Why does God create people with mental illnesses? (Talk Back Series)

Why does God create people with mental illnesses (i.e. depression, bipolar disorder, etc.)? 

[Answered by Shannon and Josh]

  This is not the easiest question to answer because there isn’t any clear answer in Scripture about this.  Genesis 1:27 says that we are "created in the image of God".  If we are created in the image of God, then God doesn’t create people with any illness, whether mental or physical. 

Many people attribute illness and disabilities to “the fall of man” in Genesis 3.  There is some justification for this, because before Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they didn't know any wrong or even that they were naked.  At the fall, sin entered the world.  There was now the opportunity for people to choose between good and evil.  

God didn't create all of the bad things that happen to people and all of the suffering that many people face.  People throughout the generations have chosen to disobey God and to live sinful lives. We are all born sinners, and sin and its consequences have been passed on from generation to generation. Because of this, there have been negative results on our world and in our lives as human beings.  People are born into a world that is literally being destroyed by the people living in it.  

On the other hand, when Jesus was asked about the reason for the man's blindness in John 9:1-3, Jesus said that his blindness was not because of his sin or his parent's sin, but to bring glory to God.  That's not that reassuring for someone who is suffering with an incurable disease or a mental illness, but God has used the faith and lives of many people who have suffered to draw people to himself and to bring glory to His name.  

When we are suffering with something, it's really hard to be positive and think about the good that can come from a situation that we are going through. After we get through it though, we often look back and realize that God was with us the whole time and that we were never alone. Through everything that we have faced or are facing, God walks with us, and we can praise Him for strengthening us, healing us, and sustaining us regardless of what we are going through.   

       Also, the collective effects of human sin throughout the world are basically an un-creation, a descent into chaos.  However, God is constantly working for re-creation, healing our brokenness, setting things right.  God wants us to be healthy and whole here in this life, and God is working through his Spirit and people to move us toward more health.  But eventually, when Jesus comes again, he will set everything right.  He will make everyone whole and cure every disease and heal every wound.  For now, we keep taking baby steps toward healing in God's love, but we also look forward in hope to the total healing God will eventually give.

Sabbath Liberation (Deuteronomy 5:12-15)

       Meet Chan and Tin.  They worked most of their lives in the rice fields of Thailand.  After working all year on the farm, there was barely enough money to feed the family.  They struggled year after year in desperate poverty.

One day a recruiter for a company called Global Horizons came to their village promising high paying jobs on farms in America.  In one month in America, they could earn what they make in a full year in Thailand.  It was the opportunity of a lifetime to change the lives of their children and their whole extended family.

There was just one catch.  To enter the program, they had to pay a recruitment fee of almost $15,000.  They mortgaged their farms and their houses.  They talked their relatives in to mortgaging their farms and homes.  Tin’s loans ranged up to 80% annual interest, but Chan’s loans reached 152% annual interest.

When they got to the airport, Global Horizons forced them to sign a host of new documents - including a visa renewal fee of $8,000.  When they reached America, the recruiters confiscated their passports “for safekeeping.”  This meant that they had no identification and no way to prove that they were in the USA legally.

At first, there was plenty of work and on-time pay.  After a few months though, the work began to run out and the pay started coming later and later.  Often, they sent 100% of their pay checks back to Thailand so that their families could make the payments on their loans.  That meant they often didn’t have enough to eat, so they caught wild animals for food and gathered wild vegetables from forests.  They usually lived in overcrowded housing without enough beds for each person.  Sometimes the toilet wouldn’t work for weeks at a time.  They often lacked kitchens, washing machines, and sufficient heating. To limit their contact with outsiders, their handlers told them that Americans are greatly prejudiced against Asians and that leaving their housing grounds would be very dangerous.  

Surely this couldn’t really happen in today’s world, right?  They are free people.  They could just change companies, right?  Wrong.  Global Horizons was their legal sponsor and guarantor.  If they quit, they would lose their visas and be sent home to Thailand ... and their families would lose everything.  

Well, then, they could complain.  They could talk get help from the police, right?  Oh, you mean, the same police who arrested them as illegal aliens because they didn’t have proper identification?  They thought that if they went to the police, then they would be sent home - either by the police or by Global Horizons ... and their families would lose everything.

Well, then, surely, they could at least go on strike and protest for better working conditions, right?  Managers continually reminded them that if they complained, they would be sent home to Thailand.  Then, they would have no way to repay those huge loans ... and their families would lose everything.  The U.S. Justice department decided that Chan and Tin were “victims of human trafficking.”  They were officially, legally, modern day slaves ... in the United States of America ... in 2007.

They aren’t the only slaves.  The US government estimates that there are somewhere between 4 million and 27 million slaves in the world today - at this moment.

  This is a horrific tragedy, and the Church of the Nazarene and many other Christian and secular organizations are actively working to stop human trafficking and to protect those most vulnerable.  

However, today I ask you to consider that the problem of modern slavery is far more widespread than we have ever imagined.  I think you will begin to understand as we read our Old Testament lesson for today. 

Korea Tip 132: English Speaking Psychiatrist

You don't have to go to Seoul to get your psych meds.  There are several English speaking psychiatrists in Cheonan.  Ask your regular doctor for a recommendation, or try out Dr. Yu at the Y & K Well-Being Clinic (행복 주는 의원) near the Cheonan Bus Terminal.  It's between Starbucks and Krispe Kreme, on the third floor of the building next to Starbucks.
They are confidential, and they give you the medicine right there in the office, so everything is very discrete.  (For anyone who knows Dr. Ko at SsangYong Medical, Dr. Yu is her husband.)  As usual for Korean clinics, there is no appointment necessary.  Just walk in.  However, be warned that the nurses don't speak much English.
Depression and anxiety are common among foreigners living in Korea.  Don't be ashamed or afraid.  Get help if you need it.  No one will know, but you will feel much better.  (And you can always get a original glazed donut while you're at it.)

Korea Tip 130: English Counseling in Korea

Sometimes we need help.  That's OK.  It is a sign of health to reach out for the help that we need.
However, when living abroad, it can be hard to find the help that we need.  In Korea, English speaking counselors are hard to come by.
As a pastor, people sometimes ask me to recommend a good method for getting counseling here in Korea.  Unfortunately, there aren't any therapists comfortable doing counseling in Cheonan (where I live).   However, there are other options:

My Eel

Anxiety wraps my heart
like an electric eel
with a million tentacles
tiny and splintering
burrowing every crevice
charged with pulses of fear.

I root them out
like a gardener hunting
     weeds
like a surgeon digging
     cancer.
Hoes, claws, gloved hands
Merely pop them off
     at the root
Scalpals, radiation, chemo
Merely shrink the size
     temporarily.

Hope fills the void
     temporarily
Peace pulls its moving van
     to my curb
Only to find
The old eelly occupant
     has returned.
     Again.



---- For the sake of those who might not know, this was written on a bad day, and I don't always feel like this.  I post here for the sake of those who know exactly how this feels and need the hope that mutual understanding brings. ----

Annie Hall - #35 Greatest American Movie of All Time

Thanks to Itunes and loaners from friends, Sarah and I are slowly working our way through the American Film Institute's Top 100 Movies of All Time.  This week we watched Annie Hall, a 1977 movie, co-everything (writing, directing, staring) Woody Allen.
It's a semi-biographical, romantic comedy, telling the story of Alvi (Allen) and Annie Hall (Diane Keaton) and their on-again, off-again relationship.  It has lots of flashbacks, in which the lead characters are present on the sidelines of the flashback - much like the Ghost of Christmas Past or It's a Wonderful Life.  Except that here, to great comedic effect, the present day characters are able to interact with or even interpose themselves into the flashback characters.  The whole movie has this playful disconnect with reality that allows the characters to move in and out of each others' stories and even to step toward the camera to address the audience directly.
Overall, I found it an interesting mixture of funny and sad, but not overwhelmingly good.  I was particularly disappointed that Allen's character didn't seem to make any progress in dealing with his own issues.  The Josh rating: JJJ.

The Overload Syndrome - Review

I thought I was reading The Overload Syndrome for other people.
I realized I was wrong in the introduction.
People are stressed ... exhausted ... overloaded.  
"I feel like a minnow in a flash flood."
Margin is the space that once existed between our load and our limits.  Margin is the space between vitality and exhaustion.  It is our breathing room, our reserves, our leeway.  
We push the limits as far as possible.
We spend ten percent more than we have - and it no longer matters if one is talking about time, energy, or money.
Without margin, we are self-protective, painfully uninterested in an opportunity to serve our neighbor.  Without margin, we tread water and hang on by our fingernails, trying to survive an other day.  Without margin we are chronically exhausted, chronically late, chronically rushed.  Without margin, we are overloaded.
What about you?  Have you lost your joy and passion?  Do you suffer from work dread?  Are your relationships strained from stress?  Do you wish you could check into a hospital just to sleep?
Understand that you are not alone.
I am not alone.  You are not alone.  Many of us - if not most of us - are overloaded.  This book has been part of the beginning of my healing process.
You need to read this book.
The Josh rating: JJJJJ.

How Overwork Happened to Me

I have preached against overwork for years.  I've condemned others (vocally and internally) for consistent overworking.  I've prided myself in my "structural preventions" for working too much.  In our house, we have a weekly sabbath, family night, and date night.  I arrogantly believed that these protected me from the increasingly common problem of overworking.

"Pride comes before the fall" (Proverbs 16:18).

As a pastor, I expect to work 50-55 hours a week.  If we expect church members to work 40 hours a week, attend worship services, hang out with church people, and volunteer, then it's fair to expect pastors to put in about the same amount of time.  I've thought for years that my structural barriers kept me at around the 50 hour mark, and that difficult weeks wouldn't push me too far overboard.

Difficult circumstances and a new baby have forced me to reexamine my schedule.  I was shocked when I counted my hours in a normal work week.  My normal - not so difficult week - totals 57 working hours.  That put a quantifiable explanation to my feelings of fatigue, depression, overload, imbalance, and inability to catch-up at home.  No wonder I've been tired.  No wonder I can't seem to do any of the things I've been wanting to do at home.  No wonder I haven't been doing any art.  No wonder I feel stressed and anxious.  I'm chronically overloaded!

How did this happen?  After preaching against overwork and being a staunch supporter of simplicity, how did I end up a victim of one of my own greatest enemies?

Pieces of Peace

Blue skies in my heart
Deep currents in my soul
Whirlwind in my chest
- My fragmentary whole

Performance, achievement
Anxiety, depression
Laughter, love, and joy
- My loose compression

Believing and doubting
Following and turning away
Resting and Wrestling
- My drunken stumbling way

His love endures forever
His mercies know no end
His death atones for me
- My unfailing Friend