Six Helpful Things to Do - Pt 1

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. (1 Corinthians 13:1-8 ESV).

Thanks to science, education and outspoken advocates, there is less of a stigma surrounding mental illness than ever before. However, the statistics are at an alarming high in our culture. Poor mental health affects almost 20% of adults each year in the United States alone. While there are more than 200 different diagnosed mental illnesses, there are five major categories that most conditions fall within: mood disorders, which create painful mental and physical symptoms along with feelings that go outside the normal variations of happiness or sadness; anxiety disorders, which occur when an individual experiences excessive panic or fear that interferes with their everyday life; eating disorders, which are marked by either a severe reduction in eating, extreme overeating or binge eating, along with excessive anxiety related to weight or body image; dementia which is characterized by a quick change in cognitive abilities; and, schizophrenic or psychotic disorders, which are almost always caused by chemical imbalances in the brain that create a variety of symptoms, like hallucinations, delusions, withdrawal, impaired reasoning and incoherent speech. Today I want to call our attention to some practical things that we can do within the community of faith to help those with these complicated illnesses. First, I must say that I am assuming that you are not a professional counselor/psychiatrist and that the person so affected is under the care of such a professional. These suggestions are simply things that anyone can and should do to help. As you will see, they are common sense actions that we do for every other illness within our community of faith, but somehow tragically fail to do in regard to those with mental illness. The first is to simply be patient and kind. That’s the impact of our reading today. This principle is obvious but not easy. We might do well with those who are like us, but we are slow to be patient with those we don’t understand. Patience and kindness are not scared away by eccentricities, differences, or complicated problems. Love and kindness includes others and assimilates them in the larger family of the church, where peculiarities abound. This simple action goes a long way in the healing process.