Mental Health and the Church

A recent study by Mental Health America found that 50 million adults are suffering from a mental illness, and more than eleven million have serious suicidal thoughts. These mental health issues can manifest in myriad ways – depression, anxiety, PTSD, eating disorders, and gender dysphoria. 

Ruth Graham seemed to understand this before many in the church did, when she wrote years ago “There’s a pain in every pew and a hurt in every heart.” The church has been slow to understand and respond to the epidemic of mental illness that plagues this nation.

There are a few reasons for this. First, medical science has just in the past few years began to understand the link between mind and body. It wasn’t that long ago, that depression was called “a case of the blues” and PTSD among soldiers was referred to as “shellshock” or “combat fatigue.” We are only beginning to understand how these maladies result from chemical imbalances in the brain or trauma.

Second, is the false notion in the church that somehow Christians are supposed to be immune to these infirmities. Many of us have shaken hands with a friend at church and when asked “how are you doing?” we deflect and say, “I’m good,” when in reality our world is falling apart. Who came up with stupid “Christianese” mantras like “Too blessed to be depressed?”

Moreover, when you search the Scriptures, you discover people whose lives were mentally frayed. Did you know that some of God’s choice servants hit low points in which they despaired unto death?

Moses cried out to the Lord in Num. 11:15, “I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness.” 

Elijah was so fatigued and fearful that he retreated to a cave and asked to die (1 Kings 19:4).  

In the crucible of suffering, Job wondered why the Lord allowed him to be born at all (Job 3:11). 

Jeremiah was called “the weeping prophet” for a reason and he wrote a whole book expressing his anguish called “Lamentations.”

And when we are distraught, we run to the Psalms for comfort where David’s raw emotions erupt, “My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O Lord—how long?... I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping” (Ps. 6).

I think we would do well to stop with the fakeness of “putting on a happy face” when we go to church. Sometimes it is a struggle to even show our face on a Sunday. Sometimes the pain is so great it’s difficult to sing hymns. Sometimes all we have to offer to God is broken pieces and burdened minds.

Don’t get me wrong, there is joy in the Lord and church should be filled with His praises. But at the same time, we can’t keep pretending when people in the pews are struggling in silent desperation. That’s why the Word calls us to “rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.”

What’s the answer? I’m not a psychologist or doctor, I feel so ill-equipped to deal with people’s problems. The only thing I know to do is point troubled souls to Jesus. There was no body more deranged and mentally unstable than the demoniac Jesus encountered in Mark 5. He howled at the moon like a werewolf, lived among the tombs and practicing cutting. And yet, when Jesus cast out the Legion of demons torturing him the Bible says, “And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind” (Mark 5:15).

Don’t miss that last part – “in his right mind.” Doesn’t the Bible call Jesus “wonderful counselor” (Is. 9:6)? Jesus can do what pills and programs can’t. If you are depressed, tortured or confused, Jesus can heal the wounds that no one can see. If you are a Jesus-follower and there are days where you feel like you’re hanging on to your last shred of sanity, it doesn’t mean you are not saved or “less than.” What it means is that you will have to rely on God to carry you through in ways that others may not. But leaning on Him more is no lack of faith. It’s a declaration that He is sufficient.