Grrnk Grrnk Grrnk Goes Mrs. Smucker's Can Opener

We Mennonites don’t like pride.

Or we say we don’t.

After all, pride goeth before destruction, God hates a proud look, and so on.

Pride manifests itself in various ways, we say.  Among these ways is being spiritually self-sufficient and arrogant, saying or thinking things like, “I don’t need my brothers and sisters to speak into my life.  I don’t need help with my personal issues.  Hey, just me and the Bible and the Holy Spirit, we can figure it out.  I don’t need anyone else’s input.”

Pride pride pride.  Tsk tsk.

“No no, you need to be humble,” we say.  “You need the brotherhood.  You need people with wisdom and experience to speak into your life.  Yes, you need the Word and the Holy Spirit, but you also need help from others.  Stop being so independent and self-sufficient.  What makes you think you can figure things out all by yourself? You’re not going to make it on your own.”

That's when someone is skipping church and questioning closed communion or the head covering.

But then one of us is struggling with depression or bipolar disorder, and suddenly the wind shifts.

“You don’t need help from all these supposed experts,” we are told.  “God has given you everything you need in the Bible.  Hey, just you and your Bible and the Holy Spirit.  That’s all you need.  Pray about it.  Repent of your sin.  Figure it out.  ‘We are given all things that pertain to life and Godliness.’ ‘Great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them.’  Why are you looking to people for help when you have God’s Word?  You don’t need all this other stuff.”

What??

If God hates pride, then surely He hates it in this manifestation as well.

I may soon be trying to solder the lid back on the can of worms I opened here, since this is such a volatile issue among certain churches.

On Tuesday night I spoke at a fundraiser for NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness.  I had never heard of them until they asked me to speak, so I visited their office in Eugene to get more information.

And I wished I had known about them a long time ago.

They are a national organization run mostly by volunteers.  Their primary approach to mental illness is a huge emphasis on information and support.  They offer classes, referrals, support groups, and much more.  Much of it is offered by people who have lived with mental illness or dealt with it in a family member.

I could have used many of their resources in the past, with some of my own issues and also with parenting a young adult with depression.  It would have meant a lot less floundering before we finally found some answers.

I gathered that NAMI’s focus is more on peer support than on professional intervention or throwing medicine at a problem, although they are not averse to either if needed.

I thought: if anyone would be educated about mental illness and the healing power of support, brotherhood and fellowship, it ought to be the church.

And yes, I see you there, waving your hand in the air.  You're going to say that SEE, we have all the resources we need in the church.  We don't need counselors and stuff.

Well.  To that I would say, "We as a denomination are not informed and equipped."

And I would tell you to go read Proverbs and all the admonitions to listen to people wiser than you. It doesn't say listen to Grandma who has life wisdom but not to Aunt Barb who's a psychiatrist.  It says, listen to the wise.

I have been helped by counselors, by doctors, by friends who listened, by a wise husband, by children who cut through the fog and clarified things.  I benefited by listening to wisdom, especially if it was accompanied by care and support.

This is not for a minute to discount the fact that healing comes from God.  Or the power of prayer and reading the Word.  The most healing thing ever was when a counselor showed me how Jesus can heal That wound. And He did.  

I’ve found that so much of people's responses depends on what they've experienced.

My observation has been that the most voluble and thoroughly-convinced mental-illness-is-a-sin-problem, anti-counselling, anti-medication, anti-psychiatry folks have never been hammered with mental illness.

Once people have experienced mental illness in themselves or someone they love, they speak with the gentle, careful words of the humble and wounded.  “I don’t have a lot of answers,” they say, “But I will be here for you while you walk through this.”

If you care to comment, please be kind.