Head Ed
Education for the mind and soul.
Scripture One:
“Know the truth.”
Recently there was a story about a man who was swallowed by a whale and lived to tell the tale. Literally and honestly, SWALLOWED BY A WHALE!
The news report states:
“…Cape Cod commercial lobster diver Michael Packard's injuries and his diving mate's own account back Packard's story that he was briefly swallowed by a humpback whale off the coast of Cape Cod.
He recounted the harrowing -- and painful -- moment he realized that he was in the closed mouth of one of the world's biggest creatures. Experts said the encounter was rare, and likely a complete accident.” (NBC Boston.com)
What are the odds of being swallowed by a whale?! Of course, my mind goes to the story of Jonah in the Bible being swallowed by a whale and the many times I have tried to wrap my brain around how that could be true. And yet here I am in the 21st century reading a story that validates the fact a whale can and did swallow a man. It may seem farfetched but has been confirmed to be more than a theoretical possibility or false belief it is true.
God is remarkable and always tells the truth. From the beginning of time incredible stories have occurred to teach important principles, not for Gods benefit but for ours. Important history and information are recorded in scriptural text passed down through generations including stories many find hard to believe. Things like Jonah being swallowed by a whale. Moses parting the Red Sea. Noah and the ark. Joseph Smith seeing God the Father and Jesus Christ. Stories hard to believe? For some. But just because something is hard to believe doesn’t mean it isn’t true.
Finding truth in what we believe is an individual journey. As temporal beings we often look for validation of truth to back up what we believe through scientific proof, things we can see, or something that absolutely makes sense. But we are not just temporal beings, we are spiritual beings as well. Spiritual truth and belief are often validated through personal effort, prayer, contemplation, study, and spiritual feelings that sometimes “passeth all our understanding” (Phillipians 4:7).
Belief is the acceptance, faith, or trust in something and often stems from the experiences of our environment to which we are most often exposed. The brain surveys situations and often attaches meaning and belief to something based on what it already knows or has experienced. In an effort to conserve energy the brain likes to be, let’s say, lazy. It will jump on the easiest way to define something versus trying to figure out something new. That impacts what we believe.
(https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/brainsnacks/201404/the-real-reason-we-believe-what-we-believe)
Illusionists and magicians know how to capitalize on the lazy brain to accomplish seemingly impossible things that entertain audiences and have us thinking, “How did they do that?” When the secret of the illusion or trick is disclosed the manipulation of the environment and brain is so simple and subtle it is hard to believe we missed it! What we believe expands and shifts as we gain more knowledge and truth.
All forms of social media, advertising, and news also employ methods of inundating our brains with what we think we need, want, are entertained by, or find intriguing, often exaggerating or leaving out important details to manipulate truth and belief.
Opinions and information abound and trying to find more than bits and pieces of truth may feel like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Truth has existed from the beginning of time and will continue to exist. God has given us agency to help us seek and find truth in our journey of belief.
God does not interfere with our agency. He does not love us any less if we choose something that takes us away from him and is always waiting for us if, and when we choose to come back to him. The wonderful thing about God is in our process of searching for what we believe, he is behind the scenes allowing us to grow and become more like him. He is patient and gives us every new day to try again.
Viktor Frankl, an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor, said in his book “Man’s Search for Meaning,”
“The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance.” ― Viktor E. Frankl
Quote by Viktor E. Frankl: “The one thing you can’t take away ...
www.goodreads.com/quotes/29837-the-one-thing-you-can-t-take-away-from-me-is
Life is full of challenges, confusion, and opportunity and a divine plan. God sent us here with purpose and a path to find our way back to him even through all the roadblocks and routes of mortality. He has given us loving direction to help us with life, including our mental health.
Mental health is a precious gift. For those of us who have or know someone who has diagnosed mental illness we know what a difficult and often cruel burden that is to carry for all involved. It can be hard to understand the complexities and purposes of mental illness or how it relates to Heavenly Father’s plan. Discouragement may set in which is a normal response to a heavy challenge. However, the natural resource of hope and agency are abundant and can help us find answers for managing personal mental health and ideas for how to support others in their challenges through Jesus Christ.
I sometimes think to help us be more compassionate God has given every person the mental health diagnosis of mortality. Because we are alive, we will all experience the push and pulls of emotional and mental challenges like it or not.
Research offers many ideas and methods for treating the symptoms of mental illness including the challenges of daily life. There are talented professionals in the field of mental health ready to help those who reach out. Prescribed medications may be helpful and can change lives in a profound way. We also have knowledge given to us from God through the scriptures to help us understand agency in our fight for growth and good mental health. Information given from God and often validated by research.
God has told us repeatedly life is going to be filled with afflictions, and often people who are trying their hardest to live good lives will have the most difficult things to manage. He includes multiple examples of the best of the best people having the worst of the worst trials.
In our challenges and trials believing in God and Jesus Christ is often the only lifeline that keeps people going. However, we may feel so tired and beat up believing becomes exhausting and discouraging. Wherever you are remember it is all just growth, and growing pains hurt!
Now as I always feel compelled to do, a little self-disclosure. I have questioned my sanity and too often believed less than encouraging and uplifting things about myself. I have experienced what I would define as a few traumatic experiences. I have been closely engaged with people who battle addiction and though addiction is not contagious the mindset is (this topic deserves its own post for a future day). And as all human beings I have experienced my fair share of pain. Often those things love to go hand in hand and feed off of one another. The consequence has been a distorted version of reality and the things I believe about myself, life, and even others.
The adversary capitalizes on those skewed beliefs and as the saying goes, what we focus on expands. Satan takes truth and mixes it with lies using our experiences against us. Before we know it we are giving our agency to him by believing what he is telling us without disputing or searching for further evidence to find truth. God and Jesus Christ use those things for our good, to grow us, and help us to know them better. Working through the hard things in an attitude of believing in a higher purpose eventually erases the distortions and helps us see clearly.
What do we learn from the scriptures to help us strengthen our mental health? I am on a mission to investigate and find out!
Number one in my investigation of scriptures for mental health is:
“Know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32)
What is true to you? What do you say to yourself? What do you believe about the world and others? What do you believe about past pain, trauma, and challenges? Is it true? Pray about it and find out for yourself.
The search for truth is often a continual process of discovery as we allow God to build and expand our perspective and knowledge. It requires commitment, patience, and effort, in pursuit of truth.
Satan hates truth and pulls out all the stops to distract us from it. He skillfully uses hard things to pull us away from God and into a world of despair. He tries to get us to believe the information we often find in the shadows of trauma, addictive mindset, and pain. Satan can have no power over what we believe unless we give it to him by allowing our lazy brains, and the natural man to run the show.
Mental health is a serious matter and Satan is having a hay day stirring us up. Most of us do not choose to be stressed, anxious, depressed, moody, angry, impatient, confused, traumatized, in pain, or any of the thousands of other mental health challenges that arise. We feel what we feel and think what we think even if others do not understand. But we do have the power of agency to decide what we do with what we think and feel.
God is amazing! He is not a people pleaser which can be a bit annoying and make it seem he is far away. He isn’t. God is a people perfector. His job is to “Bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” (Moses 1:39) That is us! He takes his job seriously which means he will not always give us what we want, but he will always give us what we need. The big question is do we believe that? The way we see the world, ourselves, and God all begins with what we choose to believe.
My intent is not to minimize the layers of why we believe what we do when it comes to the challenges we face with mental health. They are often extensive and changing our minds isn’t as easy as changing our shoes. But change in what we believe begins with believing we can.
God and Jesus Christ are in our yesterday, today, and tomorrow. They are in the details of our lives. They do not micromanage or demand we follow them, but they send out a daily invitation to come if we would like.
Life is complicated which is no surprise to God and in fact often because of him and that is not a sign he doesn’t love us but that he does. He is working on our behalf to bring us back to him. I believe God and Jesus Christ are working miracles in our lives every day. What we see in mortality is only a raindrop of information in a sea of eternal truth.
For some belief in a greater purpose comes easily. For others it may be much more difficult. God loves us all the same no matter where we are on the spectrum. God has given us freedom to believe and as we ask questions and gather truth from sources of light, we will find what we believe truly shapes what we do and contributes to what we become. It really is all up to us.
Life’s a battle! Keep fighting and Just Press On! It is worth the effort!