There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ. – Blaise Pascal
The following is the last blog post in a series of five blog posts that are meant to build anticipation for my upcoming book, “After Psychosis: How Biblical Counseling Can Help.” They are each almost completely cut and pasted from the Book and placed in the following as excerpts:
In the course of my studies, I took the Gardner Intelligence Test to see which of the nine types I exhibited the most. Far and away the main type I exhibited at that time was existential intelligence which has to do with theology or philosophy. I have also been the beneficiary of many very intelligent and helpful pastors. One of which is a friend I draw on below without crediting him directly. With this in mind, I was helped so much not just by what I studied in school, but also by the pastors I hung out with as well. But enough about that, and yet there are reasons why spiritual care is important for all of us.
Oftentimes, however, doctors and psychiatrists are hesitant to recommend or to work closely with pastoral care. Psychologists work from a Rogerian, or Skinnerian system of thought, designating the person as a creature reacting to his or her environment, and it can be hard for these doctors, almost in lieu of this training, to refer their patients to a pastor. These doctors and psychiatrists are most often trained to see the person as a product of evolution, chemistry, and neural pathways.
It may be something that the Biblical Counselor needs to respectfully consider initiating, because getting to the source of these issues concerning the inner man is crucial to uprooting the cause of depression or suspicion, as the case may be. Our basis for fear and feelings of loss and failure are often rooted in real-life decisions and events.
It could be that there are essential issues in such a person’s life that does not glorify God, and, as I will explain, this can be the real root of not necessarily psychosis, but spiritual issues that relate to it like depressed feelings etc. And while medication may be essential in order for some persons to properly hear and process counseling, those medications only treat the medical symptoms, not the spiritual root of not believing the best about others, pride, or rash judgment.
God, said to Cain, “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?” (Genesis 4:7). If we also respond to God’s Word with sincere effort to account for ourselves and to align with God’s Will, then our countenance may be lifted up also. The medication from a psychiatrist will only deal with the outer-man issues like delusions, hallucinations, or false reasoning, etc. but not problems of the heart or soul, like the scripture can and does directly impact, and maybe false reasoning as well. But a pill cannot give your heart a sense of contentment and joy that obedience to the Scripture does for His saints who value these things.
God and the Human Brain
I do believe that what a person does, or their actions, reflect like a mirror on what they believe theologically. I believe very strongly that a person’s struggles with mental illness can and is helped therapeutically by biblical soul care. Albert Einstein acknowledged in his book, The Human Side,
Our time is distinguished by wonderful achievements in the fields of scientific understanding and the technical application of those insights. Who would not be cheered by this? But let us not forget that knowledge and skills alone cannot lead humanity to a happy and dignified life. Humanity has every reason to place the proclaimers of high moral standards and values above the discoverers of objective truth. What humanity owes to personalities like Buddha, Moses, and Jesus ranks for me higher than all the achievements of the inquiring and constructive mind.[1]
That comes from someone who does not believe in the Biblical Jesus as God-enthroned. But even he acknowledges the benefits of religion to us all. I would argue that Einstein was simply innately aware of the God-shaped hole in our psyche that has to be filled with something though it is best filled with a relationship with the personal God of the Bible. In “How God Changes Your Brain,” Newburg and Waldman write (emphasis added),
Contemplating God will change your brain, but I want to point out that meditating on other grand themes will also change your brain. If you contemplate the Big Bang, or immerse yourself in the study of evolution – or choose to play a musical instrument, for that matter – you’ll change the neural circuitry in ways that enhance your cognitive health. But religious and spiritual contemplation changes your brain in a profoundly different way because it strengthens a unique neural circuit that specifically enhances social awareness and empathy while subduing destructive feelings and emotions. This is precisely the kind of neural change we need to make if we want to solve the conflicts that currently afflict our world. And the underlying mechanism that allows these changes to occur relates to a unique quality known as neuroplasticity: the ability of the human brain to structurally rearrange itself in response to a wide variety of positive and negative events.
In the last two years, advances in neuroscience have revolutionized the way we think about the brain. Rather than seeing it as an organ that slowly matures during the first two decades of life, then withers away as we age, scientists now look at the human brain as a constantly changing mass of activity. In mammals, dendrites – the thousands of tentaclelike receptors extending from one end of every neuron (or nerve cell) – rapidly grow and retreat in a period of a couple weeks. In fact, recent evidence has shown that neuronal changes can take place in literally a matter of hours. “The development of particular neurological connections or skills does not occur gradually over time,” says Akira Yoshii, a brain researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Instead such changes tend to occur suddenly, appearing in short intervals after robust stimulation. It is as if there is a single important trigger and then a functional circuit rapidly comes online.”
The Nobel laureate Eric Kandel, who proved that neurons never stop learning, demonstrated another important dimension of neuro-plasticity. If you alter the environmental stimulus, the internal function of the nerve cells will change, causing them to grow new extensions called axons capable of sending different information to other parts of the brain. In fact, every change in the environment – internal and external – will cause a rearrangement of cellular activity and growth. Even more interesting, every neuron has its own “mind,” so to speak, for it can decide whether to send a signal, and if it does, how strong a signal to send.[2]
All that to say that a belief in God as well as time in prayer and meditation while undergoing these life-changes has tangible benefits to your brain. It also benefits your personality and enhances your ability to form relationships. All of this, I could easily relate to you from my own life if it were more immediately relevant. God does seem to be a guide to us in our walk, family, and personal life. Certainly, our lives can be changed in a limited sense by different beliefs, but If I thought that I was just a glorified monkey, then nihilistic thoughts would have been more natural to me. Not everyone would say the same, but I believe that the ratio of individuals affected negatively by the post-enlightenment focus on what we see and experience as the end of what we know, is more destructive than not.
I just saw a Facebook post from a young lady who was schizophrenic (presumably) but who practiced Wicca. Her spirituality was wrapped around nature and plants and animals rather than a personal God who loved her and wanted to be reconciled to her personally. That is not to say that God would heal her, but He would orient her psyche far better than plants and animals and witchcraft.
And a valid approach that we could take to helping each other with mania or depression or anxiety is to simply tell them that you are encouraging them with a type of Biblical worldview therapy, as it were. Teaching each other especially biblical theology, as in the intertextual themes that are interwoven in the Bible’s broader context (see my last two chapters in this book). Bible nerds call this aspect of Biblical Studies the meta-narrative of the Bible.
I suggest even doing this with the Bible Project videos on YouTube. The Bible Project even has an app. Their videos are short and to the point. Even one of the kids’ books on TheGoodBook.Com and others in the “Tales that Tell the Truth” series do an amazing job of this in some of their books. My favorite is “The Garden, the Curtain, and the Cross.” They edify me and my daughters! But that is not to say that I suggest this resource for adults! It is simply a prevalent theological topic these days.
But the tendency we all have to worship ourselves is most prominent in mental illness. Many schizophrenics will only take these things and make it about themselves in some twisted way if not for medication! Part of the problem is that we feel our supposed “powers” much more pointedly when we are actually failing psychologically. That is why psychotic people struggle with delusions of grandeur. That is what a malfunctioning brain orients around most often.
Our problem, or so we think, is that we must have some kind of unusual struggle for some very special reason. One might think that they have a third eye, or psychic powers, or demon possession, or aliens. But their brains are simply malfunctioning in ways we may not be fully able to specifically delineate in every case at this time. Usually, it is simply most helpful to say that so and so has a “chemical imbalance.”
I could tell you of a plethora of “normal” people on social media who need God. They spend so much time venting their needs and what they think fills those needs, but they are lost. And most psychotic people I have encountered are spiritually lost. Interacting with them in a rational and clear way about relationships horizontally (on earth) and their vertical relationship with God is the single most beneficial thing one can do.
Ironically, there is almost no specialized treatment as Christians! They do still need the talk therapy geared towards thinking rationally as well as the medication prescribed, but the Bible is essential in forming behaviors in relationships and coping spiritually just the same as it is for anyone. And if the patient comes from a Christian background then they may in fact be more attentive and amenable to counseling from an open Bible than to a therapist in an office.
But the worst thing that a person can do is not just to neglect these things but far worse to enter into their delusions with them. They shouldn’t hear others affirming demons, for example, as the problem or the cause. They need rebuke. They need it badly, and counseling that is Biblical, is the absolute best way to converge with them on all points of both horizontal and vertical relationships.
Medicalization
Clifford Whittingham Beers was unjustly forced to remain in psych wards in the early part of the 20th century, but he eventually escaped and wrote a letter to the president who forced an investigation into the psych wards themselves. It really is a harrowing tale which for some people like Beers, hadn’t always ended so well. But he wrote, “A Mind that Found Itself” in 1908, and he became the founder of the mental hygiene movement. From out of this movement, came the belief that medical professionals rather than clergymen should be the primary people who treat mental health issues.[3]
I will always remember an acquaintance of mine. We had worked on Campus Security together briefly, and we reconnected later when I wrote my first book, which he read and offered feedback on it. He has since gone to be with the Lord. However, he said that sometimes, psychiatrists and psychologists do a better job of being Biblical Counselors than “we do.” What he was saying was that the body does come into play in our frame of mind, and yet sometimes biblical counselors do not factor that in, to the degree that they should. He was speaking with reference to my story.
But one of my favorite 20th century preachers is D. Martin Lloyd-Jones who had been a medical doctor prior to becoming a preacher. His writings are particularly warm and encouraging in ways that allow for the sense of frustration and confusion that we sometimes feel when we are trying to process things through a biblical grid rather than allowing our minds alone to speak to us, as it were. Along just these lines, his book, Spiritual Depression, was so encouraging to me while an undergraduate in college.
In general, we sometimes err on the side of distinguishing spirit and body. Yet they are in fact fully in sync and one, in not just a temporary sense. This is our design as human beings. And God brings our souls and bodies together eschatologically at the end of time also.
With this in mind, I repeat that both biblical counseling and the science of psychiatry are not at odds with each other ultimately. I am not a biblical counselor, nor am I a psychiatrist, but I do know even in my impoverished intellectual state as possibly at least a good Bible student that science is best accomplished when theology is the grid through which we view the world. And even our bodies reflect that. It is a macro versus micro perspective.
What Is the Best Way of Achieving Happiness?
Culture, like psychology, tells us to live for the moment. They act and tell us to do what makes us happy. At the same time, ironically, temporal happiness is not the best goal to have in itself. But neither is happiness even achieved by focusing on self-affirmation, self-esteem, or self-actualization. Happiness is best seen as a byproduct of finding meaning and purpose, and holiness is the foundation for meaning and purpose. So, holiness is the goal. In the midst of suffering, if we can repent and lead a holy life, we are uniquely blessed. The happiest and most contented people that I have met can attest to that even if they suffer lack in their lives or suffer with disease.
This is the “worldview-type-of-therapy” that the Bible centers around as it reiterates its many narratives. In the garden of Eden, the focus of its design, even the four rivers and the precious stones and the garden itself with the image of God being central was made to devote supreme value to God Himself as He really did walk with Adam and Eve in that domain. It wasn’t a perfect place (because Satan was present), but it was an innocent place where a real, flesh-and-blood Adam and Eve had unhindered access to God and to the task He had given them to do. His task was to have dominion as well as to care for the garden and to multiply God’s image in the earth. This was an unending Sabbath rest for them and for the creatures under their care. The work was a pleasure.
The task was restful and meaningful, but the fall created a problem. Death entered the world and the destructive nature of sin was immediately pervasive. The incipient question that mankind brought forth and has wrestled with since then, is how do we get back to even just a semblance of that joy? The answer that God repeatedly provides is through holiness. Holiness has a power in history to accomplish God’s purposes. That was the point of the institution of Israel as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And yet, they were unable to fulfill that mission, so God eventually narrowed down the lineage of the promised bringer of peace and rest to the Messiah Himself, Jesus of Nazareth. He is the true Israel.
When we repent of our sins and have faith that His death on the cross at the hands of jealous priests and scribes and multitudes is sufficient to atone for our sins, then we are attesting to the fact that He alone is our savior and the heir to the promised kingdom. The byproduct of admitting our utter helplessness and destitution apart from Him is to bring contentment during suffering. Why is that? It is because the truth gives our lives context, and real forgiveness is possible when we see ourselves accurately as sinners.
If I am capable of any kind of objective self-reflection, then it somehow involves my own desire to teach these things to people as a pastor and bible teacher. That drive has compelled me my whole life, and yet in order to truly become someone who lives this out, I have struggled. I have repeatedly had to deny myself the pursuit of the office of pastor, teacher, or overseer in the church due to my own inabilities. My life’s real fulfillment of these truths comes in the form of trying to fulfill the biblical requirements, and actually benefiting from just that. Becoming a pastor was at times my “misguided quest,” as it were, but seeking that is what God has used to sanctify me in tangible ways. At the same time, I have had to give up on that “delusion” because I don’t qualify with the reality of my condition. Even trying to become a pastor has also led me to try to seriously address the reality and seriousness of my own condition which I have now done in two separate books. And all I can conclude is that perhaps I have done nothing that literally disqualifies me, but my illness is not something I can conquer to a satisfactory degree that would enable me to serve in leadership in any way, shape or form.
But though we may suffer greatly in this life, yet we have a weapon in our souls for accepting the hard facts of this life by embracing our lostness apart from Jesus, and you can know that He alone is the ultimate healer of your body and soul – both. Even if you do not experience physical healing in this life, we have confidence that one day, He will heal us and restore us to walk with Him. It will be just as intended in the original relationship that God had established with Adam and Eve in the beginning. We believe that God will restore all that He has made and give it to Jesus, and Jesus will give it back to the Father as a testimony of the eternal fellowship they have.
Even if Life is Dark
Those who are psychotic tend to stress the meaningless nature of life because then they can excuse their cynicism or escapism, which tends to be central in their thoughts. The unbelieving mind in my experience sometimes stresses the hellish or difficult nature of life in order to feel more confidence in their flaws or decisions. And if they really don’t like God or His people, they think of Hell itself as a better place because they want to be with their friends. They think of Heaven as being on top of saintly clouds with halos and naive purity in a sterile environment. The terrible nature of this deception is that they are as wrong on this topic as they are equally wrong about the torture and separation of Hell. In fact, many psychotics hate God for their pain in severe mental illness. There are good books that help like Randy Alcorn’s book on Heaven and Jonathan Edward’s sermon: “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” There are ways to reach out to these individuals with their misconceptions.
Christians tend to believe that if God has changed our lives, then why would a saint need anti-depressants? Paul tells us to rejoice. But many saints fail to see the fact that joy is not defined as constant emotional happiness. All the while, they might understand these fleeting moments of anxiety and depression, but shirk at the poor Christian who goes so far as to see a psychiatrist for medication. If such a person is actually diagnosed with a psychotic illness, then demons must be to blame!
They believe that God’s promises and commands to the effect of being joyful are ultimate. There is never an excuse for any of us, and yet we do suffer with seasons of hurt, anxiety, or depression. Such Christians do tend to say that our authority for help is the Bible and our local pastor, so what’s the problem with these “clinically diagnosed sinners”?
It is critical to never rely only on the use of medication as if it were your “magic pill” that makes you a “whole person.” You are not just a single corporeal entity. God has breathed into us all the breath of life, and we have a soul which entails the ability to be self-conscious and to know things as God knows things, at least as far as communicable attributes is concerned. There are an infinite amount of things that God knows that we never will. However, true wholeness will be found in taking the medication, but in taking it along with reading scripture and praying it out (which is the next chapter’s content). Even though our minds can be scattered and disoriented with respect to rational thought, your spirit can be whole because there is practical obedience to the Lord who has made you this way for good purposes.
I have experienced what it is like to feel low. I have tried a couple of times to get life insurance for my wife and kids, and I automatically get rejected because of my health history which involves schizophrenia. They think I will commit suicide. And then, because the insurance company doesn’t make this information readily available to its other members, they just bug me with a few more phone calls asking if I want life insurance after I have already explained my situation and been denied. This is because whoever I told the first time apparently isn’t allowed to pass on that “disqualifying health issue,” and I have to potentially explain repeatedly why I don’t qualify for the insurance they are calling again to encourage me to check out with a different sales person.
However, I can attest to the fact that even though life has worked out pretty well for me as the result of the care and support that I received and so much more, that “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him (Lamentations 3:24).” And I have really experienced what it feels like to believe that death is better than life. There was a brief moment in the military when I truly believed that the best plan was to go home and find a weapon and put a gun in my mouth because there was no hope for me. I was going to be a drain on my loved ones for my entire life, and I had no hope of finding a wife and a responsible life for me where I shouldered tasks that mattered at all. I was acquainted with those depths at one moment.
The thing that caused me to reject that solitary feeling was a sincere desire to glorify God, not in the least because I knew that one time I would appear before him! I did not want to appear before Him uninvited! There was a genuine love and a fear of my maker that made me bury the angst of life and reach out for meaning beyond the turmoil of my inner man. And I can tell you that I simply did not find my own way out at all. I distinctly remember calling out for God numerous times in the sincerest form of spirit I could, and He enabled me to do that very thing. He is my portion, and I will wait for Him, just as the prophet Jeremiah did in Lamentations while witnessing the destruction of all that mattered to him. In a sense, I have often felt at different moments like all that mattered to me was being destroyed.
Happiness is not the goal. Happiness is a byproduct of focusing on what really matters. What really matters brings meaning and purpose outside of us and our immediate circumstances no matter how pathetic they may feel. I can tell you for a fact that God’s glory is what really matters, not just because it matters in its own right, but because it will heal the world one day physically and spiritually. We are waiting for His coming. Jesus is the answer. Worshiping Him in word and by our obedience is not a quaint self-soothing. It is the answer to all of the world’s physical ills and spiritual calamities, even psychosis. He will come. I believe that, and when He does, we will cast ourselves at His feet as whatever we are for whatever He purposes. People think of those sentiments as pitiable, but I find them essential as much as I believe the Bible from cover to cover is absolutely historical and true.
We who believe in Jesus, get to be a part of that eternal gift from Father to Son and Son to Father that I mentioned previously by living a holy life as best we are able here and now, and you are not exempt from that if you are mentally ill. Of course not! This is the most meaningful life we can live according to God’s providence. We are very much surrendered to His plan and purposes in spite of the hardship. The truths about neuroplasticity we saw above is that our brains are hardwired for this relationship of surrender. The best therapy is having a relationship with God, in prayer and meditation on His word. So take the meds and pray.
[1] Andrew Newberg, and Mark Robert Waldman. WashingtonPost.Com. Accessed 17 November 2023 https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/brainongod.htm
[2] Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman. How God Changes Your Brain: Breakthrough Findings from a Leading Neuroscientist.(Ballantine Books: New York, New York, 2009) p. 15
[3] Greg Grifford. “The Mind and the Brain.” Transformed Podcast. Accessed December 15, 2023.
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