...for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ~ Matthew 5:45
The last two weeks I have been very bothered/baffled/flabbergasted/disgusted by the amount of postings and comments I've seen on social media from other Christians. Enough so that I've seriously considering taking a fast from Facebook and Twitter just to keep my head in place. I don't want to be a friend of Job and start telling them how wrong their theology is when they're down and out. But I also don't like having such insane thoughts running around in my head all day.
Example A: My sister is very sick from the chemo and is already losing her hair after the second treatment, but we know she is going to overcome this because she is a dedicated Christian.
Say WHAT? Where do people get the idea that just because we are saved we are protected from dying? Yes, there are stories in the Bible where God grants people more time (or even brought Lazarus back from the dead), but there are many more stories where God in His sovereignty chose to deliver from earth's chains by death.
Example B: Psychiatry is fake medicine. People need to recognize that Jesus is the only answer.
This one is not a direct quote, but I saw it from several people, expressed in many ways, after the Navy Yard shooting. And I always wonder if that person goes to the doctor for an infection and accepts the meds offered without having bloodwork done. If so, they're treating actual symptoms and not a "real" disease, just what they doctor assumes they have. And contrary to what people think they know, psychiatrists actually have medical degrees, actually do bloodwork on their patients, require brain scans, as well as clinical evaluations and counseling sessions.
Until one has personally witnessed how mental illness destroys families, even Christian families, a person will never understand how devastating this is. I can't tell you how many suicides have happened because:
a) they didn't believe they had a mental illness because that can't happen to Christians,
b) a pastor tried Biblical counseling before finally recognizing he was dealing with something medical and not spiritual and that in the process had endangered that entire family,
c)shunning/lack of support from the church family.
I personally know of three very solid Christians who suffered with mental illness to the point they took their lives. And a nearby town, Clayton, had a man, a Christian who attended a conservative, Bible-believing church, who quit taking his meds because he was dealing with his illness via prayer and Bible study. His family in CA had not heard from him in several years. He married here, had a child, and when that child was several years old, he brutally murdered her. A Christian SBI agent said it was one of the most horrific and disturbing crime scenes he had ever investigated. The father told the agents "the voices in my head told me to".
My husband, after his car wreck that left him paralyzed, had a few people who actually told him they knew God would heal him because he was a "true Christian". When God chose to not physically heal Bobby, they cut him off. Obviously, he didn't have enough faith. I clump those families in the same category as people who do not believe Christians cannot have mental illnesses. They mean well, but their theology is out-of-whack and off-base.
And when I read these posts, I have a roller coaster of emotions. Sometimes I get angry. Other times, I fight the memories and tears all day long. A few days it prompts me to pray for friends and family members. But it also takes me back to the Word. I think of the Hebrew boys and their words to the king, that God would deliver them, but if He chose not to, he was still the greatest God. And of Job in midst of his trials, "Even if He slays me..." Even if no one understands and makes mocking and hurtful comments, even if I have to take that midnight phone call to pray with a relative as they bear the anguish that never ends of yet another relative valiantly fighting mental illness, of their child not knowing when they walk in the door from school whether or not Mom will have a gun to their head that day or will be singing praise songs, or that the cancer has spread, EVEN IF...it doesn't mean God's love for me is any less, His plan for me subpar, or my faith has floundered. It simply means I have an unseen hand guiding me through it all.
The last two weeks I have been very bothered/baffled/flabbergasted/disgusted by the amount of postings and comments I've seen on social media from other Christians. Enough so that I've seriously considering taking a fast from Facebook and Twitter just to keep my head in place. I don't want to be a friend of Job and start telling them how wrong their theology is when they're down and out. But I also don't like having such insane thoughts running around in my head all day.
Example A: My sister is very sick from the chemo and is already losing her hair after the second treatment, but we know she is going to overcome this because she is a dedicated Christian.
Say WHAT? Where do people get the idea that just because we are saved we are protected from dying? Yes, there are stories in the Bible where God grants people more time (or even brought Lazarus back from the dead), but there are many more stories where God in His sovereignty chose to deliver from earth's chains by death.
Example B: Psychiatry is fake medicine. People need to recognize that Jesus is the only answer.
This one is not a direct quote, but I saw it from several people, expressed in many ways, after the Navy Yard shooting. And I always wonder if that person goes to the doctor for an infection and accepts the meds offered without having bloodwork done. If so, they're treating actual symptoms and not a "real" disease, just what they doctor assumes they have. And contrary to what people think they know, psychiatrists actually have medical degrees, actually do bloodwork on their patients, require brain scans, as well as clinical evaluations and counseling sessions.
Until one has personally witnessed how mental illness destroys families, even Christian families, a person will never understand how devastating this is. I can't tell you how many suicides have happened because:
a) they didn't believe they had a mental illness because that can't happen to Christians,
b) a pastor tried Biblical counseling before finally recognizing he was dealing with something medical and not spiritual and that in the process had endangered that entire family,
c)shunning/lack of support from the church family.
I personally know of three very solid Christians who suffered with mental illness to the point they took their lives. And a nearby town, Clayton, had a man, a Christian who attended a conservative, Bible-believing church, who quit taking his meds because he was dealing with his illness via prayer and Bible study. His family in CA had not heard from him in several years. He married here, had a child, and when that child was several years old, he brutally murdered her. A Christian SBI agent said it was one of the most horrific and disturbing crime scenes he had ever investigated. The father told the agents "the voices in my head told me to".
My husband, after his car wreck that left him paralyzed, had a few people who actually told him they knew God would heal him because he was a "true Christian". When God chose to not physically heal Bobby, they cut him off. Obviously, he didn't have enough faith. I clump those families in the same category as people who do not believe Christians cannot have mental illnesses. They mean well, but their theology is out-of-whack and off-base.
And when I read these posts, I have a roller coaster of emotions. Sometimes I get angry. Other times, I fight the memories and tears all day long. A few days it prompts me to pray for friends and family members. But it also takes me back to the Word. I think of the Hebrew boys and their words to the king, that God would deliver them, but if He chose not to, he was still the greatest God. And of Job in midst of his trials, "Even if He slays me..." Even if no one understands and makes mocking and hurtful comments, even if I have to take that midnight phone call to pray with a relative as they bear the anguish that never ends of yet another relative valiantly fighting mental illness, of their child not knowing when they walk in the door from school whether or not Mom will have a gun to their head that day or will be singing praise songs, or that the cancer has spread, EVEN IF...it doesn't mean God's love for me is any less, His plan for me subpar, or my faith has floundered. It simply means I have an unseen hand guiding me through it all.
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