The good life

Posted by admin on Nov 18, 2008 in Issues & Ideas | 0 comments

While I am certainly a strong proponent of mental health and probably more sensitized to the issue than most – my dad is a psychologist and my mom is a teacher who works with special needs kids – I wonder about how much emphasis it is given.

It seems to me that, by and large, society as a whole equates salvation with good mental health, along with a large bank account. The high priests and priestesses of modern culture are psychologists and mental health experts. The pope is Oprah. The bible, her magazine.

Yet, despite all the focus given mental health the results don’t look good. By some estimates depression and anxiety has risen by 600 per cent over the last 100 years. A recent estimate puts lost productivity due to absence from stress and burnout at 51 billion dollars in Canada alone. Despite all the brilliant insights afforded us by modern social science we, in the words of Anton Chekov, are not living well.

I can’t help but wonder if part of the problem is the way we conceptualize and define mental health. Not just with our words and theories, but with the way we live. In her poem, Feeling Blue? Lois Cheney gets to the very heart of the problem:

Feeling blue?
Buy some clothes.
Feeling lonely?
Turn on the radio.
Feeling despondent?
Read a funny book.
Feeling bored?
Watch TV.
Feeling empty?
Eat a sundae.
Feeling worthless?
Clean the house.
Feeling sad?
Tell a joke.
Ain’t this modern age wonderful?
You don’t gotta feel nothin’,
There’s a substitute for everythin’!
God have mercy on us!

The approach to modern life as outlined in this poem stands in stark contrast to the poem found in Ecclesiaties 3:

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to be speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

In God’s economy there is a season for everything. Not just some things: the things we like and the things that make us feel good. Everything! The good and the bad. The easy and the tough. Yet our culture does not embrace this concept. Suffering is bad. Depression and grief are things we treat with pills. To agonize or feel pain means you are excluded from the good life. And we are not immune to this thinking as Christians. Too often we have rejected the health and wealth gospel with our mouths, but embraced it with our lives. Too often we have equated our Lord’s invitation to the life abundant with living the good life.

I do not want to be cavalier or dismissive of the social sciences, or of the good work done by psychologists, psychiatrists and mental health practitioners. Nor am I suggesting that mental illness is simple and easily remedied. I am the daughter of a psychologist and have been eyewitness to the devastation and complexity of mental illness. I have seen how hard and painful it is for those who struggle with depression and anxiety and phobia. I am not suggesting they just need to get right with the Lord as some Christians have done. I do not want to be one of Job’s friends. But we dare not just put our faith in psychology as our cure all. We need something more. We need meaning and purpose, and we find this in our faith.

One of the most serious mental issues of our day is stress and burnout. This leads to a host of problems, which notably include anxiety and depression. Yet research has shown that individuals who have found great meaning and significance in what they are doing can withstand huge amounts of stress without experiencing its negative effects. Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa are shining examples of this truth.

Perhaps some of the 600 per cent increase in anxiety and depression is a result of a culture that has lost its faith and lost its way. We take pills to feel better, when perhaps what we need to do is find purpose and meaning in our lives that will actually help us to live better. And this is where we as Christians are so fortunate. Our gracious God has not only given profound meaning to our lives, but He has also shown us the way to live it out. God’s answer to feeling blue is: Well, that is part of the journey. It’s one of the seasons, but keep on journeying. Keep living and living more fully. Experience life in its fullness. And know that I am with you every step of the way. That is what I think the life abundant is. And it might just be better than settling for mental health.