James 1:12 “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.”
I am writing this series for people who have a mental disorder of some kind. In my first post on this blog, I talked about the foundation for hope and change through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. In the second, I highlighted the importance of humility and that denial is an opposite of humility. Humility causes us to look to God for help. In the third, I discussed how to search for our own personal recovery plan. In order for that to work, God must give that to us and help us to follow it. I discussed how that works in general. If you missed any of those, go back and read them as they create the foundation for the next step I list now. My own recovery was made possible by doing a series of things that I am writing about here on this blog. I am covering the highlights of what I learned here. In order to recover, I had to embrace the path of Christian discipleship and do my best to stay with that day by day.
The fourth thing that I needed for recovery was perseverance. Another common word for that would be discipline. There can be no discipleship without discipline. I found that the path that led to real maturity in my faith was the same path my recovery was on. Up until this point in time, I have not seen any other way that has worked for anyone. And so I am personally convinced that the best recovery possible for anyone will involve real work towards becoming a loyal follower of Jesus. You might rightly call them true fanatics of Jesus. That is different than just following a preacher or priest, or a denomination, or a doctrine or set of them. Unfortunately, many Christians are following a cheap, easy substitute for true discipleship and they are not getting better because they have a form of godliness but they lack the power of the real thing. It is my testimony that the real thing does have power to help us in the times of our need.
Hebrews 5:12 “In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”
One of the first major changes that I made, is that I started studying the word of God myself. I also started listening much closer to the sermons at the church I was attending. On this path I started by living on the milk of the “elementary truths” of God's good news to me. But had I stayed there, I do not believe that my recovery would have gotten very far. A big part of my recovery was discovering what I was doing that was keeping me stuck and unable to move forward. This was not the milk of God's goodness to me, but rather the meat that I needed to eat in order to get better. I accepted being responsible for putting my life into a ditch and I was the one who could do something about that. Repentance means to literally turn around 180 degrees and head in the opposite direction. It took humility for me to accept this. I had to take responsibility for finding out what was good for me and do it, as well as find out what I was doing that was hurting me and stop doing those things. This took real time as there were many things I needed to change. I could not do them all at once. I had to persevere with this process and keep moving forward.
I had to spend more time meditating on what was true in the word of God then I did feeling sorry for myself in self-pity, or focusing on what was confusing me, or worrying about things out of my control. I began practicing taking my thoughts captive, or controlling what I was spending most of my time thinking about. The more I did that the more I trained myself to be able to tell the difference between good personal choices and bad ones. This was a discipline I had to do. There was no pill to take that would do that for me. Jesus is The Life. On an extremely practical level, following Him brought me life. Having a mental illness is certainly a trial, but when I persevered I did find help. I also discovered that this crown of life James talks about isn't just something that we receive in the next life. I am still discovering that the more I focus on Jesus and the better I do at following Him in this life, the more of His life I experience. I have a crown now, and it just keeps getting better. I do not doubt that it will be much greater in the next life, but I did not have to wait until then to start receiving some of the very real benefits of it in this life.
I attend a weekly peer-support group where most of the attendees are bi-polar. I know that this perseverance and discipline is difficult for them because their emotions tend to bounce between extremes. It is currently easier for me because I am very emotional stable, but I did not start out in this state. I have never had a manic episode, but I was continuously clinically depressed at one time. I had my challenges in my recovery, and they will have some different ones then mine. We are all different but we can all pray to the same God. This we have in common: that the answer is the same for all of us. That answer is a person: Jesus Christ.
Romans 5: 3 “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”
Suffering is not a topic that is dealt with much in today's church culture, at least not talking about any positive benefit from it. When discussing it, most of the time someone is selling some “quick and easy way” for people to get out of it. And I have found that this kind of “Christian Teaching” is just scammers selling snake oil taking advantage of peoples desire to get rid of the things that bother us. But the Apostle Paul had a remarkably positive attitude towards suffering! He saw that walking through suffering hand in hand with Jesus was a discipline and that through that his own character kept improving and the result of that is that his faith was infilled with hope even in the midst of the worst circumstances. To non-Christians rejoicing and glorying in our sufferings does look like madness, but to those who choose to believe that God can bring good out of every trial we endure, there is a permanent benefit to it.
The character we build on earth, I have come to believe, is the same one we have forever in the next life. That is why our character is so very important to God. God's love lets us go through some terrible times on this planet, because those things, if we let them, build a permanent treasure that is worth more than all the gold on planet earth. My current character is much better now than I know it would have been if I were born without a mental health disorder. As talented as I am, I am certain that without all that I suffered I would be a jackass of an arrogant, successful man. Looking back, I have come to the place where I can thank God for all I suffered. The character that was developed is a gift I get to keep. I currently have a treasure that made it worth everything that I have been through. My hope is that others will eventually see what I have seen and reap the potential benefits from choosing Paul's attitude.
We cannot avoid all suffering in life, but we can choose what attitude we will hold towards it. Choosing a negative one just wastes the opportunity we have. My attitude has continued to get better with age. That has changed my thoughts, and by changing those my life has turned around 180 degrees. My old life and attitude are now far behind me. God made that possible as I was once severely mentally ill. God is not a respecter of persons. You can have this just as I have, if you really want it enough to do what is necessary.
Friday, June 22, 2018
Tuesday, May 29, 2018
Where to find your own Recovery Plan
“Listen and hear my voice; pay attention and hear what I say.” Isaiah 28:23
In my first post on this blog, I talked about the foundation for hope and change through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. In the second, I highlighted the importance of humility. Denial is an opposite of humility. I am writing this series for people who have a mental disorder of some kind. I have found that I needed help from God and that I would not receive that without choosing to be humble. My own recovery was made possible by doing a series of things that I am writing about here on this blog. I am doing my best to take these things one by one in an order that could help someone else find the same path that I am now on. Discipleship is the term I would use to describe the overall path. I had to embrace that path and try my best to stay on it day by day.
The third thing that I needed for recovery was a plan that could work. I did not get that through medical science, although I love science and have a scientific mind. I did not get that through counseling or psychology, though I am not knocking those things. I did end up reading some Christian counseling self-help books, but that was only one step on my journey. I found that on the path, it did not guide me to it initially. The plan came from the Lord. In order for me to acquire that, I had to learn to hear his voice and trust Him to take me through each of the steps. I did not have them all laid out ahead of me at the beginning. I would have liked that because I like understanding things and also like to know where I am heading. But instead I had to learn to trust God with the details as I followed. This is the walk of faith on the path God has laid out for each of us.
John 10:14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd...” 27:”My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all ; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.” I started this post with a quote from the Old Testament. Before Jesus came, and before the Holy Spirit was sent, God expected His people to listen to His voice. Now with the Holy Spirit we Christians have full access to all the help that we so desperately need.
Just see what Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” This mercy and grace is not just some theoretical spiritual thing that has no practical application to the very real problems we face on the earth. I found mercy and grace very practical. God led me on a journey out of the misery which was all that I knew in this life to a better place. That place is one where anxiety and depression no longer have a strangle-hold on me. There exists very real hope in Jesus Christ.
It has been my experience that God did have a plan for my life. That plan did not include me staying in a ditch where a mental illness made me miserable and, practically speaking, useless to everyone else on the planet. God wants us to bear good fruit. God wants us to be conformed to the exact image of His Son. Jesus is not mentally ill. Jesus blessed the people of the world. Jesus knew what He was doing. He was not confused like we can be. God wants to lift us up. God wants us to have “the mind of Christ.”
Hebrews 11:6, “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.” Part of my reward I already have acquired: a mind that is stable. God has a plan for your recovery too. I am not saying that it is quick or easy. It is just the opposite. His plan is very long-term. It covers the rest of your life. This life has many difficult trials. There is reward for those who pass them. You can hear God's voice and ultimately get His plan for your life.
There is an old Petra song that I have always liked since the first time I heard it. The chorus goes “Life is a Minefield.” The song states that God knows the way through and that we need to stick close to Him in order to safely get through. This is so true for everyone. For those with a diagnosis there is title on the map that we must walk through. That title is our diagnosis. It is certainly a proverbial minefield of sorts. So at least we know the name of it. Two men whom I met have died on their maps in their personal minefields the past year. Their diagnosis's proved fatal, but it does not have to be that way. God died to redeem us from sin, and sin ultimately brings death to us. So I would say that if anyone wants to leave their personal wilderness--the minefield on their map with their diagnosis on it--they need to choose to become a disciple. Not for a day, or a week. Not even just until they clear this minefield. There is more than just one such field on each of our maps. This was a lifetime commitment for me, which is why this path is anything but easy. It requires the ultimate commitment anyone can make for the ultimate, highest possible reward.
To sum all of this up: we have to recognize that God has a plan and that it is possible to hear from Him what it is. If you are struggling with this concept, then you need to ask God for help understanding and accepting it. Once you get that far then you are ready to start taking steps to finding God's plan for recovery for you. In my case, I started by crying out to God for help. Prayer for me suddenly became a priority.
One of the first things that was sin (not helping me) in my life that God showed me was my personal appetite for entertainment. I was addicted to watching television. I was averaging 7 hours every day. There was a lot more I could be doing during this time. I was highly motivated so I quit cold turkey. That freed up half of the day for other things. I began spending a significant amount of time in prayer each day. I studied the Bible for the sake of personal application of what it states for my life. I started listening to, and really enjoying Christian music. God led me to new social settings and places where I was taught about Biblical Truth. I was very pro-active. This was a miracle of sorts because before I was so passive. Now your path is unique. You have to find that one, and not try and mimic my own. This is the primary reason why I do not like most “Christian” self-help books. They tend to teach you to mimic someone elses recovery instead of how to make your own work.
We live in a very busy world. For many this busyness has crowded out time for a personal relationship with God. It takes time to get your plan from God. You have to literally listen for it. You have to make seeking it a priority. You have to have faith that God will guide you. Your path may include things mine did not. Drugs, doctors, therapists and many other things can be tools that God uses. He certainly uses prayer, His Bible, His people (Christian brothers and sisters providing a support network) and, most importantly, His Spirit. None of these things work like magic. Instead they are a discipline, they have to be used consistently over time to see results.
When I started my journey, I was trying to figure out how to clearly hear God's voice for myself. I heard some others speak of a still, small voice inside. I tried listening to that and all I heard was the crickets outside. I am a mystic, but most of the Christian books for mystics that I have read I do not like and would not recommend. I have tried some of the techniques they promoted. None of those worked at all. They had a perfect failure rate for me. Maybe they worked for the people writing the books. Or maybe it was just idealized b.s. being sold, I do not know. In recent years I have come to believe that God was personally offended by my own attempts to mimic what others were claiming were surefire ways to deepen my relationship with Him. God wants to know me and have a personal relationship with me. He does not want to have a third party relationship with me through an intermediary. I could tell you how this process works for me, but that is likely much less helpful than you trying on your own to discern the process God has for you that will work, not for me, but for you. The struggle to make this personal and also make it work is part of the journey, in my experience.
I also want to say that even decades into this process that I do not have a 100 percent accuracy rate on being led by God's Spirit. There are good reasons for that. They include the strong influence of this world's system, spiritual warfare with demons and the ugly reality of my old, sinful nature. I like my pastor, but in the past he has taught being led with an overly idealized optimism. Perhaps you too have received such teaching. The problem with this is when you fail or when your pastor fails it leaves you confused, wondering what is going on? The reality is that life is much more challenging then glossing over this particular struggle.
Yet I choose not to let my own failures get me down, or stop trying to move forward. I simply ask for forgiveness for my error and ask God for help to do better next time. I have to choose to take my eyes off of myself and get them back on Jesus again. Jesus has forgiven me and I need to see myself through His eyes and not just my own. Being able to do this on a regular basis is an important key to recovery. The spiritual eyes and ears that have to be developed to get God's plan for your life will also really help you get past the tunnel vision that so many have on their own problems. God is so much bigger than that and His perspective is what we desperately need. That perspective enlightens our path, makes our problems look smaller and leads us to the answers we so desperately need.
I have written this in the hope of inspiring just one person to choose to change the way their life has been heading and get on this path. God is big. God created man to have relationship with Him. God sent Jesus to redeem us so this relationship could be restored after we all fell. The minefields in this life are a blessing in disguise if we allow them to drive us towards the guide who offers to help us get safely through them. Knowing God personally is an adventure like nothing else that this world has to offer. Fix in your mind today this goal of the high calling in Christ Jesus.
In my first post on this blog, I talked about the foundation for hope and change through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. In the second, I highlighted the importance of humility. Denial is an opposite of humility. I am writing this series for people who have a mental disorder of some kind. I have found that I needed help from God and that I would not receive that without choosing to be humble. My own recovery was made possible by doing a series of things that I am writing about here on this blog. I am doing my best to take these things one by one in an order that could help someone else find the same path that I am now on. Discipleship is the term I would use to describe the overall path. I had to embrace that path and try my best to stay on it day by day.
The third thing that I needed for recovery was a plan that could work. I did not get that through medical science, although I love science and have a scientific mind. I did not get that through counseling or psychology, though I am not knocking those things. I did end up reading some Christian counseling self-help books, but that was only one step on my journey. I found that on the path, it did not guide me to it initially. The plan came from the Lord. In order for me to acquire that, I had to learn to hear his voice and trust Him to take me through each of the steps. I did not have them all laid out ahead of me at the beginning. I would have liked that because I like understanding things and also like to know where I am heading. But instead I had to learn to trust God with the details as I followed. This is the walk of faith on the path God has laid out for each of us.
John 10:14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd...” 27:”My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all ; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.” I started this post with a quote from the Old Testament. Before Jesus came, and before the Holy Spirit was sent, God expected His people to listen to His voice. Now with the Holy Spirit we Christians have full access to all the help that we so desperately need.
Just see what Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” This mercy and grace is not just some theoretical spiritual thing that has no practical application to the very real problems we face on the earth. I found mercy and grace very practical. God led me on a journey out of the misery which was all that I knew in this life to a better place. That place is one where anxiety and depression no longer have a strangle-hold on me. There exists very real hope in Jesus Christ.
It has been my experience that God did have a plan for my life. That plan did not include me staying in a ditch where a mental illness made me miserable and, practically speaking, useless to everyone else on the planet. God wants us to bear good fruit. God wants us to be conformed to the exact image of His Son. Jesus is not mentally ill. Jesus blessed the people of the world. Jesus knew what He was doing. He was not confused like we can be. God wants to lift us up. God wants us to have “the mind of Christ.”
Hebrews 11:6, “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.” Part of my reward I already have acquired: a mind that is stable. God has a plan for your recovery too. I am not saying that it is quick or easy. It is just the opposite. His plan is very long-term. It covers the rest of your life. This life has many difficult trials. There is reward for those who pass them. You can hear God's voice and ultimately get His plan for your life.
There is an old Petra song that I have always liked since the first time I heard it. The chorus goes “Life is a Minefield.” The song states that God knows the way through and that we need to stick close to Him in order to safely get through. This is so true for everyone. For those with a diagnosis there is title on the map that we must walk through. That title is our diagnosis. It is certainly a proverbial minefield of sorts. So at least we know the name of it. Two men whom I met have died on their maps in their personal minefields the past year. Their diagnosis's proved fatal, but it does not have to be that way. God died to redeem us from sin, and sin ultimately brings death to us. So I would say that if anyone wants to leave their personal wilderness--the minefield on their map with their diagnosis on it--they need to choose to become a disciple. Not for a day, or a week. Not even just until they clear this minefield. There is more than just one such field on each of our maps. This was a lifetime commitment for me, which is why this path is anything but easy. It requires the ultimate commitment anyone can make for the ultimate, highest possible reward.
To sum all of this up: we have to recognize that God has a plan and that it is possible to hear from Him what it is. If you are struggling with this concept, then you need to ask God for help understanding and accepting it. Once you get that far then you are ready to start taking steps to finding God's plan for recovery for you. In my case, I started by crying out to God for help. Prayer for me suddenly became a priority.
One of the first things that was sin (not helping me) in my life that God showed me was my personal appetite for entertainment. I was addicted to watching television. I was averaging 7 hours every day. There was a lot more I could be doing during this time. I was highly motivated so I quit cold turkey. That freed up half of the day for other things. I began spending a significant amount of time in prayer each day. I studied the Bible for the sake of personal application of what it states for my life. I started listening to, and really enjoying Christian music. God led me to new social settings and places where I was taught about Biblical Truth. I was very pro-active. This was a miracle of sorts because before I was so passive. Now your path is unique. You have to find that one, and not try and mimic my own. This is the primary reason why I do not like most “Christian” self-help books. They tend to teach you to mimic someone elses recovery instead of how to make your own work.
We live in a very busy world. For many this busyness has crowded out time for a personal relationship with God. It takes time to get your plan from God. You have to literally listen for it. You have to make seeking it a priority. You have to have faith that God will guide you. Your path may include things mine did not. Drugs, doctors, therapists and many other things can be tools that God uses. He certainly uses prayer, His Bible, His people (Christian brothers and sisters providing a support network) and, most importantly, His Spirit. None of these things work like magic. Instead they are a discipline, they have to be used consistently over time to see results.
When I started my journey, I was trying to figure out how to clearly hear God's voice for myself. I heard some others speak of a still, small voice inside. I tried listening to that and all I heard was the crickets outside. I am a mystic, but most of the Christian books for mystics that I have read I do not like and would not recommend. I have tried some of the techniques they promoted. None of those worked at all. They had a perfect failure rate for me. Maybe they worked for the people writing the books. Or maybe it was just idealized b.s. being sold, I do not know. In recent years I have come to believe that God was personally offended by my own attempts to mimic what others were claiming were surefire ways to deepen my relationship with Him. God wants to know me and have a personal relationship with me. He does not want to have a third party relationship with me through an intermediary. I could tell you how this process works for me, but that is likely much less helpful than you trying on your own to discern the process God has for you that will work, not for me, but for you. The struggle to make this personal and also make it work is part of the journey, in my experience.
I also want to say that even decades into this process that I do not have a 100 percent accuracy rate on being led by God's Spirit. There are good reasons for that. They include the strong influence of this world's system, spiritual warfare with demons and the ugly reality of my old, sinful nature. I like my pastor, but in the past he has taught being led with an overly idealized optimism. Perhaps you too have received such teaching. The problem with this is when you fail or when your pastor fails it leaves you confused, wondering what is going on? The reality is that life is much more challenging then glossing over this particular struggle.
Yet I choose not to let my own failures get me down, or stop trying to move forward. I simply ask for forgiveness for my error and ask God for help to do better next time. I have to choose to take my eyes off of myself and get them back on Jesus again. Jesus has forgiven me and I need to see myself through His eyes and not just my own. Being able to do this on a regular basis is an important key to recovery. The spiritual eyes and ears that have to be developed to get God's plan for your life will also really help you get past the tunnel vision that so many have on their own problems. God is so much bigger than that and His perspective is what we desperately need. That perspective enlightens our path, makes our problems look smaller and leads us to the answers we so desperately need.
I have written this in the hope of inspiring just one person to choose to change the way their life has been heading and get on this path. God is big. God created man to have relationship with Him. God sent Jesus to redeem us so this relationship could be restored after we all fell. The minefields in this life are a blessing in disguise if we allow them to drive us towards the guide who offers to help us get safely through them. Knowing God personally is an adventure like nothing else that this world has to offer. Fix in your mind today this goal of the high calling in Christ Jesus.
Thursday, April 12, 2018
The First Prerequisite for Recovery
The First Prerequisite for Recovery
"I have found that there is nothing we receive from the Kingdom of God without humility being present first." - Pastor Jason Elmore
My pastor understands the importance of humility and so do I. In my first post on this blog, I talked about the foundation for hope and change through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The first step in the 12 Step programs also concerns humility for change cannot happen as long as the person with the problem is in denial. It matters not if you are addicted to some drug that is ruining your life or you have a real mental health problem that throws your thinking and actions off, until the issue is acknowledged with the seriousness that it deserves, you are not going anywhere. Denial is an opposite of humility.
According to the Bible, Jesus stated that you have to humble yourself and become like a little child, with simple faith, in order to be able to enter His Kingdom. He also stated plainly that we need to be born again. Simply being born into a family where your forefathers claimed to be Christians or belonging to a particular organization that claims to promote Jesus' Kingdom does not make someone a Christian going to heaven. We have to choose to set aside our pride and accept in faith what Jesus did on the cross to save us. When we do this we become babes in Christ. If you have not done this, then you may be part of a “Christian” heritage and/or may be a member of a “Christian” denomination but you do not have a personal relationship with Jesus where it all starts. Most people in this world are in denial of the eternal realities Jesus taught about. They exist in a state of pride where they are either trying to save themselves somehow, or they do not think they are sinners who do evil, or they simply could not care about such matters at all.
The Bible states that we should want to mature, after choosing to humble ourselves and receiving salvation, by learning what pleases God and choosing to practice those things. The term “Orthopraxy” means, literally, “proper practice.” I use this word frequently as I do the term “discipleship” which encompasses the whole maturity processes which is learning what practically “Orthopraxy” looks like and then cultivating the discipline to do what Jesus teaches each day. This is a process that every true believer is supposed to be working on. I am writing this to Christians so the rest of what I say will not make sense or work for you if you have not been born again, first.
Dealing with sin in our lives is where the rubber meets the road for discipleship. We Christians are called to follow Jesus each day. This is true rather or not you have a mental disorder. Everyone has multiple sin issues and they are not easy to deal with. For those with mental disorders, some of the sin issues we have negatively affect the disorder. For others, they have other kinds of practical problems that sin makes worse, so we all have something we need to responsibly deal with. Sin is literally, from the Greek word, missing the mark. It comes from archery when the archer fails to hit the bullseye. To me it is the imperfection that is a part of almost everything we do. There can be shame involved for everyone. Shame has to be dealt with in a mature way. That topic deserves its own post, and I am sure I will eventually get around to that. But for now I will just mention it as something important to understand and deal with.
But back to humility, we want to receive God's help which requires humility on our part first. 1 Peter 5:5, “...Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for 'God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.' Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.” One way God exalts us is by helping us with the problems in our lives that are tormenting us. Grace is what we receive and it does its work to make us think and act more like Jesus. This happens only under the condition that we choose to “clothe ourselves with humility.” This is a choice we have to make each day. This is where discipleship and Orthopraxy start. For recovery, the foundation is Jesus Christ, as I talked about in the last post, and the next step is choosing humility as a continuing life-style. Humility is not a one time event like salvation.
The next thing worth mentioning is that the humility has to be authentic. There is a false humility that men put on for show. But God sees right through that. In Matthew Chapter 6, Jesus condemned the false humility of the Pharisees. They would not put their tithes into the offering containers unless there was a large crowd to see them do it, nor would they pray unless there was a large crowd and then they would shout those prayers out in order to “look spiritual” to the people. In modern times there are some religious celebrities who will not do simple acts of charity unless there is a large crowd with their cameras for “photo ops.” This is a modern day example of false humility at work. Real humility is what happens when there is no around to see it. We do the right thing knowing that God sees it. We are not doing these things to try to impress the crowds of people. Our actions are seamless so what we do does not change when an audience arrives. What we do at church, is what we do with our families, which is what we do at work, which is what we do when we are alone. To do otherwise is hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is a fruit of pride at work in our lives. Let me explain how this works.
Embarrassment is rooted in pride. It is what we feel when others discover that we are not as good as what we would like others to believe. Rick Joyner writes that when we make decisions that are motivated by embarrassment we are acting in pride, and I have found this to be true in my own life. I have found pride to be like an onion: it has layers and its smells bad. Pull off one layer, and there is another underneath, and they all have a stench to them. Humility is choosing to repent and letting God remove the layers one at a time. This is the hard work of “clothing ourselves with humility.” It is discipleship in practice and it is Orthopraxy at its most basic foundation. Humility, in contrast, has a wonderful smell to it which is why there exists something called false humility and why that is linked to hypocrisy. Pride feels good to us for it gives a kind of immediate gratification, but it produces bad fruit over time. Humility does not feel good initially, but it produces fruit that makes us feel better over time. Pride comes naturally, where humility is an acquired taste.
Now pride, the opposite of humility, is like a two headed coin. I realized this many years ago as I was still in the middle of my recovery. The proud person goes through life flipping coins, sure that heads is going to come up because they are so clever, skilled, or gifted or whatever. Success is surely awaiting around the corner. When the coin indeed turns up heads, then the result is what people would normally associate with pride: arrogance, snobbishness, the I am better than you attitude and the like. But, in Romans 12:2 it says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you”. The arrogant side of the coin with proud and successful people is very easy to see and understand for most people.
But what happens when the coin toss comes up tails? Failure. At this point a proud person will do one of two things: they will either look for a third party to cast blame upon, or they will tend to beat themselves up over their personal disappointment. In the latter case, there is an inner voice, self-talk it is commonly called, and it starts beating up the person who failed. “How could you have let this happen? Why did you not foresee this? You are better than this! Make sure it does not happen again!” That is the inner voice of pride that is suffering disappointment. Being sober in our judgment means that we should be able to accept failure gracefully. God does. It is His standard for what we should realistically think of ourselves that we need to keep in mind, for He is the final judge in these matters. He is not surprised when we prove ourselves fallible. He knows we are all prone to falling into ditches along the Path of Life. This is the very reason why Jesus had to die for us in the first place.
If you are having problems forgiving yourself for something that you know God's has forgiven you for, then let me suggest that you consider that there might be hidden pride at work. But that can be repented of by choosing not to think so highly of yourself anymore. God's Son came to redeem us from the consequences of sin. But pride gets in the way and refuses that redemption. We are not capable of fixing ourselves. God knows this and he does not condemn us every time tails comes up. Nor does He feed our arrogance when heads come up. We have to make a decision to trust God and be gracious enough to receive forgiveness, no matter what we have actually done. Humility, again, is not thinking more highly of our abilities then God does. So it takes humility in order to receive God's grace and let go of our past failures. This can be harder for people with a diagnosed disorder because we are more prone to confusion.
In summary, humility is a continuing second step for recovery. This humility has to be genuine and it has to be renewed over time. Pride can be sneaky and we have to actively be on guard against it in our hearts. This pride can become even more of a problem as a person matures and learns more about God and His scriptures. Learning about these things is not the same as doing them. The point of Orthopraxy is to learn what we are supposed to do and then keep practicing them. Humility is necessary to get God's help in order to keep moving forward in recovery. We receive God's grace by choosing to humble ourselves. We really need God's help through life because things are not easy. Let me encourage you to keep on choosing to clothe yourselves each day with this humility. Without it, you are simply not helping yourself.
"I have found that there is nothing we receive from the Kingdom of God without humility being present first." - Pastor Jason Elmore
My pastor understands the importance of humility and so do I. In my first post on this blog, I talked about the foundation for hope and change through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The first step in the 12 Step programs also concerns humility for change cannot happen as long as the person with the problem is in denial. It matters not if you are addicted to some drug that is ruining your life or you have a real mental health problem that throws your thinking and actions off, until the issue is acknowledged with the seriousness that it deserves, you are not going anywhere. Denial is an opposite of humility.
According to the Bible, Jesus stated that you have to humble yourself and become like a little child, with simple faith, in order to be able to enter His Kingdom. He also stated plainly that we need to be born again. Simply being born into a family where your forefathers claimed to be Christians or belonging to a particular organization that claims to promote Jesus' Kingdom does not make someone a Christian going to heaven. We have to choose to set aside our pride and accept in faith what Jesus did on the cross to save us. When we do this we become babes in Christ. If you have not done this, then you may be part of a “Christian” heritage and/or may be a member of a “Christian” denomination but you do not have a personal relationship with Jesus where it all starts. Most people in this world are in denial of the eternal realities Jesus taught about. They exist in a state of pride where they are either trying to save themselves somehow, or they do not think they are sinners who do evil, or they simply could not care about such matters at all.
The Bible states that we should want to mature, after choosing to humble ourselves and receiving salvation, by learning what pleases God and choosing to practice those things. The term “Orthopraxy” means, literally, “proper practice.” I use this word frequently as I do the term “discipleship” which encompasses the whole maturity processes which is learning what practically “Orthopraxy” looks like and then cultivating the discipline to do what Jesus teaches each day. This is a process that every true believer is supposed to be working on. I am writing this to Christians so the rest of what I say will not make sense or work for you if you have not been born again, first.
Dealing with sin in our lives is where the rubber meets the road for discipleship. We Christians are called to follow Jesus each day. This is true rather or not you have a mental disorder. Everyone has multiple sin issues and they are not easy to deal with. For those with mental disorders, some of the sin issues we have negatively affect the disorder. For others, they have other kinds of practical problems that sin makes worse, so we all have something we need to responsibly deal with. Sin is literally, from the Greek word, missing the mark. It comes from archery when the archer fails to hit the bullseye. To me it is the imperfection that is a part of almost everything we do. There can be shame involved for everyone. Shame has to be dealt with in a mature way. That topic deserves its own post, and I am sure I will eventually get around to that. But for now I will just mention it as something important to understand and deal with.
But back to humility, we want to receive God's help which requires humility on our part first. 1 Peter 5:5, “...Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for 'God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.' Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.” One way God exalts us is by helping us with the problems in our lives that are tormenting us. Grace is what we receive and it does its work to make us think and act more like Jesus. This happens only under the condition that we choose to “clothe ourselves with humility.” This is a choice we have to make each day. This is where discipleship and Orthopraxy start. For recovery, the foundation is Jesus Christ, as I talked about in the last post, and the next step is choosing humility as a continuing life-style. Humility is not a one time event like salvation.
The next thing worth mentioning is that the humility has to be authentic. There is a false humility that men put on for show. But God sees right through that. In Matthew Chapter 6, Jesus condemned the false humility of the Pharisees. They would not put their tithes into the offering containers unless there was a large crowd to see them do it, nor would they pray unless there was a large crowd and then they would shout those prayers out in order to “look spiritual” to the people. In modern times there are some religious celebrities who will not do simple acts of charity unless there is a large crowd with their cameras for “photo ops.” This is a modern day example of false humility at work. Real humility is what happens when there is no around to see it. We do the right thing knowing that God sees it. We are not doing these things to try to impress the crowds of people. Our actions are seamless so what we do does not change when an audience arrives. What we do at church, is what we do with our families, which is what we do at work, which is what we do when we are alone. To do otherwise is hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is a fruit of pride at work in our lives. Let me explain how this works.
Embarrassment is rooted in pride. It is what we feel when others discover that we are not as good as what we would like others to believe. Rick Joyner writes that when we make decisions that are motivated by embarrassment we are acting in pride, and I have found this to be true in my own life. I have found pride to be like an onion: it has layers and its smells bad. Pull off one layer, and there is another underneath, and they all have a stench to them. Humility is choosing to repent and letting God remove the layers one at a time. This is the hard work of “clothing ourselves with humility.” It is discipleship in practice and it is Orthopraxy at its most basic foundation. Humility, in contrast, has a wonderful smell to it which is why there exists something called false humility and why that is linked to hypocrisy. Pride feels good to us for it gives a kind of immediate gratification, but it produces bad fruit over time. Humility does not feel good initially, but it produces fruit that makes us feel better over time. Pride comes naturally, where humility is an acquired taste.
Now pride, the opposite of humility, is like a two headed coin. I realized this many years ago as I was still in the middle of my recovery. The proud person goes through life flipping coins, sure that heads is going to come up because they are so clever, skilled, or gifted or whatever. Success is surely awaiting around the corner. When the coin indeed turns up heads, then the result is what people would normally associate with pride: arrogance, snobbishness, the I am better than you attitude and the like. But, in Romans 12:2 it says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you”. The arrogant side of the coin with proud and successful people is very easy to see and understand for most people.
But what happens when the coin toss comes up tails? Failure. At this point a proud person will do one of two things: they will either look for a third party to cast blame upon, or they will tend to beat themselves up over their personal disappointment. In the latter case, there is an inner voice, self-talk it is commonly called, and it starts beating up the person who failed. “How could you have let this happen? Why did you not foresee this? You are better than this! Make sure it does not happen again!” That is the inner voice of pride that is suffering disappointment. Being sober in our judgment means that we should be able to accept failure gracefully. God does. It is His standard for what we should realistically think of ourselves that we need to keep in mind, for He is the final judge in these matters. He is not surprised when we prove ourselves fallible. He knows we are all prone to falling into ditches along the Path of Life. This is the very reason why Jesus had to die for us in the first place.
If you are having problems forgiving yourself for something that you know God's has forgiven you for, then let me suggest that you consider that there might be hidden pride at work. But that can be repented of by choosing not to think so highly of yourself anymore. God's Son came to redeem us from the consequences of sin. But pride gets in the way and refuses that redemption. We are not capable of fixing ourselves. God knows this and he does not condemn us every time tails comes up. Nor does He feed our arrogance when heads come up. We have to make a decision to trust God and be gracious enough to receive forgiveness, no matter what we have actually done. Humility, again, is not thinking more highly of our abilities then God does. So it takes humility in order to receive God's grace and let go of our past failures. This can be harder for people with a diagnosed disorder because we are more prone to confusion.
In summary, humility is a continuing second step for recovery. This humility has to be genuine and it has to be renewed over time. Pride can be sneaky and we have to actively be on guard against it in our hearts. This pride can become even more of a problem as a person matures and learns more about God and His scriptures. Learning about these things is not the same as doing them. The point of Orthopraxy is to learn what we are supposed to do and then keep practicing them. Humility is necessary to get God's help in order to keep moving forward in recovery. We receive God's grace by choosing to humble ourselves. We really need God's help through life because things are not easy. Let me encourage you to keep on choosing to clothe yourselves each day with this humility. Without it, you are simply not helping yourself.
Thursday, April 5, 2018
The Foundation of Recovery
This is the first post for my new blog here. The purpose of this blog is a place where I can share things that I learned in my recovery from depression and anxiety in the hope that others can find inspiration and insight that would help in their own recovery. I attend a weekly Fresh Hope peer support meeting where I attempt to encourage others that full recovery can happen. It does not happen easily. That is why much wisdom is required in order to see the path forward in life. A walk with God where thriving, in spite of the disorder, is possible for all. Having spiritual eyes to see is key. Without that I just see people remaining stuck inside their own pits created by the mental health disorder that they are afflicted with. This is the first half of the solution. The second is acquiring the discipline in order to keep doing the things necessary for actual sustained recovery. This is the basic overview of how my own recovery happened.
So what is the starting point for someone who is struggling with a mental health disorder to acquire both the vision and the discipline necessary for recovery? The starting point for me was Jesus Christ. I also see Him as the ending point. “The only thing that I have seen bring stability into people lives is a personal relationship with Jesus.” - Pastor Jason Elmore My pastor spends a lot of time counseling people. He has talked with hundreds, maybe even thousands, over the years and, because he has been in the ministry for many decades, he has heard every kind of problem that people can have. So this statement says a lot in that he has seen many people try other things, but has never seen any of them actually work. Some of these people definitely had a diagnosed mental health disorder and were wanting help with that. This real, intimate relationship with Jesus is also the primary thing I accredit my own recovery with.
What does the Bible have to see about this? Ephesians 2: 20-22, “...with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” Jesus is the cornerstone that the rest of our life is built upon. At least, this comes true when we choose to cooperate with the process. John 14:6, “Jesus told him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life...'” I think most Christians interpret this as, basically, fire insurance against going to hell after death. Believe this, convert to Christianity and then your eternal life is secure. This is a truth, and I would never discount the great worth of this, but Jesus is not just talking about heaven here, but also the way, the path in this life. I see many Christians who are babes, just mere converts to Christianity, but they have not dedicated their lives on earth in practical ways to follow Jesus as Their Way. This way is a personal relationship with Jesus that has benefits both here on earth and in eternity later. He is not just a source of truth when you are confused, but He is the very definition of the word “truth.” He is more than some human guru that teaches you principals to find life. He is The Life. Jesus does more than just point to some other path that is better than the one we are on now. He is The Path. This personal relationship is everything. Jesus simply is The Answer for the struggles with any mental health challenge or, for that matter, any other serious life problem we might have.
The foundation for our hope to both recover and thrive is found in knowing Jesus ourselves. We cannot allow ourselves to be content with making some pastor or priest be our intermediary with God, because only Jesus can do this for us. For those who maintain a second or third hand relationship with Jesus, you are going to keep struggling and you will remain confused. Jesus made it plain that he wants to know us and his Apostles made it clear that we have access to God directly. The old priestly system of sacrifices being handled by a third party has been done away with and we have a new and better covenant. I do not believe that recovery for a Christian will be any better than the quality of this relationship. If you have been distant, do not despair. This is a wake up call and you can change that. God is not condemning us for our many past failures. Instead, He extends His helping hand to help us out of the ditch we find ourselves in. Take His hand, and let Him lift you up. Recovery has to start with Jesus. It also ends with Him. This is not a one time decision to be made, but it needs to become a disciplined lifestyle choice for each new day in our life. Only then can we move on to face the individual steps required to move towards full recovery. This is the foundation for recovery that worked in my own life.
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