute to mental health problems they share a single root: we live in a fallen world!  The Fall describes how the first humans rebelled against the loving rule of God.  This resulted in the Curse, which means that because of this sin, death has entered human experience.  Our bodies, including our brains, are subject to sickness and decay. 

Since the Fall people are born with a sinful nature—we have a natural tendency towards self-centredness and a hostility towards God.  We also have a hostility towards others, and so we don’t live in harmony.  This is seen in the lives of Cain and Abel, the sons of Adam and Eve.  Cain was jealous of Abel and murdered him.  A big factor in anxiety and depression is the hurt that other people do to us.  I have a friend whose mother used to wake her in the middle of the night to tell her that she was worthless.  This contributed to her mental health problems. 

We even hurt ourselves.  For example, we struggle with anger when we don’t get our way.  Uncontrolled anger has been shown to set a person up for stress, depression, anxiety and even heart attacks.  ‘A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones’ (Prov. 14:30).  Thankfully, God gives His people the Holy Spirit who can produce in us self-control (Gal. 5:23).

Sometimes God may use feelings of sorrow to bring us back to Him when we go astray (as we can see Him doing for David in Psalm 32).  At all times we should be asking God to show us what issues He wants to deal with in our lives.  However, being anxious and depressed does not necessarily mean that we have committed some particular sin to cause it.  If God is using this pain to call you back to himself, He will make that clear.

One of the results of the Curse is that work is now difficult.  Over-work and a lack of rest may be causing you to struggle with your mental health.  When the prophet Elijah was weary and despondent God saw that what he needed was food and rest (1 Kings 19:4-7).  Many depressed people have an exaggerated sense of responsibility that drives them mercilessly.

A variety of helps

There may be a variety of factors, all as a result of living in this fallen world, that contribute to your mental health problems.  Depression and anxiety-related illness might run in your family.  There may be wounds that others have inflicted on you, or that you have inflicted on yourself.  You may have been under a level of pressure that has been beyond your ability to cope.  Because there can be a variety of factors causing your depression and anxiety you may need a variety of helps.  I have been supported by the wise counsel of mature Christians who speak God’s truth into my life, the advice that is given though Cognitive behaviour Therapy and every day I am helped by medication.

Strange comfort

Thankfully the Curse is not God’s last word for humankind.  In extraordinary love He sent His Son to experience unimaginable anguish in order to take the punishment our sin deserves.  Now Jesus offers to bring us to a place where there will be no more tears (Rev. 21:1-4). But is not just future hope that sustains us. 

While the Fall and the Curse lie behind all our pain in this world, so does God.  Enemies may wound us, but God could have shut their mouths.  Circumstances may hurt us, but God is in control of all things.  Similarly, our brain chemistry is not beyond His ordering.  This is actually good news!

During my deepest depression myself and my wife held on to a quote from John Newton: ‘Everything is needful that he sends; nothing can be needful that He withholds.’  God being in control may leave us with some painful and difficult questions.  At times we may be left feeling baffled.  But it is better to be in the hands of the God beyond our understanding who is in control of all things, than living at the mercy of blind chaos—especially when that God has invited me to call Him Father.