What is Mental Health?

 


Biblically, mental health is about embracing the truth. Why Truth? Truth transforms:
•    Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Once our minds and hearts are regenerated (born again), we can begin to apprehend what Scripture is teaching, unlike the Israelites who had a blinding veil over their minds. When this takes place, we can behold the glory of God and be transformed:

•    2 Corinthians 3:14–18 But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

•    John 8:31–32 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

We are what we Believe: Spirit working through the Word:  Ephesians 3:19
…know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Believing Anita)

2 Timothy 2:24–26 And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. (Our role?)

What is Mental Health in Secular Counseling?

Reduction of painful symptoms, but some thinkers realize that far more is required:

Carl Jung: “Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”

•    Eckhart Tolle, mystic and New Age Guru: “Wisdom comes with the ability to be still. Just look and just listen. No more is needed. Being still, looking, and listening activates the non-conceptual intelligence within you. Let stillness direct your words and actions.” (Stillness Speaks) (Shadow work?)

But can we face what we have repressed? Proverbs 20:5-6 The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out. Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?  

Proverbs 16:2 All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirit.
•    Aldous Huxley: “If most of us remain ignorant of ourselves, it is because self-knowledge is painful, and we prefer the pleasures of illusion.” (The Perennial Philosophy, (1894-1963)

•    Benjamin Franklin: There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one's self. ( (1706-1790)

•    Roman philosopher Seneca (4 BC-65): “Other men's sins are before our eyes; our own are behind our backs.”

Why do we run from self-knowledge? It is just overwhelmingly painful:
•    Arnold Toynbee:    “Unless we can bear self-mortification, we shall not be able to carry self-examination to the necessary painful lengths. Without humility there can be no illuminating self-knowledge.” (A Study of History)

According to Jesus, we cannot tolerate the truth about ourselves
•    John 3:19–20 …”this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light lest his works should be exposed.”

Consequently, we will flee from the truth and even try to destroy those bearing the truth:
•    Isaiah 2:20-22 In that day a man will cast away his idols of silver…21To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the crags of the rugged rocks, from the terror of the LORD and the glory of His majesty, when He arises to shake the earth mightily.

•    Rev. 6:15-16 Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!” (Why terrified? John 3:3)
       
   Evidence of Self-Deception: “In one study of nearly a million high school seniors, 70 percent said they had “above average leadership skills, but only 2 percent felt their leadership skills were below average.” Another study found that 94 percent of college professors think they do above average work. And in another study, ‘when doctors diagnosed their patients as having pneumonia, predictions made with 88 percent confidence turned out to be right only 20 percent of the time.’” (Abcnews.go.com; “Self-images Often Erroneously Inflated,” 11/9/05)

•    Psychologist Shelley Taylor:    “Normal people exaggerate how competent and well liked they are. Depressed people do not. Normal [?] people remember their past behavior with a rosy glow. Depressed people are more even-handed…On virtually every point on which normal people show enhanced self-regard, illusions of control, and unrealistic visions of the future, depressed people fail to show the same biases.” ( Positive Illusions p.214)

•    Psychologist Roy Baumeister:  “For three decades, I and many other psychologists viewed self-esteem as our profession’s Holy Grail: a psychological trait that would soothe most of individuals’ and society’s woes. We thought that high self-esteem would impart not only success, health, happiness, and prosperity to the people who possessed it, but also stronger marriages, higher employment, and greater educational attainment in the communities that supported it. (http://imaginefirestone.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/RethinkingSelf-Esteem.pdf)

What then is the answer? Only the love and training of Christ can enable us to face the truth, free us from our addiction to self-deception, and to accept ourselves the way we are. Jesus promised:

John 8:31–32 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”