It seems that many times when people are racked with depression one of the first things secular (and unfortunately sometimes Christian) counselors talk about is the need for “self confidence”. Although I would agree that we need to understand our “self” much better (see the “comments section” of my last post) it does not happen by mainly focusing on “self”.
One of the other aspects of this though is that many people who struggle with depression feel like they are perpetually throwing their head against the wall because they want to know their life is worth something. They want to know they are worth something (these are not just thoughts of people with depression, but all humanity). Yet, many people keep thinking like they must always feel like I piece of trash and then maybe God will “look on my lowly state”, which will lead to joy. The problem is that if people really believe this is true Christianity several outcomes occur:
1. The second God “helps them up” they throw themselves back on the ground in order to profess how big of a punk they are and then maybe God will pick them up which leads to throwing themselves back on the ground. Thus, “the mentality of groveling in the dirt is the disposition of Christians, therefore, I want nothing to do with that junk.”
2. People start to think they are supposed to be “confident” that they are a walking piece of trash. Some how this will lead to a godly and joyful life.
3. A person who always thinks they are a piece of trash really believes God is a piece of trash. I know this sounds harsh, so let me explain. Every person is created in the image of God (believer and unbeliever). If you are made in His image, yet you always think you are the worst thing walking on the face of the Earth, you are really saying that God’s “masterpiece” is woefully inadequate and thus, why even want relationship with Someone like this.
So what is the solution? A Humble Confidence.
Christians should be the most confident people in the world. One of the problems is that many people equate confidence with arrogance. A better correlation would be to see confidence and humility as siblings and arrogance/pride and insecurity as siblings.
I was blown away this morning when reading Hebrews 10. The author uses past victories in persevering during terrible times (v. 32-34) as an encouragement to not lose present confidence. Someone may say, “Well I do not think I have any victories? This is making me even more depressed! Thanks a ton, you punk!” I would respond by saying, “Start today! Your victories today will help you to persevere in the future! This is the point. Perseverance in terrible times has a snow ball effect and so does giving up.”
In fact, the author uses confidence as the basis for endurance (v. 35-36). Without confidence you will not endure. You might for a mere 20, 30, 40 years, but you will not do it for a life span.
The author goes on to give the reason for “enduring confidence”. He says BECAUSE “we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and persevere.” What he says is so profound! The reason is BECAUSE THAT IS WHO YOU ARE! You are not becoming someone that you are not. The point is to become who you already are!
I try to live my life under one theme and two principles.
“As you go, live unto life.” (Theme)
This is derived from the language of The Great Commission in Mt. 28. The etymology gives the idea of “as you go” more than “go”. The point is that wherever you are, make disciples!
Do nothing more or nothing less than what God wants you to do (Principle 1)
This causes me to always focus on pursuing a holy life. It also helps to guard me against Paul’s greatest struggle, covetousness. It is so easy to see what other people are doing and want to either have their position, their things, etc. (at least it is for me), instead of being content in how God has made me and what He wants me to do. This also allows me to focus on encouraging others, more than trying to take from others.
Become who you are (Principle 2)
For Christians, you already are totally righteous and pure in the eyes of the Father. Therefore, living a holy life is not a matter of trying to earn acceptance, but understanding that I am already accepted by the One who can completely satisfy me, which should lead to a life of thanksgiving instead of trying to earn favor.
This mentality has helped me out so much with my bouts of depression. This has not totally eradicated depression in my life, but it has helped me to seek after proper confidence. Proper confidence is found by “dying to self” for the purpose of having God tell us who we are in Him. This will give us a focus that will not only be holy, but confident and joyful (for the record, I believe you can be joyful and depressed at the same time. I will talk about this more in my next post).
I pray these posts have been helpful in some ways. I first desire for people to know that God is still great, even in the midst of depression. He is a loving Father who wants to let us know that we are TRULY NEVER ALONE. The issue with depression is that it is a lie. I am not saying it is fake, it is very real. God just wants us to know the truth of the matter is that we are never alone and that we are valuable in Him. I also want people to be delivered from depression, but again, this is not the main goal. Relationship with an eternal God is the main goal. Therefore, our thoughts should be focused on who He is and how He thinks which will help to properly inform our lives.
Thoughts?
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5 comments:
Some of your points really speak to me in that I see in them the reasons that I felt compelled to move away from christianity. It is actually the first time that I have heard someone acknowledge these widespread (in my view) problems in christianity, and I applaud you for being aware of the shortcomings of the actual practice of the faith.
Had my previous reply to your other post not already been so lengthy, I was going to get into exactly what you have said in this post...that I see christianity in practice having the problem of always making oneself out to be some worthless, lowly, even depressed "piece of trash" I believe is what you said. That is depressing in and of itself. And pardon me for thinking and saying this, but I think christianity in its current and most widespread practice has a way of almost leading people to depression. Maybe I just didn't do it right. Maybe a lot of people just don't do it right. Maybe it's just a widespread misunderstanding. If that's the case, then it should be corrected. Because in the meantime, you've got people constantly feeling the need to knock themselves down and be lowly and degraded in order to bring god some kind of glory. Just doesn't seem right, does it? You are right in saying this..."the mentality of groveling in the dirt is the disposition of christians, therefore I want nothing to do with that junk." And that's part of where the faith lost me.
Another thing I got tired of (and still tire of today) is this need to what I call "dumb down" the mind in order to be a part of the faith. We have these minds and these brains for a reason and it's not so that we can just go along with a faith that tells us what to think and how to think and what's acceptable to think about and what's not. I found that people of intelligence were not respected for the use of their minds unless it was directly related to the faith...like writing some great book or teaching a great sermon or whatever. When was the last time the church as a whole and believers as a group showed the same amount of respect to a christian person who made a great scientific discovery or contributed to civil rights or something??? There's more to life than writing and teaching great sermons. There's a whole world out there. I appreciate you saying that to not use the mind or doubt its abilities is to disrespect god. I wish the entire church and faith as a whole felt that way. Because that is also a place where christianity lost me. I refuse to be dumbed down or reduced to having intelligent conversations only about things directly related to the faith. There's too much more.
Now that this response is getting just as long and complicated as all the others...
To answer the questions posed...
Yes, I have a great deal of respect for the philosophy of scientology and dianetics. I don't necessarily subscribe to all views held by the philosophy/faith, but I have found a lot of it to be in line with what I believe. You do know your religions/philosophies, don't you? But I would expect nothing less from you.
As to if I found christianity to be the true way...well that would be a big IF. I can't really imagine how someone might be able to convince me that this was the case. IF that were ever to be the case though, I am the type of person to give something serious thought if it has merit. But I am not so concerned with self-awareness. That is not my goal. Self-awareness is great, but I am more concerned with the outcome and the ability of the mind. I wouldn't call it self-awareness. Perhaps I haven't been all that clear. I think christianity would have to offer a lot more than true self-awareness for me to be lured back into the faith. No offense meant to you or others, because I think it's great that people have something to believe if that's what you want to believe.
Oh, and I have a question for you. Can you further explain an "informed faith"? I don't see how christianity and the bible teach a logical faith. What is it you know that I missed? To me, it seems all very illogical and totally based in faith and that "leap" into oblivion.
And to the other question posted in the other comments, the answer is no. I don't ever just miss jesus.
yo vern...have you ever read "who i am in christ" by neal anderson? it's a super linear progression of if this is true about christ, then it's true about you, and sorta helps you trace back up the thought progression to find out where you're getting caught up -- belief wise. good book...reminded of it by your comments on principle dos.
to the anonymous commenter...
i really appreciate your openness to dialogue and discuss the issues you have obviously wrestled with
rather than just be emotionally reactive or just not deal with the subject all together. both other options would be easier, i'm sure. i've been challenged by what you've said and had to examine my own life on some different issues, and by your willingness to not shy away from the hard stuff to say.
it's easy to hear in what you say that you were hurt by some unexamined "christians". i'm glad you've connected with vern somewhere along the way... to at least have one touch point of someone who can more accurately portray Christ's intention for his kids than those you've been exposed to.
i also want to say that i hear how much you did pursue the things of God and did not find him to be of much help to you during the times of darkness. i won't patronize you to say (and would want to punch in the face...in the most godly way possible ;) anyone who would say) that maybe you didn't do things in just the right way or hard enough or anything like that. i just want to say that i'm sorry that's the conclusion you've walked away with. i believe you gave it an honest effort.
my only thought is that maybe the point of Jesus is not to magically lift your depression, but just to sit and be with you while you were in the darkness.
and additionally i'd like to say that the process of using one's mind to the limits of its capacity doesn't have to be mutually exclusive to the plight of christianity. i know i'm not alone in saying that i'd rather there be a few examined individuals who were truly connected with the heart of who Jesus is than a thousand who claimed to know, but operate on auto pilot.
i hope in my comments i am not being one to further the issues you have with christianity and if i am, i hope that you wouldn't mind correcting me. it's really weird to write this comment directly to you for all to see! so this will prob be the end of my comments as i think your dialouge with vern is prob what you're after anyway. i'm praying for you and hope you keep struggling with the deeper things in life.
Anonymous,
You have such good thoughts. I have written a few more things, but again, it is by no means exhaustive. I want to thank you again for your insights and challenges. I want you to know again that I have been praying for you.
“Maybe I just didn’t do it right.” I think you are correct when you say this, but it would mainly be about not knowing HIM right. I think this is the part which must be seen by unbelievers and recovered by many professing believers. The point is not MAINLY action, although it most definitely includes action. It is impossible to “profess faith with the mouth” and not live it in action. The mains point though is proper belief, which will lead to proper action. This goes back to some of the thoughts I have written on our action becoming an “action of thanksgiving” instead of a need for approval etc.
One of the issues in the importance of the mind is that it is very possible for someone to do things that look very powerful in the physical realm, yet they end up going to hell. Mt. 7 talks about this aspect. There will be people who preach the name of Christ, cast out demons in the name of Christ, and do powerful works in His name, yet they will go to hell because they did not relationally know Christ. This necessitates for Christians to not only act properly, but they must think properly. It is not an either/or but a both/and.
This thought process is also why I believe the Bible teaches an informed faith. Paul was able to engage the people at the Areopagus in Acts 17 because he not only knew Christianity well, but he knew the philosophies of the day very well also. In fact, when he got to Athens (as he was waiting for Silas and Timothy to catch up with him) he went about and studied the culture. He was not intimidated by the thoughts of unbelievers, but sought to learn how they were thinking and then find a way to present the Gospel. It is because he knew their THOUGHTS had a real effect on how they acted. He was really burdened for the people. This is how Paul was able to start his entire speech out with a compliment to the people at the Areopagus (these were some of the top intellectuals of the day). He found a way to engage them by talking about the altar they made to the “unknown God”. This was made as a god to “cover the bases” of any area they may not have covered before. Athens was said to “have more idols than people” at the time. Yet, Paul still boldly professed the most intellectually rigorous worldview that anyone can hold, Christianity.
Paul also tells people to not be “taken captive by hollow and deceptive philosophies” of the world (Col. 2:8). Many people have used this to say that Paul tells Christians to stay away from philosophy and thus sowing seeds of the possibility that God is not intellectually capable of defending Himself against the thoughts of man. The problem is that what Paul is saying is to “be taken captive” by the philosophy of Jesus, but not the philosophies of the world. This necessitates two (and probably more) things. First of all, we must intellectually know the philosophy of Jesus (Peter Kreeft, a philosophy prof. at Boston College have written a great book on this called, The Philosophy of Jesus). Second, it also should cause Christians to study the thoughts of the philosophies of the world. The reason is because if they are wrong, Christians should not only have a burden for the “wrong thinking”, but the people who are thinking improperly. It is not just the matter of bad thinking to Jesus, it is the matter of the person (i.e. relationship).
Daniel 1 also gives support for the need of Christians to be intellectuals. He knew the literature of the Babylonians 10 times better than any other Babylonian even knew their own literature (this included the “professing intellectuals”)
There are several more verses on the importance of the call of Christians to be intellectuals and to use the mind, but yet again the response is getting long.
Also, what I mean by Christianity as being logical is that it is does not run in contradiction to logic, but it is much more than logic. Therefore, it is a matter of Christianity including logic and reasoning, but also being much more, which is another reason for (I believe) its superiority over any other worldview. I will be totally honest in saying that I would gladly change my worldview if Christianity is found to be inadequate. I do not think it is and this is why I have been compelled to embrace it with heart, soul, mind and strength.
I have a few suggestions:
1. If you have never read Francis Schaeffer, please do!! He has a book titled, “Escape from Reason” that documents the importance of Christians to recover many of the things we are discussing.
2. Although you may not have found many Christians who engage life with the mind. Please read what the Bible says about the mind. This will allow you to really see what the thoughts of God are on this situation. It will also guard against the inadequacies of man. You have an incredible mind.
3. Thoughts?
a rich,
I have not read that book by Anderson, but I will try to pick it up as soon as possible. Thank you for the suggestion.
You are awesome!!
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