Please come and take a stroll with me…
October 9, 2024 (publish date, October 28, 2024)
I’m not a doctor. I do not play one on TV. However, from childhood to the present, once in a while, I have been a patient for various physical health problems. Measles, the flu, a few surgeries, various pains from 1 to 10 on the Richter Scale, and so on .
Growing up, we used the word “mental” as a derogatory putdown. We meant it to be something like looney, wacko, psycho, and worse — like being socially excluded and to be shunned.
Like I said, I am not a doctor. In fact, my only education beyond High School was work related and followed my Union responsibilities. A lot of what I’ve learned has come from the School of Hard Knocks and the Graduate School, majoring in my own mistakes.
More importantly, I am now a Born Again Bible Believing Christian and not at all ashamed of that choice. That choice saved my life.
You must understand, way back in High School, during the 1960’s, I was having a great time — team sports, dances, using Dad’s car, friends, girlfriends, and girls who were friends… but eventually my life started falling apart, and nobody, including myself, understood what the hell was happening to me.
It was the age of self management: “Just-walk-it-off.”
That didn’t work very well for me, since my depression got so deep and intense that I attempted suicide. My parents were very upset, of course, but probably were counseled with the assurance, “Give him some time; he’ll just get over it.”
Well, I didn’t “just get over it.”
Mental problems were recognized as just that: problematic hurdles to get over. They were not recognized or given any weight like fevers, coughs, and colds. Those were physical health issues that had cures. Mental problems weren’t health problems at all. They were considered as “Just a phase he’s going through.”
Thank goodness for the persistence of friends… and the introduction of marijuana into the youth culture.
Now, please, keep in mind that I’m no doctor, and in no way am I recommending this self cure of marijuana as the answer to life’s problems nor, in particular, mental health issues…
A High School friend brought a bag over, and we went down to my parents’ basement. We smoked about half of the bag before I “got off.”
Everything became funny, and I laughed and laughed and laughed.
Fortunately or unfortunately, it didn’t last, but I started smoking pot frequently, because it had so relieved my sadness. Soon, I plunged into the drug scene, eventually taking off to California, seeking the promised land offered by the counterculture. I joined the Peace Movement, if only peripherally. My shallowness and selfishness eventually came to the fore, and I moved on from Berkeley without any particular destination.
Long story short, while there, I had had an extremely bad Acid Trip which was catapulting me into a bottomless black hole.
Now, I had been faulting God, blaming Him for not intervening in all the world’s problems, plagues, and war… even so, I found myself desperately calling on the very same God to save me from my impending calamity.
He did.
I guess you could have called me a hypocrite, but in no way was I pretending. My desperation overcame my ignorance.
This new direction that I found myself traveling eventually led me to a “saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.”
What that means is that in a prayer meeting, at a little missionary youth hostel, I realized what a mess I had made of my life. It wasn’t Mom or Dad; not the War; nothing but my decisions — intentional, ignorant, or otherwise — my choices meant my responsibility. I had to own up to the consequences.
I asked Jesus to forgive me.
He did.
At the same time, I asked Him to come into my life.
He did.
He gave me a new nature, a new attitude, and begane to work with me on how to learn and to live.
No more depression.
All the weight of the sins in my life, the hurts and the harm I had done to myself and to others, it all had evaporated. Just the same, when I ran into one of those who I had hurt, I realized that I also had to ask them to forgive me.
New beginnings.
New health.
My conclusion is that mental health is just as important as physical well being. Another way to put it is that the inner person needs as much care and attention — if not more — as the outer person.
I still believe in Science and the Scientific Method. I still believe in doctors and educated Counselors. Yet, through my actual experiences, I realized there was a very dependable fast lane on the road of life which leads to a healthy and productive life, avoiding all those nasty potholes and miscellaneous debris strewn about in the road.
It is through the Gospel of Jesus.
“The Lord is not slow to do what he has promised, as some think. Instead, he is patient with {us}, because he does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants all to turn away from their sins.” — 2 Peter 3:9, Good News Translation.
I was on the road to destruction several times.
I tried to save myself, but couldn’t.
Nobody I knew could really help.
But when I called on the Name of Jesus…
He gave me the gift of newness of life.
Oh, of course, it’s a process, and trouble is still all around, and life still has its problems, but God, the Creator of Heaven and the Earth is faithful and remains nearby:
“God is our shelter and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So we will not be afraid, even if the earth is shaken and mountains fall into the ocean depths; even if the seas roar and rage, and the hills are shaken by the violence.” — Psalm 46:1–5, ibid.
Faith is a verb.
Christianity is not just a religion. You will find that it is a personal friendship with eternal family ties which cannot be broken.
“Who, then, can separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble do it, or hardship or persecution or hunger or poverty or danger or death? No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us! For I am certain that nothing can separate us from his love: neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future, neither the world above nor the world below — there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord.” — Romans 8:35, 37–39, ibid.
It works for me. Choosing this new path will work for you, too.
I’m nobody special, so I’m sure you can find your way to Him. He’s reaching out for you, making it so much easier…
