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features VOL.23 | NO.4 | JULY-AUGUST 2014

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Faith and Mental Illness

BY MI CHA E L S. HO RTO N

Bear One Another’s Burdens

BY A NO NYM O US

Life and Death in the Valley of the Shadow

BY SI MO NET TA CA RR

Living with Mental Illness A CO NVE RSAT I O N with JE D PA S CHAL L

Caring for Those in Distress

BY CRA I G MA RSHA LL

COVER AND ABOVE ILLUSTRATIONS: THE FIRST OF THE BLOTS OF THE RORSCHACH INKBLOT TEST, BY HERMANN RORSCHACH (1921)

MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

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Know What You Believe and Why You Believe It. BRINGING THE RICH RESOURCES OF THE REFORMATION TO THE HALLWAY OF MERE CHRISTIANITY. C. S. Lewis famously remarked that “mere Christianity” is like a hallway where real conversations between Christians of different convictions can begin and develop over time as we emerge from our various rooms to speak of Christ and his gospel to one another. For twenty years, White Horse Inn has hosted this conversation both on our radio show, White Horse Inn, and in our magazine, Modern Reformation.

TO L E A R N M OR E , O R BR OW SE O UR R ADIO AND MAG AZI N E ARCHI VE S, VISIT US AT W H I T E HORSE IN N.ORG.

departments 04 05 10 14

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

BY RYA N G LO MSRUD

INTERVIEW ››

Caring for Body and Soul Q& A with H A RO LD SE NK BE I L

THEOLOGY ›› Through the Looking Glass:

The Identity of Women in the Image of God

BY BRO O K E VE NT URA A ND A MY AL EXAN D ER

THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD ››

The Light of Dawn

BY Z ACH K E E LE

45 52

BOOK REVIEWS

56

BACK PAGE ››

ALBE RS, ME LLE R, A ND THURB E R, PL ESS, AN D WEL L S

William Cowper: Depression and the Art of Hymn Writing

GEEK SQUAD ››

BY BA RB D UG UI D

Jonathan Carr 1993–2014 Editor-in-Chief Michael S. Horton Executive Editor Ryan Glomsrud Managing Editor Patricia Anders Assistant Editor Brooke Ventura Marketing Director Michele Tedrick Design Director José Reyes for Metaleap Creative, metaleapcreative.com Department Editors Ryan Glomsrud (Letter from the Editor & Reviews), Michael S. Horton Designers Tiffany Forrester, Harold Velarde, Ashley Shugart Copy Editor Elizabeth Isaac Proofreader Ann Smith Modern Reformation © 2014 All rights reserved. ISSN-1076-7169 Modern Reformation (Subscription Department) P.O. Box 460565 Escondido, CA 92046 (855) 492-1674 info@modernreformation.org www.modernreformation.org Subscription Information US 1 YR $32. 2 YR $58. US 3 YR $78. Digital Only 1 YR $25. US Student 1 YR $26. Canada add $8 per year for postage. Foreign add $9 per year for postage.

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LETTER from the EDITOR

I

RYAN GLOMSRUD executive editor

N THE BEGINNING God created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them. He created man in his image, male and female, body and soul. We are remarkable creatures in this, the very pinnacle of God’s creative work, as spiritual beings with blood coursing through our veins. We are capable of faith and cell reproduction, praise, prayer, and complicated, sometimes even delicate, emotional lives. According to theologians and philosophers, we are psychosomatic unities; according to the Scriptures, we are fearfully and wonderfully made.

At the outset of this issue of Modern Reformation, it is appropriate to cast our minds back to the original goodness of God’s creation, because in these pages we go on to acknowledge the full extent and effect of the Fall on our mental health.

We were created upright in righteousness and holiness, of sound body and mind, but Adam’s disobedience tore asunder what God had otherwise joined together. The reality is that in this life under the sun we are now not just prone to sin but to complete psychological breakdown. But this is not how things are supposed to be, nor how they always will be.

In evangelicalism today, faith and mental health is something of an elephant in the room.

We all know someone—we may even be that someone—who suffers from the disorienting

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effect of the Fall on our whole person. The pastors we canvassed spoke readily of this fact, and you’ll read their testimonies throughout the feature articles. It’s time then to address this topic in the open, and for that reason we believe that this is an important issue of Modern Reformation. Please consider giving a copy of the magazine away to a friend or pastor.

These pages are filled with theological insights, because having the right biblical categories, according to Michael Horton, is crucial for sorting through the myriad challenges posed by mental health for the church. We include an interview with Harold Senkbeil, a Lutheran pastor and scholar who trains others in spiritual care. Brooke Ventura and Amy Alexander reflect on the way modern culture can often enable our pathologies, and Zach Keele turns our thoughts to the resurrection of our Lord. The issue is brimming with stories and practical advice: there is an example of soul care from an anonymous pastor; a reflection from a mother, Simonetta Carr, about her faith and her son’s sickness; firsthand testimony from Jed Paschall of what it is to live with mental illness; as well as advice from a counselor, Craig Marshall, and a reflection from author and counselor Barb Duguid on the poet William Cowper.

They candidly discuss faith and eating disorders, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression.

Their stories will move you to tears, offer comfort from Scripture, and even inspire you to engage in the life of the community of faith in new ways as we seek to love one another in Christ.

Jesus came to heal the sick, not those who are well. In this, his power is on display in and through our weakness, as he sustains us and works to bring about the redemption of our whole persons, body and soul. He keeps us in his tender care, and the sufferings of this present age are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us on the great day of salvation.

INTERVIEW

CARING FOR

Body and Soul Q&A with HAROLD SENKBEIL

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R

INTERVIEW

E V. H A R O L D S E N K B E I L is a member of the

board of directors and executive director of Doxology: The Lutheran Center for Spiritual Care and Counsel, as well as the author of numerous books including Dying to Live: The Power of Forgiveness and Sanctification: Christ in Action.

Tell us about the work you do at Doxology.

a. After thirty-one years in the parish, it

was my privilege to serve as a seminary professor for six years at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne. Then, in 2008, I retired. My wife always jokingly says that I retired into full-time work. But I’m now serving at this nonprofit organization called Doxology, and we offer continuing education seminars for pastors in the area of advanced skills for pastoral care. My colleague, Dr. Beverly Yahnke, is a licensed clinical psychologist, so she brings the insights of Christian psychology into caring for people, while I handle the spiritual side of things.

We often hear pastors say that they learned a lot in seminary about the Bible and distinguishing heresy from orthodoxy, but that they weren’t really trained to be able to detect bipolar disorder or chemical imbalances. Are you working at that intersection, trying to bring body and soul together, as it were?

a.

Of course, we want to respect all of the specialized skills in terms of caring for people. The simple fact is that pastors are neither licensed nor equipped to make the kinds of diagnoses that you’re talking about, nor are we for that matter brain surgeons or kidney specialists, either. We want to assist pastors to use their explicitly God-given talents and skills and apply them to the needs of all people, no matter what kinds of dysfunctions or illnesses they may be suffering from. We’re not trying to make

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psychologists out of pastors, but we’re trying to make pastors better pastors, to be more alert and sensitive to the needs of the people to whom they are ministering.

In other words, training pastors to know when to refer someone to a mental health specialist or professional.

a. Right, and we certainly do give them a clearer understanding of when it’s time to refer someone to a specialist.

PHYSICIANS OF THE SOUL Let’s explore some general types of cases a pastor might encounter—for example, counseling someone who struggles with depression and other related issues. As a pastor, your call is to soul care. Obviously we’re psychosomatic unities, so we’re body and soul; we’re not ghosts in machines.

But it seems the line can be fuzzy between body and soul. How do you know when someone has a spiritual problem, and when they might be suffering from something chemical or physical?

a.

I think the danger is in trying to zero in on one scenario or the other. The reality is that we’re complex beings, and sometimes chemical imbalances or behavioral influences are involved. Luther says that one of the greatest temptations of the devil is misbelief: when a person embraces false understandings of who they are in God’s kingdom, that’s going to influence them in multiple ways. The bottom line is

that we want pastors to be alert to all the symptoms—not react just to the symptoms, but to use their God-given vocation to accurately discern what’s happening spiritually with any individual.

As the person begins to receive specialized help from a clinical psychologist or medical physician, the pastor should maintain a connection with that individual and continue to provide spiritual care.

need to be used with competence, intelligence, and integrity, and they would always have to come under the judgment of the word of God. Just as a pastor would refer someone with a broken leg to a medical physician, so someone who was dealing with chronic depression needs to be referred to a licensed clinician. But, of course, they are not all created equal, are they? It’s therefore vital that the pastor know which competent clinicians he can

So pastors are specialists in their own right, but not specialists in chemical disorders.

a.

Precisely. Actually the longer heritage of pastoral care calls pastors “physicians of souls.” My understanding is that the term “physician” was used in the spiritual dimension long before it was used in the biological or physical dimension.

And that involves accurate diagnosis and responsible treatment. The reality is that since we are fallen human beings, the law and the gospel need to be applied to every individual, no matter what their circumstance.

Even when they’re in comparatively good health, be that physically or mentally, they still need spiritual care. This is an ongoing reality for every Christian.

“WE’RE NOT TRYING TO MAKE PSYCHOLOGISTS OUT OF PASTORS, BUT WE’RE TRYING TO MAKE PASTORS BETTER PASTORS.”

When it comes to psychological issues, rooted not in chemical imbalance but perhaps in early trauma or abuse of some kind, do you think that professional psychologists can be of value? Not just psychiatrists, but psychologists? Or do you think those fields are working too much on non-Christian assumptions?

a.

The reality is that all of these fields have developed in terms of their unique science in understanding the nature of the human being, be it biological or mental, emotional, or whatever dimension of their life. These fields I would understand as gifts of God, and of course they

refer to with confidence. I think that means sitting down with people in his community, interviewing them, and understanding their spiritual point of view. Sadly, sometimes people who advertise themselves as specializing in Christian psychology may come from an inadequate knowledge of their field of psychology, or, sadly, just as often they come with a skewed understanding of the Scriptures and the Christian faith. And in that case, I would say it would be more useful to have a thorough-going secularist who is simply honest MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

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and open to the area of spiritual care done by the pastor, rather than exposing that parishioner to someone who is going to lead them astray, spiritually speaking.

SOUND THEOLOGY AND MENTAL HEALTH This can happen even with professionals trained in a seminary context, where an unhealthy theology is introduced into the equation.

a.

Sound doctrine is healthy teaching— teaching that leads to health. That’s the kind of approach we need when we’re teaching the faith and ministering to people.

I think that part of the tension is that if you have a broken leg, you don’t really care if the nurse or doctor who sets it is an atheist or a Mormon; but when it comes to issues involving psychiatry or psychoanalysis, there seems to be an overlap with spiritual care. We ask ourselves where we’re going to find someone who can be a counterpart to us as pastors, someone who is not going to work against our attempt to minister the law and the gospel to the ill person.

a. That’s very true. Of course, that’s where

knowledge of the professionals in your area is important, and also consulting with trusted colleagues. Perhaps there’s an adjudicatory from one’s own denomination who has experience with area counselors and therapists, or also some trusted colleagues from another denomination. I think that’s always good and useful information. There’s nothing like actually sitting down with a therapist and asking pointed questions about how they understand the place of faith related to a person’s mental and emotional health, and how they would proceed. For example, have they had any experience working on a consulting basis with members of the clergy? In most cases, I would highly recommend that the individual you refer grant you permission to consult periodically with the therapist, providing some assistance to the therapist regarding the patient’s spiritual treatment, and vice versa— what symptoms are arising in the context of the psychological care that would be of use to you as a physician of souls?

So that your ministry of absolution to a sinner isn’t working against someone who is telling them that sin isn’t even involved in the first place.

“THE TERM ‘PHYSICIAN’ WAS USED IN THE SPIRITUAL DIMENSION LONG BEFORE IT WAS USED IN THE BIOLOGICAL OR PHYSICAL DIMENSION. AND THAT INVOLVES ACCURATE DIAGNOSIS AND RESPONSIBLE TREATMENT.… THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL NEED TO BE APPLIED TO EVERY INDIVIDUAL, NO MATTER WHAT THEIR CIRCUMSTANCE.” 8

a. Precisely. Or certainly that the therapist

would take it upon himself or herself to be the one who does the absolving when that’s out of their sphere of reference, or they’re not really authorized in that area, either. That was an interesting point in my earliest conversation with Dr. Yahnke.

I asked her, “How does your work as a clinical psychologist differ from mine as a pastor?” And she said, almost without batting an eye, “That’s easy: you deal with the forgiveness of sins.” So I knew we were on to something.

What do you think about the state of Christian counseling and its many varieties?

a.

I thank God for Christian counselors. As I mentioned, I’m privileged to work with one of the very best right now. I pray that there would be many other men and women who go into this field and learn all they can in state-ofthe-art research into cognitive and behavioral

therapy. I think that’s probably the most beneficial approach that can be gained in the area of Christian psychology. And at the same time, these individuals should have a thorough grounding in Holy Scripture and Christian doctrine. Frankly, there are very few competent programs for training such individuals. My colleague, Dr. Yahnke, had to strike out on her own to get the full dimension in terms of her training in both science and theology. It would be wonderful if there were graduate schools that would produce such individuals. There are some, but not as many as we need. As I mentioned earlier, just because people identify themselves as Christian counselors, this doesn’t in itself indicate that they are people to whom we can refer with confidence. We have to interview them to understand what they have come to believe regarding the intersection of psychology and the spiritual life, and most importantly, how they would proceed in a given case and a consulting relationship with a Christian pastor.

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THEOLOGY

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS THE IDENTITY OF WOMEN IN THE IMAGE OF GOD

A

by BROOKE VENTURA and AMY ALEXANDER

few years ago, a friend of Brooke’s bought her a copy of the highly entertaining and educational Make the Bread, Buy the Butter

by Jennifer Reese. It’s a cookbook written by a laid-off suburbanite-turned-food-blogger about her three-year journey to save some money by making all the food she would normally buy (such as cheese, prosciutto, marinara, and corn dogs).

Reese is a fantastic storyteller, but there are two pages where she indirectly muses on female vocation that makes her pause with bemused frustration. She writes:

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I opened Laurel’s Kitchen recently, for the first time in twenty-five years....I started reading. Was I hallucinating? Had I really once loved this book? Interspersed between the paeans to the glory of homemade bread and recipes for cashew gravy were meditations on the nature of women that struck me as so essentialist and retrograde that they might have come from a fundamentalist religious sect. “I would never go on record as saying ‘a woman’s place is in the home,’” wrote one of the authors. “But to my mind the most effective front for social change, PHOTOGRAPH BY IVANA STAR BARBIE IS A TRADEMARK OF MATTEL, INC.

“MILLENNIALS HAVE BEEN RAISED WITH THE IDEA THAT ‘HAVING IT ALL’ IS NOT ONLY POSSIBLE, BUT AN ENTIRELY REASONABLE EXPECTATION.” the critical point where our efforts will count the most, is not in business or profession...but in the home and community, where the problems start.”

Two hundred pages later, Reese writes the following: I didn’t want to play any games of Candy Land, ever, so we’d have dinner and then I’d pour a glass of wine and Isabel and I would bake cakes or cookies or scones, sometimes all three, while Owen played with his trains at our feet. I’d have another glass of wine, and though I thought I was very unlucky to be stuck at home alone with small children every night, it was actually very merry....I don’t remember being particularly contented in those years, but now I look back at those nights standing around the mixer as some of the happiest of my life.

If some of the happiest evenings of her life involved cooking with her children (i.e., being a mom), why disdain the notion that the most valuable and rewarding work that women do is in the home? Or does she find repugnant the notion that the home is the best place a woman can work? We’re not sure which—maybe neither. Human nature is not obliged to be consistent, and having conflicting feelings about domestic and vocational roles isn’t uncommon these days.

Quite the contrary—living without any tension between duty and desire is what is unusual. In a time when young women have been encouraged to take their places in the university, boardroom, and laboratory before considering marriage and family,

it’s little wonder that so many of them slightly resent the infringement on time, resources, and energy that families require. Unlike the Greatest Generation (their grandparents) and the Boomers (their parents), Millennials have been raised with the idea that “having it all” is not only possible, but an entirely reasonable expectation. Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest (those great engines of image-crafting) have nurtured this ideal, as we see more and more cases of “real people” successfully integrating personal passion and family responsibility.

We’re surrounded by “real life” examples of women who have turned disadvantaged upbringings into Rhodes scholarships and estate sale garbage into Restoration Hardware glories. Consequently, it’s a bit frustrating when we enter the workplace, log fifty hours a week, and don’t get the promotion.

Looking at the beautifully arranged and carefully lit photographs on a blog, it’s bewildering how a meal/ craft/home can look so effortlessly stylish, and yet cost us hours of tears, aggravation, and increasingly limited time.

We’re continually encouraged and affirmed by advertisers, bloggers, and celebrities that we can have (and be!) it all; but in the wake of harsh reality checks and overblown expectations, we become disappointed in ourselves and dissatisfied with who we are. In the midst of deflated ideals and unrealized expectations, where do we go? If we’re not all called to positions of honor and prestige in society (and most of us aren’t), then what are we called to? We know we’re not cosmic, biological accidents—the Father himself knitted us together in our mothers’ wombs. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, but what for? If we take away the titles of daughter, sister, wife, mother, student, athlete, employee, and executive, how do we define womanhood?

L ET U S MA KE MA N We’re told that on the sixth day of creation, God created both men and women in his image (Gen. 1:27 ESV). Although this image has been distorted and perverted by sin, it remains—however we may appear to others or to ourselves—that all of us are ultimately image-bearers. This is a title that cannot be taken away: an identity that has no grounding in our conception of who we are and as such affords MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

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THEOLOGY

us great comfort and joy when we are disappointed with ourselves and degraded by others.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism and the Heidelberg Catechism point out that the image of God includes knowledge, righteousness, and holiness (WSC 10, HC 6). God commanded Adam and Eve to know what obedience he required and to fulfill it in holy living, the purpose of which was so “that he [man] might rightly know God his Creator, heartily love Him, and live with Him in eternal blessedness to praise and glorify Him.” In other words, the point of obedience and holiness was the eternal worship and love of the Creator.

Even though Adam and Eve knew the command of God, they failed to keep to his standard of holiness, marring the image they bore. In the fullness of time, Christ came as the second Adam to keep God’s commandments in perfect holiness and to pay the penalty for our sins. For Christians who receive Jesus’ righteousness by faith, the fallen image of God is being renewed as we are conformed to the image of Christ.

In a society that elevates personal transformation and self-fulfillment as the ultimate virtues, it’s not surprising that this announcement falls flat.

Being told that you already have an identity (which you didn’t create) and a purpose (which you didn’t choose) isn’t a message that’s going to be greeted with enthusiastic affirmation. This is the age of the selfie: you choose the wardrobe, make-up, hair, setting, mood, lighting, and filter. No one chooses it for you. You are the central focus of the picture; you are the subject and the goal.

In a time when many women reach adulthood frustrated because of unhappy families, disappointing relationships, and a culture that relentlessly lobs everything from fitness regimes to fashion blogs to food promising to help them on their quest for transformation, the desire to improve ourselves is understandable. Who doesn’t want to lay down her baggage, exorcise her demons, or simply be something other than the ordinary woman she is?

The problem with this solution is that it’s not a solution at all. When we turn from our grief and sin to ourselves, we’re asking for more grief and

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exacerbating our sin. We aren’t the answer to our problem; we are the problem. It’s not the idea of self-improvement per se that’s necessarily bad; it’s believing that we have it within us to make ourselves essentially better, thinking that selfimprovement will lead to ultimate justification.

This is why our identity as image-bearers is so important and so comforting. We know who we are and, more importantly, who we’re for. We are grounded, centered, and secure in the knowledge that we have been fearfully and wonderfully made by loving hands for the glorious purpose of worshipping our creator. We don’t have to win accolades or make our lives count—Christ has already won the Father’s approval for us; our lives already count because we are beloved of the Father and kept for Jesus Christ. We’re not missing God’s will for our lives by accepting our identity in Christ over the identity we make for ourselves. On the contrary, we assume the easy burden and light yoke of our Savior and cast off the chains that shackle us to society’s approbation and acclaim.

S LOW A ND ST E A DY, ST E A DY A ND SLOW Our identity as image-bearers is hard to understand and takes all our lives to comprehend; but if we want to rightly understand what it means be a woman, it’s the only place to begin. We can clear out our RSS feed and turn off our iPads, but we know our wayward hearts will still look for other “better” ways to establish who we are and be all we can be.

It would be nice if all we had to do was profess faith in Christ and watch our sin dissolve into thin air, but that doesn’t seem to be the way it works.

While it’s definitely encouraging to hear stories of people being granted overnight victory in their war with drugs, profanity, or fornication, most of us continue to struggle long after the shackles are removed. Our sinful inclinations remain, and the truth is that we like the false freedom that satisfies our appetites for earthly joys and

“IT’S NOT THE IDEA OF SELFIMPROVEMENT PER SE THAT’S NECESSARILY BAD; IT’S BELIEVING THAT WE HAVE IT WITHIN US TO MAKE OURSELVES ESSENTIALLY BETTER, THINKING THAT SELFIMPROVEMENT WILL LEAD TO ULTIMATE JUSTIFICATION.” the approval of man. In the face of such daunting odds, we forget that the Holy Spirit is stronger than our natural inclinations and that we’re no longer enslaved to our sin.

This is why, at the beginning of the week, we stop what we’re doing and go to church. It’s there—in communion with our fellow pilgrims, under the preaching of the law and the gospel—that we are reminded of who we are and who we are made for.

We’re convicted by the reading of the law, relieved by the proclamation of the gospel, and assured by the tangible elements of bread and wine that Christ is always with us by his Holy Spirit. We’re reminded that neither angels nor demons, principalities nor powers, our own devious hearts nor the sweet, persuasive words of our culture will separate us from the love of the Father. Wherever we are, however we’re feeling, God has promised to meet us there, in the preaching of his word and in our participation of the sacrament, to comfort our tired hearts and grant us what we need to live lives pleasing to him as new creations in Christ.

It’s also why, on Monday morning, as we answer texts or corral the children, we pray for the grace to remember that whether or not our efforts for our office or our family are recognized, every good work we do is accepted by our Father for Christ’s sake.

When we go to God in prayer—frustrated, tired, and longing for relief from our daily struggles—it

is a comfort to know not only that he is pleased to hear us, but also that our elder brother (who has shared in all our grief and sorrow) is himself actively interceding for us to the Father. We never pray alone; even when we sit in silence at a loss for words, the Holy Spirit himself is there, praying on our behalf.

Mindful of our weakness and frailty, the awesome majesty of the Triune God stands ready to help us because of the great love of the Father poured out on us in the Son. As the week rolls by and our errors stack up, we remember that this is a lifelong process. The Christian life is a journey, not an instantaneous arrival—it’s expected that the hike will get tiresome and difficult and the road ahead hard to see.

The Heidelberg Catechism tells us that even the holiest of God’s children make only a small beginning in their conformity to Christ’s image, so we ought to tailor our expectations accordingly, and not think so highly of our holiness that we unconsciously set standards we’re unable to meet. When we’re oppressed by our sins and discouraged by our failed attempts at godliness, we remember that this is why we “constantly and diligently pray to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit, so that more and more we may be renewed in the image of God, until we attain the goal of full perfection after this life.”

Therein lie our hope and joy: full perfection after this life. Amid the dull plodding and frustrations that sometimes characterize our earthly pilgrimage, we rejoice in the certainty that our victory over the sin that so easily weighs us down is absolutely, irrevocably won. The day will surely come when we see the realization of that decided triumph and the fulfillment of all we long for in Christ. We know we shall see him face to face—not as ethereal spirits, but in resurrected and glorified bodies, free from our sin and frailty, the marvelous image of our God made perfect in our once-broken and imperfect forms. We will see with our own eyes the ultimate unity of who we are with what we were made for, no longer as sure revelation but as triumphant fulfillment. “For now we see through a mirror dimly, but then face to face.

Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Cor. 13:12).

Brooke Ventura is assistant editor of Modern Reformation.

Amy Alexander is a PhD student at St. Louis University.

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THE

G R E AT E ST STORY EVER TOLD

The New Testament

PART IV

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T H E L I G H T O F D AW N

by ZACH KEELE

“

W

E E P I N G M AY TA R R Y for the night, but joy

comes with the morning” (Ps. 30:5). On the chilly nights of our pilgrimage, this promise—for which David praises the Lord—is an electric blanket for our faith. With it, the Lord assures us that his faithfulness endures forever and that his mercies are new every morning. Yet, when the nights of our suffering grow long, believing this promise is not so easy.

Suicide, car accidents, overdoses—how can joy ever pierce these dark nights? Sin and evil tragedies can cloud not just our days, but our months and years. The fog of depression refuses to let the morning dawn. Some evils are so horrendous that they murder the hope of joy. This was the shadow that covered the disciples on the Sabbath when Jesus was dead in the grave.

In the death of our Lord, the disciples lost much more than a beloved friend. The disciples’ faith had embraced Jesus as the Messiah, their Savior. Peter confessed that no one else had the words of life (John 6:68). After being freed from seven demons, Mary Magdalene would not turn from following Jesus. James and John were counting down the days to sit at the right and left hands of Jesus. But with his crucifixion and burial, all these hopes were dashed.

The disciples’ weak faith and misunderstanding erased any expectation of resurrection. What else were they to think at Jesus’ death? It was all over.

Death was the great finale. Death sealed everything

in an unrecoverable past. There were no resurrections in the books of the law and prophets from which they could draw hope. Therefore, as the first day of the week dawns, the disciples were convinced that the sun was not going to shine.

Yet the same grief that smothered the disciples’ faith inflamed their love. With the Sabbath over, Mary Magdalene could not even wait for the sun to rise (John 20:1). She had to mourn for her Lord, to be next to him, even if it was just his corpse. So in the early hours of the morning, Mary set off for the tomb.

But upon arrival she encountered the worst imaginable sight: the stone was rolled away. Mary’s bruised MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

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love could read this only one way—“They took Jesus’ body.” Maybe thieves stole him; maybe the authorities moved him to the common grave for criminals. Did it really matter? All Mary had left of Jesus was taken. Her dismay did not even give her permission to look inside the tomb. Instead, she ran. She sprinted to get help. Her report to Peter and the beloved disciple was a demand to help her find Jesus. The news set them off like gunpowder.

With a sprint, John was at the tomb in no time flat.

He looked inside and saw the empty grave clothes.

Huffing and puffing, Peter brought up the rear and charged into the tomb. All he found were empty grave clothes and a folded up shroud. But no one would move a body and leave these behind. Mary could not be right.

Such obvious signs of resurrection, however, did not penetrate the disciples’ sorrow. The beloved disciple saw and believed, but this was explicitly not faith in the resurrection (John 20:9). John remembered what Jesus said at the Last Supper, that he was going to the Father.

This was what John believed: Jesus went up to be with the Father, and John was not going to see him anymore. The cloud of sorrow blinded their eyes to the morning joy of the resurrection.

This is clear because Peter and John just went home. They did not tell Mary the view inside the tomb. Limping in depression, Peter and John abandoned Mary bawling at the tomb with her mistaken theory. A lot of help these men were!

Mary’s love, however, did not give up. She would not budge until she found Jesus, and she accepted no substitutes. Mary finally peered in the tomb and saw two angels. Most people, if they see an angel, react. Angels typically drop people to their knees, but not Mary. Instead, she bossed them around. There was no mistake about her implication: “You better help me find my Lord.” Mary’s love must be satisfied.

And then the Lord himself came to comfort her.

Mary sensed something behind her. She turned, she looked, and, behold, there stood Jesus. Dead men do not stand. Jesus stands! But in her sorrow, she did not recognize the very Lord she was seeking. Even when Jesus questioned her, she could

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“MARY’S LOVE EXPLODED IN FAITH AS SHE CRIED, ‘RABBONI !’” not see past her tears. Jesus even lured Mary to say his name: “Whom do you seek?” But Mary’s tongue only found pronouns, pointing at the tomb, “Him…him…him” (John 20:15). Yet Jesus did not grow impatient. As the Good Shepherd, he said her name, “Mary.” The risen Shepherd called by name and his sheep recognized his voice. In the saying of her name, scales fell from her eyes. Mary received back her Savior. Mary’s love exploded in faith as she cried, “Rabboni!” John honored her by not translating her cry. If someone is bilingual, in times of extreme emotion, they always revert to their birth language.

Can you imagine being reunited with a dead loved one? To feel their warm touch again, to gaze into their eyes and to hear their laugh; this would be almost too much to take in. But this is precisely what Mary received, and not just from a loved one, but from her Lord and Savior. He who died now lived and would be alive forevermore. Death was swallowed up through his death and resurrection.

Grief ’s obituary has been written. In his resurrected glory, Jesus Christ showered the light of his undying joy upon Mary.

The greatest story has received the best imaginable ending. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is our morning joy. It is Christ’s resurrection, and Christ’s resurrection alone, that reminds us that our present long nights do not compare to the eternal day to come.

Zach Keele is pastor of Escondido Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Escondido, California.

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FAITH AND MENTAL ILLNESS

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BEAR ONE ANOTHER’S BURDENS

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LIFE AND DEATH IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW

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LIVING WITH MENTAL ILLNESS

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CARING FOR THOSE IN DISTRESS

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FAITH MENTAL ILLNESS AN D

by MICHAEL S. HORTON

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survey by LifeWay Research, one-third of Americans agree that “prayer and Bible study alone can overcome serious mental illness.” Nearly half (48 percent) of evangelicals agree. 1 Why on earth would Modern Reformation imagine that it had something important to say, from a distinctly Reformation perspective, on mental illness? That was a big question we discussed in our editorial meeting. By the end, though, after sharing our own experiences, the answer became clear. To the extent that evangelical attitudes reflect theological imbalances—and even errors—we think we have something indeed to contribute.

CCORDING TO A 2013

Like their neighbors, Christians acknowledge that people suffering from cancer, AIDS, migraines, or cerebral palsy are still responsible for their actions.

Their suffering does not entitle them to hatred, selfloathing, or the mistreatment of others. And yet, we allow room. With even a modicum of sympathy, we recognize they are miserable in ways that are not just limited to their physical distress. First, we want to relieve their immediate pain and, as much as possible, the effects of their disease; we seek every possible medical treatment for them. If a brother or sister has cancer, diabetes, or a stroke, we pray that God will give the doctors and nurses wisdom and skill to relieve their suffering. We realize there is an important place for caring for their bodies and souls, for their medical needs—which are beyond the church’s competence—and for their relationship with God. And yet, when it comes to mental illness, we still don’t really believe that it is a medical problem. Many of us were raised in an era when “it’s all in your head” meant that mental illnesses weren’t real—at least not as real as a broken arm. This tendency reflects not only a lack of appreciation for the rapid growth in medical diagnosis and treatment of such disorders, but a cluster of theological

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misunderstandings. So here are a few introductory theses to consider.

1. We are not souls incarcerated in bodies, but body-soul creatures.

Contemporary brain science has shown the remarkable extent to which our thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and actions are connected to our bodies—specifically, our brain and chemical interactions. This leaves no room for the soul if we reduce ourselves to what can be subjected to observation and repeatable experiments. The fact that body and soul are so intertwined is elementary for a biblical view of humanity.

“Mind over matter” betrays a pagan rather than biblical view of human beings. We’ve all heard stories of the Christian Science or neo-Pentecostal family that fatally withheld medical treatment from a child in expectation of a miraculous recovery. As much as we—that is, more traditional Christians—shake our heads at such folly, much of evangelical Christianity differs only in degree. It’s amazing that at a time when many churches, including evangelical ones, turn the gospel into a form of personal therapy, psychiatry itself is seen as somewhat threatening.

“TO THE EXTENT THAT EVANGELICAL AT TITUDES REFLECT THEOLOGICAL IMBALANCES— AND EVEN ERRORS— WE THINK WE HAVE SOMETHING INDEED TO CONTRIBUTE.”

According to Scripture, reality is not divided between spirit/mind and matter, but between God and everything else. There is the Triune Creator— and his creation. Angels and human souls are no more divine than antelopes or fingernails. In the totality of our existence, we are not God and yet we are like God: created in his image—that is, in true holiness and righteousness.

Because we are psychosomatic (body-soul) unities, physical and spiritual issues intersect in ways that can’t be easily pulled apart. A person suffering from a spinal cord injury will be especially susceptible to bouts of spiritual depression, doubts, and even anger. The same is true of mental illness. On one hand, a naturalistic perspective reduces human beings to a mass of physicochemical accidents. On the other hand, a hyper-supernaturalistic reaction

is to treat physicochemical problems simply as spiritual maladies. Good theology is not enough, but bad theology kills—literally, physically and spiritually.

It is therefore a biblical view of the human person that cautions us against dismissing physical trauma as an illusion or spiritual and moral responsibility.

We may rush to the emergency room after a skiing accident, but when it comes to mental illness, we’re more reticent. We wonder if mental illness is on a par with heart disease and spinal injury. We’re justly wary of a scientific naturalism, known as “reductive physicalism,” which excludes spiritual and sometimes even moral factors from behavior. But we are in danger of also rejecting the overwhelming scientific evidence of the role that brain chemistry plays in our lives. This is threatening only to a body-soul dualism that has far more to do with pagan philosophy than the Apostle Paul. The “real you” is not just your soul but you as a body-soul unity: distinction without separation.

While reductive physicalism flies in the face of Scripture and lacks any scientific evidence, the biblical view of human beings as body-soul unities should already prepare us to accept that every spiritual problem has a physical component—and vice versa.

2. Sin is a condition, not just actions.

According to a 2008 Baylor study, 36 percent of church attendees with mental illness said that they were told by their leaders that it was the result of sin; 34 percent said they were told it was a demon; 41 percent were told they didn’t have a mental illness; and 28 percent were even told to stop taking medication.2 “Deliverance ministries” make a lot of this second point. Many believe that demons bring “generational curses,” passed down from generation to generation.

This astonishing perspective is as theologically aberrant as it is medically dangerous. It comes

PA S T O R S O N T H E

“Sometimes the most

counseling session is, ‘Are

lot about their behavior,

CHALLENGE OF

important question for

you still on your meds?’ If

and it will help me know

M E N TA L I L L N E S S

me to ask at the begin-

the person in question is

how best to navigate the

IN THE CHURCH

ning of any family visit or

not, it will help explain a

rest of our time together.”

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from a theological tradition that reduces sin to specific things that you do or don’t do—or perhaps something you inherit, not genetically but by intergenerational demonic activity. There is simply no appreciation for the biblical gravity of the sinful condition in such a view.

In a biblical perspective, sin isn’t just something we do or don’t do. It arises out of a sinful condition.

Just as the whole self is created in God’s image, the whole self is fallen in Adam. Consequently, we are sinners and sinned against, victimizers and victims.

We are caught up in a maelstrom of living on this side of the curse, and many of its effects are in no way dependent on a specific sin, demonic attack, or anything else for which one is personally responsible. That is not to say that we are not personally responsible for our sin, but that the sinful condition is far greater in its extensiveness than that.

But even in conservative churches where Pentecostal excesses are eschewed, there is often a tendency to blame physical suffering on specific sins. We can be like Job’s counselors, assuming that he had done something to deserve his calamities.

If he would only ferret out the sin and come clean with it, then God would restore his fortunes. But neither Job nor his friends had access to the first chapter, where God permitted Satan to test Job so that something greater than physical health, wealth, and happiness would appear. Satan meant it for evil, but God intended it for good. Job’s suffering brought him to the confidence he expressed in chapter 19: “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God; Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes will see and not another. My heart faints within me!” (vv. 25–27). Neither his friends nor a modern naturalism would be able to explain the ultimate purpose for Job’s suffering from the available data.

And in our own suffering, we do not have access to “chapter 1” either. All we see are the natural causes

“ ON ONE HAND, A NATURALISTIC PERSPECTIVE REDUCES HUMAN BEINGS TO A MASS OF PHYSICOCHEMICAL ACCIDENTS. ON THE OTHER HAND, A HYPERSUPERNATURALISTIC REACTION IS TO TREAT PHYSICOCHEMICAL PROBLEMS SIMPLY AS SPIRITUAL MAL ADIES. GOOD THEOLOGY IS NOT ENOUGH, BUT BAD THEOLOGY KILLS— LITERALLY, PHYSICALLY AND SPIRITUALLY.”

and the divine revelation that God works all things together for our good, because he has already triumphed over sin and death in Jesus Christ.

When combined with a mind-body dualism that places mental illness exclusively on the spiritual side of the ledger, this linking of suffering to particular sins (and therefore its remedy of simply more faith and obedience) is toxic—both spiritually and physically. If psychology (more than psychiatry) as a discipline reflects an obvious bias toward reductive physicalism, many conservative churches tilt toward a reductive spiritualism or moralism. That leads to the next point.

3. God works through intermediaries or providence (i.e., what theologians call

PA S T O R S O N T H E

“I am not a psychiatrist

spiritual counselor. I can

Those are the limits of

CHALLENGE OF

or psychologist. I am

only tell you what the

my training and exper-

M E N TA L I L L N E S S

only trained to be a

Bible says, and hopefully

tise. Saying the wrong

IN THE CHURCH

preacher, teacher and

offer a little wisdom.

thing is terrifying.”

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“common grace”), not just directly through miracle (or saving grace). Science is a gift of God when it recognizes its own limits.

We never tell people with cancer, “Just pray more and read your Bible more.” Why, then, do nearly half of evangelicals believe that mental illness can be cured only by more prayer and Bible study?

Traditional Christianity affirms the importance of secondary causes—that is, natural causes—through which God orchestrates every detail of human existence. Ordinarily, God does not act immediately and directly, but indirectly through secondary causes.

It’s interesting that in Genesis 1 and 2, we have not only the direct command, “Let there be…!” followed by the report, “And there was…,” but also the command, “Let the earth bring forth…!” with the report, “And the earth brought forth….” Even in this mighty act, God created the world out of nothing (ex nihilo), and he worked through the physical elements and processes he himself had created to bring about their fruitfulness. Both are God’s acts. When he sustains the world each moment even now, in the Son and by his Spirit, the Father ordinarily guides the natural

processes he put in place rather than acting as the only cause, as he did in bringing everything into existence in the first place.

Ironically, many conservative Christians share with their secularist nemeses a false dilemma: God is either active in the world in obvious and miraculous ways, or not at all. In reaction against an atheistic pseudoscience, we risk creating our own hyper-supernaturalistic pseudoscience. Instead of seeing medical science as addressing natural causes, both naturalists and hyper-supernaturalists expect their theories to explain everything. Human beings are only bodies or only souls. There are either natural remedies or supernatural remedies.

This is a dangerous standoff and it results from false theological premises.

What’s missing is a robust doctrine of providence where God is at work in every moment and in every atom, but through secondary means. Naturalism says that there is nothing beyond the natural means; hyper-supernaturalism downplays the natural means that God uses. All that’s left is to see God in the miraculous—his direct activity in the world— or not at all. My wife and I prayed for God to heal our triplets when they were born prematurely with

GOD’S WAYS OF WORKING IN THE WORLD DIRECT MEANS

INDIRECT MEANS

God’s immediate action in time and space

God’s mediate action through his ordained means

Genesis 1:3 “And God said, ‘Let there be light...’”

Genesis 1:24 “And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth…’”

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various complications. We didn’t care whether it was a miracle or God’s providential work through excellent physicians and nurses. As it turned out, it was the latter. Either way, God answers prayer. Why can’t our prayer be that God would work through the skill of the physicians looking after us and our loved ones? Is that any less God’s work than the parting of the Red Sea? Our tendency to hesitate—or even to answer no—betrays a weak view of providence, as if to say “God did it” means that he didn’t do it through ordinary channels that he himself also created and gifted.

Among the means through which God brings his plans to pass is prayer. And yet prayer isn’t magic.

The Reformer John Calvin noted that God still determines the outcome, based on his loving and wise counsels. But we don’t know his secret plans, and he works ordinarily through natural means. Just as Christ himself in Gethsemane did not “turn His eyes to the divine plan but rested His desire that burned within Him upon His Father’s knees,” we too “in pouring out prayers do not always rise to speculate upon the secret things of God.”3 Instead of trying to decode God’s hidden purposes, our prayers should focus on the good he has published concerning us. We should be as bold in our prayers as the biblical examples repeatedly encourage. Once more the fatherly image dominates in Calvin’s exposition: “We are permitted to pour into [God’s] bosom the difficulties that torment us, in order that he may loosen the knots that we cannot untie.”4

4. Christ came to heal the sick, not those who are well (or who think they are).

“Pray more” and “Read your Bible more.” In itself, this is good advice. But what suffering people of any type need most is good news! When you’re depressed, being told that you just need to “trust God more” or be more devoted to spiritual exercises simply drives you deeper into yourself. Because of your body’s chemistry, you’re not in a position to get out of bed and face the day. Apart from the gospel, calls to more prayer and Bible reading become burdensome laws that drive us farther from resting in Christ. It’s the proclamation of the gospel in word and sacrament that pulls us out of ourselves to cling to the Father of all mercies in his Son, by his Spirit, and to seek his revealed purposes and will for our lives.

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“ I R O N I C A L LY, M A N Y CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIANS SHARE WITH THEIR SECULARIST NEMESES A FALSE DILEMMA: GOD IS EITHER ACTIVE IN THE WORLD IN OBVIOUS AND MIRACULOUS WAYS, OR NOT AT ALL .”

Here’s the key point: Prayer and Bible reading aren’t therapies at all, much less replacements of or competitors with medical prescriptions. Ironically, many Christians like to quote the latest study indicating the psychological benefits of prayer, even while downplaying the legitimacy of psychiatric treatments. Prayer is simply talking to God the Father, in the Son, by the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Reading the Bible may be “therapeutic,” but only because we’re looking for something more: namely, the truth about God, ourselves, our world, our hopes and fears, and reconciliation with God in his Son. When the focus is on the Christ, who is proclaimed to us in the gospel, we can pray with honesty, casting ourselves on God’s mercy. We aren’t coming to a judge, or even to a therapist, but to our heavenly Father who has accepted us in his Son. We’re not rubbing a lamp and making a wish, but we are children crying out to the sovereign God who cares for us and answers our feeble, half-hearted, and even intemperate rants with love, wisdom, and compassion.

Furthermore, Calvin notes, “Our prayers are acceptable to God only insofar as Christ sprinkles and sanctifies them with the perfume of his own sacrifice.”5 He adds, “The one true aim of prayer consists in the fact that the promises of God should have their way with us.”6 As the gospel is the soil of faith, faith—this “firm assurance of mind that God is favorable and benevolent to them”—is the root of sincere prayer.7

easily explained: Good people live healthy lives; if you’re suffering, you need to figure out where you’ve failed God. Yet Scripture teaches otherwise: We are baptized into Christ. What was the pattern of his life?

Instead of taking the easy way out—Satan’s offer of glory now—he embraced the cross, not out of Stoic resolve, but out of “the joy set before him”: namely, our salvation (Phil. 2:5–8). By his suffering, the sting of death (the curse of the law) has been removed 5. Christ saves the whole person, but (1 Cor. 15:56–57). But we still follow him from death sanctification is a process that is never to victory, but that victory over the pain of sin and finished in this life. death does not lie on this side of glory (Rom. 8:18–25).

A robustly biblical theology of the cross and resurrection fixes our hope on Christ, who knows our Just as the whole person is created in God’s image— suffering more than we do and who has overcome neither divine nor demonic, and wholly fallen in it objectively. We live in our Christian families and body and soul—the whole person is justified and is in our churches in that in-between time, awaiting being renewed daily in Christ’s image. This renewal the day when we share fully—in body and in soul— at present is evident spiritually. While the body in Christ’s glory. Our churches have to be a place wastes away toward the grave, the where we “wait for it with patience” “inner self” is being renewed day by together. In the process, we need day (2 Cor. 4:16). better soul care that appreciates We would all like to reach a the extent to which physical—and PA S T O R S O N T H E safe haven, a plateau of health, mental—suffering can be relieved CHALLENGE OF where we no longer struggle with in the meantime. Christians should M E N TA L I L L N E S S sin or the physical and emotional welcome these advances as signs pains of daily dying. But we don’t of God’s orderly providence and IN THE CHURCH find this safe landing place in our compassionate care for his creaexperience—either physically or tures. There will always be a central spiritually. The only safe haven is place for spiritual care—especially “I have learned, in my Christ himself, who has objectively the faithful ministry of preachpreaching and in my conquered sin and death, and who ing, teaching, sacraments, prayer, counseling, to speak of intercedes for us at the Father’s and discipline. But, like a kid with right hand until he raises us bodily a broken leg, getting people to the the pain and suffering for the everlasting Sabbath. “emergency room” may be the first that extend beyond what order of business. can be seen, diagnosed,

6. Triumphalism sets us up for a fall; the theology of the cross and the resurrection give us faith, hope, and love.

and successfully treated.

Sometimes the valley of the shadow of death looms large over the people in my church. I

Job’s friends were as plagued with a theology of glory as Job himself was with whatever physical ailments he suffered. As said above, triumphalism ignores the reality of sin as a condition. Everything is

acknowledge that reality so they understand and believe that Jesus can care even for them.”

Michael S. Horton is editor-in-chief of Modern Reformation.

1 See http://blog.lifeway.com/newsroom/2013/09/ 17/half-of-evangelicals-believe-prayer-can-healmental-illness.

2 See http://www.baylorisr.org/wp-content/uploads/ stanford_perceptions.pdf.

3 John Calvin, Commentary on the Psalms 1:353.

4 John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis 1:489.

5 John Calvin, Commentary on the Psalms 1:336.

6 Quoted in Wilhelm Niesel, The Theology of John Calvin (Cambridge: James Clarke and Co., 1956), 157.

7 John Calvin, Institutes 3.20.12.

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B E AR ON E AN OTH E R ’S B URDE N S

by ANONYMOUS

T

H E S I G N T H A T something was wrong

in Julie’s life was all over the side of our toilet. Julie had been watching our kids that evening. I took her home and was met by my wife at the front door: “I think Julie has an eating disorder.” She knew the signs, and Julie wasn’t very careful about hiding her need to purge. It took us a few months to approach Julie. That began a long (and ongoing) process of care and discipleship that involved a number of people in our church. I present it to you here as a sort of case study of what personal care can actually look like on the ground in a local church. I’ve changed details of Julie’s story (that’s not even her name) and have asked the editors to not identify me, so that others might benefit from our experience without bringing attention to the people involved.

You’re In It for the Long Haul One of the most important lessons that our church’s leadership has learned is that pastoral care can’t be done quickly or impersonally. When we tackle a difficult, life-dominating issue such as an eating disorder, we have to settle in for the long haul. On the one hand, that means being patient with the sufferer. In Julie’s case, there have been seasons of relief from her disorder and seasons where it seems

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to overwhelm her—affecting her family relationships, her work, and her schooling. On the other hand, those who assist Julie must remember that her eating disorder isn’t the only thing that is true about her. Too many conversations after church begin with the knowing look and the coded language: “How are you doing?” Julie doesn’t want to talk about her eating disorder all the time, not even with those who have proven to her that they care for her and are willing to bear her burdens. Sometimes she wants to talk about her friends or her dreams or her dogs. Being in it for the long haul means that we treat her as a whole person, not just a project to be fixed so that we can move on to the next crisis on the list.

You’re Not the Expert Early on in Julie’s story, we gathered together a few trusted friends in our congregation to form a sort of care panel for her: a nutritionist, a physician, a woman who had also suffered from an eating disorder, and Julie’s elder. We quickly came to realize that even with this stellar team of people who cared for Julie, we needed to bring in another doctor and a psychiatrist. This was partly because Julie didn’t want her relationships in the church to be dominated by her eating disorder. It was also because her eating disorder was affecting, and could in some

sense be traced back to, other issues in her life that needed to be addressed by professionals.

Even though we knew we didn’t have all the expertise Julie needed, we didn’t abandon her to the care of experts. We intentionally partnered with those experts to provide holistic care. Julie’s elder went regularly to her meetings with the psychiatrist so that he could learn with Julie what some of the triggers were to her destructive behavior. This was done, of course, with Julie’s permission, but I think it made a significant difference to our ability to care for her. It signaled to the psychiatrist that Julie was part of a loving community who would follow up with her to ensure she was taking the necessary steps to regain health. It also equipped our elder to give advice that wouldn’t be contradicted by Julie’s medical professional. The last thing Julie needed was conflict between the people who cared for her body and the people who cared for her soul. By working with Julie’s psychiatrist, Julie’s elder became a better spiritual guide to her.

Life Is Messy The more we worked with Julie, the more we realized that sin and sickness are multifaceted in all of our lives. Issues relating to Julie’s childhood, to her relationship with her parents, to the way she saw her place in society, to even her own understanding of God—all of these issues were bound up in her eating disorder. Untangling these issues will take a long time, and in the process people are bound to get hurt. In some churches there might be a temptation to sit in a place of authority and judgment, delivering advice as if it came straight from Mount Sinai. In our experience, we’ve often had to apologize to Julie, to one another, and to other people involved just as much as we’ve offered help and guidance. Thankfully, this place of humility has actually strengthened our ability to serve Julie. She has been freer to admit her sins and acknowledge some of the ways in which she brings difficulty into her own life. Would she have done that if she had been called before a room full of elders who “lovingly confronted” her about her eating disorder? I can’t imagine that scenario going well! Instead, Julie has experienced the care of shepherds who are nursing her back to health. We are not afraid of setbacks,

“SOUL CARE IS FAR MORE COMPLICATED THAN PREACHING.”

though they grieve us almost as much as they grieve Julie. We actually expect them because we know and acknowledge our own weaknesses.

I’ll Pray for You Today I received word of a friend who was just diagnosed with cancer. Earlier this week someone asked me to pray that they would find a job. Last Sunday night I did some marriage counseling via text message. It’s easy to pray and move on to the next thing on my to-do list. It’s much harder to pray and enter into the sufferings and joys of those who look to me for spiritual care. I’ve learned through my years in ministry that soul care is far, far more complicated than preaching. But the only way I can preach with any effectiveness at all is if I’ve also done the difficult work of soul care. I’m grateful for the others in the church who have shouldered Julie’s burdens: the family that let her live with them rent free, the elder who went with her to her doctor’s appointments, the older women who have cared for her without knowing all the messy details, the younger women who laugh with her on the sidewalk after the service, and the anonymous donors who help pay for her medication and treatment.

This is what our life together looks like as a church. This is just one example of the way that we bear one another’s burdens. Your church, your situation, might be different. Julie’s story might not be applicable to your own story. But I hope you can learn from this story that to effectively care for one another and to be a real community of faith, you must be willing to go deep with people who are hurting by combining physical and spiritual care. Julie’s story isn’t over yet, but by God’s grace we’ll continue to walk with her—eager to see how God answers our prayers for her health and maturity.

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LIFE AND DEATH IN TH E VA L L E Y OF T H E SH ADOW

by SIMONETTA CARR

W

E

ALL

HAVE

D A Y S we will never forget. On top

of my list is the day when my nineteen-year-old son revealed a new perception of reality. He had always been a top student—a little odd and forgetful at times, but also extremely bright and endued with a sharp sense of humor. Over the course of a few months, however, we had noticed some changes. He had become quieter, slow to react, and at times frustrated to the point of tears. He came back after his first semester at college with terrible news. His grades had fallen so low that he had been dismissed. A few weeks later, his girlfriend left him. We also detected something deeper that we couldn’t understand. We could only encourage him to try again, to start a new semester at a different school.

On that unforgettable day, my husband woke him up early to remind him to send off new college applications. I was checking my e-mails when he approached me. He looked confused. After a long pause, he asked, “Mom, is this a game?” His eyes were perplexed and searching.

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“Do you want to play a game?” I asked, hoping it could be that simple.

“No. Is this a game?”

“Do you mean life?”

“Yes.” I mustered up all the poise I could get and gave some theological explanation of how life can seem like a game but that God is in perfect control. All the while, an ominous feeling gripped my heart.

He asked other questions. “I don’t understand this extension.”

“What do you mean?”

“This extension of life.”

I scrambled to find another theological explanation, but by that time my heart was racing. Very calmly I went to another corner of the house where I frantically phoned my husband. Hearing the panic in my voice, he came back from work. We talked to our son together but still could not grasp the full meaning of his words. Over the next few days, he continued to surprise us with similar statements.

One day he asked me, “Mom, what do you do when you hear voices?” It was hard for me to tell him I don’t hear them.

After talking to some friends who have experience in this field, we took our son to the mental ward of the local clinic. The screening therapist recognized the problem immediately. At a second visit, she disclosed the diagnosis and prognosis to him: “You have schizophrenia.” I was not prepared for this. With eight children, I had to face many difficult situations, even the prospect of death. But schizophrenia? As most people, I didn’t know anything about the disease.

Contrary to popular opinion, schizophrenia is not a split-personality disorder. Also, people with schizophrenia are not particularly dangerous or violent. If anything, they are more apt to hurt themselves than others. The latest consensus is that schizophrenia is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, probably an excess of dopamine. These conclusions were reached when doctors realized

that dopamine-blockers were able to decrease the hallucinations that plague most schizophrenics.

It’s not a foolproof method, and there is no absolute explanation.

In any case, recovery is not as easy as popping a few pills. First of all, most people with schizophrenia deny their condition, so naturally they don’t want to take medications. Also, the medications only reduce the hallucinations, and many other symptoms of schizophrenia persist (social withdrawal, stifled emotions, and lack of motivation, to name a few).

As one writer puts it, schizophrenia is the cancer of mental illness.

I don’t have enough space here to describe the total upheaval of our lives over the past two years—the calls to 911, the hospitalization, the rollercoaster of hope and despair, car accidents, arrests, and sleepless nights. But I would like to share what I found helpful.

Faith This sounds obvious. As Christians, we know we should trust God in prosperity and adversity. On the other hand, schizophrenia is so mysterious and unpredictable that it can catch us by surprise. My son could look totally fine one day and be unrelatable and anguished the next. I learned to keep my eyes on the Lord to avoid being swallowed by the waves.

The book of Jonah was comforting in this sense, and instructing when my son’s healing was not proceeding according to my plans.

I often repeated to myself Proverbs 21:1: “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.” Ultimately, I couldn’t do anything to heal my son. Even the medications had strong limitations. But his heart, so often alien and inscrutable, was in the hand of the Lord. Psalm 29 was also encouraging. If God’s voice “breaks the cedars of Lebanon” and “shakes the wilderness” (Psalm 29:5, 8), how could the puny

PA S T O R S O N T H E

“I have often found that

Christ every week, it never

CHALLENGE OF

people experiencing the

seems to be enough to

sonally. This is especially

M E N TA L I L L N E S S

darkness of depression

comfort the struggling

tough if a parishioner

are inconsolable. No

saint. As a pastor, you

blames you for contribut-

matter how much I preach

have to do your best not

ing to their depression.”

IN THE CHURCH

30

to take the rejection per-

“LOVING A PERSON WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA I S N O T E A S Y. . . . W H E N I FAILED, I APOLOGIZED TO HIM AND PRAYED MY FAILURES WOULD NOT IMPACT HIS HEALING.”

by John Newton, a close friend of William Cowper, who greatly struggled with mental illness (for more on Cowper, see page 52): We say such a building is a house, not only when it is tiled, painted and furnished, but while the walls are yet unfinished, while it is encumbered with rubbish and surrounded with scaffolds....

It would be well if both preachers and people would keep more closely to what the Scripture teaches of the nature, marks and growth of a work of grace instead of following each other in a track (like sheep) confining the Holy Spirit to a system; imposing at first the experience and sentiments of others as a rule to themselves, and afterward dogmatically laying down the path in which they themselves have been led, as absolutely necessary to be trodden by others.

voices my son was hearing prevail on his mind in any ultimate sense?

Love

Patience

As soon as my son was diagnosed, I was handed a list of support groups for parents. They can certainly be useful in some situations, but the ones I attended were full of people with very few answers and who desperately wanted a way out. The main question was, “How can I—as a parent—survive this?” Many were telling me to put my son in an institution or send him out on his own, but I just couldn’t do it.

I am not saying their advice was categorically wrong. There are situations where a person with schizophrenia may not be able to stay home, especially when he or she refuses medications and when there are young children involved; but research has confirmed that schizophrenics under medical care recover much better in a supportive family environment.

Eventually, when my son nailed shut the door of his room and locked himself in there for days, he had to be taken to a hospital. A month later, when he was discharged, we were given the choice to take him back or send him to a halfway house. We welcomed him home, as our uneasiness and fears mingled with insuppressible love.

A friend and pastor with a schizophrenic son shared my feeling: “For two years, I had to put my life on hold for [my son],” he said. “But whenever I visited him in some institution and saw other young

When it comes to mental illness, progress is often slow. I learned to silence my expectations and wait for God to work in my son’s heart according to his schedule and plans. Once in a while, a sudden ray of light interrupted my day. My son talked to me about the voices he still heard. “They are always angry,” he said. “I used to be paranoid, but they are losing their power because they know I don’t believe in them anymore.”

After his hospitalization, I became his shadow, watching him in the house or yard, or peeking through the door of his room. Sometimes I sat with him for a while, both of us staring into the distance. I joked with him that if we were in the 1960s we could put some colorful bands around our heads and look “far out.” There was so much I still didn’t understand, and so much I had to leave in God’s hands.

There is always a temptation to tread the unfamiliar territory of mental illness by relying on the comfort of set ideas. Besides, parents are often tempted by pietistic desires to look for tangible signs as a comfortable support for our weak faith.

On the other hand, mental illness doesn’t allow us to make comparisons. This is well expressed in a letter

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men who were abandoned by their families, I knew I could not allow this to happen to him.”

Loving a person with schizophrenia is not easy. My son didn’t usually want me to touch him and could be easily suspicious, to the point of interpreting a smile as a sneer. I learned to respect his legitimate wishes, to notice his nonverbal clues, and to be present

without intruding. When I failed, I apologized to him and prayed my failures would not impact his healing.

At the same time, I had to remind myself not to put any trust in my love but to see it as my simple duty.

Compassion came easier when I realized the challenges my son was facing. We all know how difficult it is to fight temptation when we are in stressful situations. People with schizophrenia have a much higher sensitivity to external stimuli, which they are often unable to compartmentalize and control. Add to that the perception of external voices, day and night. I reminded myself of these things when I was frustrated with his behavior. and father. Steve Bloem also has

RECOMMENDED BOOKS AND RESOURCES XAVIER AMADOR I Am Not Sick, I Don’t Need Help: How to Help Someone with Mental Illness Accept Treatment (Vida Press, 2011) The title says it all. It’s a very useful guide.

RICHARD WARNER The Environment of Schizophrenia: Innovations in Practice, Policy and Communications (Routledge, 2000) Based on international research,

a very helpful blog (sbloemreflections.blogspot.com) and hosts online support meetings.

FRANK LAKE Clinical Theology: A Theological and Psychiatric Basis to Clinical Pastoral Care (two volumes) (Emeth Press, 2006) While many of the scientific findings in this book are dated, the pastoral counsel is invaluable and provides stimulating food for thought.

this book suggests practical ways to create an easier environment for those who struggle with this debilitating disease.

STEVE AND ROBYN BLOEM Broken Minds: Hope for Healing When You Feel Like You’re Losing It (Kregel, 2005)

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Research

MARK A. YARHOUSE, RICHARD E. BUTMAN, AND BARRETT W. MCRAY Modern Psychopathologies: A Comprehensive Christian Appraisal (IVP Academic, 2005) As the title suggests, this book is truly comprehensive. One

Although this is mostly about

interesting feature is insight

depression, it’s an interesting

into how the church has seen

and moving story of someone

mental illness over the centuries.

who is living through it—a pastor

Thought-provoking.

With so little medical consensus on the causes and treatment of schizophrenia, it’s imperative that parents educate themselves. I read countless books, consulted experts, and watched my son carefully as I compared different opinions. I learned that it’s important to establish a course of treatment, as imperfect as it may be, before even considering alternative or supplemental therapies.

Reading stories of other parents advocating for their children inspired me to keep fighting to facilitate his dealings both with medical professionals and common people. Twice my son was arrested and placed in jail because he looked “high,” when in effect he was behaving as most people with schizophrenia would in a stressful situation.

Church Family The support and prayers of my church family were invaluable. For a while, my pastor stopped at our house every week for a few rounds of chess

with my son. I know it meant a lot because my son prepared the chess board in anticipation. The pastor also announced to the congregation that if anyone was looking for a “ministry,” there were plenty of opportunities to visit the widows, the shut-ins, and the sick, including those who are mentally ill. It might not be a glamorous ministry, but it’s biblical and necessary.

In fact, when I started to talk about my struggles with other people at church, I was surprised to discover how many of them had similar experiences: so many had children, siblings, parents, or close relatives suffering from mental illness. Some of their stories were disquieting—I realized most of us bear heavy burdens, often alone. It gave a new meaning to the word hospitality.

It was also encouraging to have the church consistory pray for and about his illness, offering their advice. The issue of medications for mental illness can be controversial in Christian circles, but in the case of schizophrenia they seem to be necessary to get the mind stable enough to start making progress.

After much research and prayer, our church consistory explained to my son that, in his case, taking medications was an act of concern for others.

Hope

professed his faith, and God faithfully proclaimed the gospel to him week after week for many years through word and sacrament. I can rest on the promise that “he who began a good work in [my son] will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6). For those who don’t have this confidence, all is not lost. God can work through extraordinary mental limitations, just as he works daily through common human limitations.

As my pastor has pointed out, while “the secret things belong to the LORD our God…the things that are revealed” (Deut. 29:29) are sufficient to show us that “his steadfast love endures forever” (Ps. 118).

It also helped me to remember that Christ’s redemption is complete, including body and soul.

God’s image, now so obviously marred in my son, will be fully restored, and it’s encouraging to know that day is getting closer. As Michael Horton writes in The Gospel Commission: “The lame were excluded from the temple courts as a sign of corruption, but already in Acts 3 a lame man is healed within the temple courts....It’s already happening—on earth, as it is in heaven.”

Simonetta Carr has written for several newspapers and magazines and has translated the works of several Christian authors into Italian. She is author of the series “Christian Biographies for

Enormous encouragement came from knowing my son belongs to the Lord. He was baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and publicly

Young Readers” (Reformation Heritage Books). She lives in Santee, California, with her husband Thomas and family, and is a member and Sunday school teacher at Christ United Reformed Church.

Postscript

I

WROTE MOST OF T H I S article only one month before my son died. The immediate causes of his

death are not completely clear, but they were ultimately a result of his condition. While this is an experience I wish no one had to endure, I have learned a lot by caring for my son. He pushed me to see things differently and to draw deeply from God’s reservoir of patience, strength, and love. He slowed down my days and helped me stretch my mind to see beyond my little comfort zone, which is so ruled by time, space, and set images and thoughts.

Looking back, I realize that some of the fruits of the Spirit I was seeking in my son were there all the time.

He often told me how stressful it was to have to constantly discern between what’s real and what’s not real, or to put the voices in their place. Because of that, he had simplified other areas of his life. He had downsized his aspirations and expectations, and had developed incredible patience and forgiveness. Hindsight is 20/20 in every way, and the past looks much clearer now. Still, my hope and trust lie beyond all this. They rest on God’s promises, our only sure foundation.

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34

LIVING WITH MENTAL ILLNESS A CONVERSATION with JED PASCHALL

H

ow did you first discover you struggled with a mental illness?

a.

I was a student at a Bible college in the Midwest. I was 22, struggling with some serious questions about the faith, and I had been dealing with insomnia and daily panic attacks for about nine months. I eventually could not continue with my studies. I came home to the West Coast dejected and very depressed. At that time, I went to see my first mental health practitioner, who diagnosed depression and prescribed an antidepressant.

Within weeks, the severity of the depression waned, and I had a six-month respite from the insomnia and panic attacks. However, due to the combination of a less than thorough examination, and my own ignorance of family mental health history, it turned out I was misdiagnosed. Before I realized this, I had returned to the Bible college and had attempted to complete my degree. Within months, I was displaying erratic and at times outright sinful behavior patterns, often at odds with my own values and convictions as a Christian.

What I did not know was that I was bipolar, and

that while my depressive cycles were being held in check with antidepressants, my tendency toward manic mood swings was totally unregulated. At times I felt like Superman, and I was not making rational connections between my actions and their natural consequences.

Thankfully, God continued to show faithfulness to me. After a particularly damaging manic episode, I was despondent about my faith and was crashing into another deep depression. At that time, one of my pastors showed grace and love to me at a time of real vulnerability. He referred me to another pastor who had some background in dealing with believers who struggle with mental illness. He encouraged me to not give up on the medical side of my struggles, and he also reassured me that God’s love extended to me in my bewildered state. Shortly thereafter, just before I turned 24, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder by a psychiatrist here on the West Coast. Having the correct diagnosis definitely went a long way in helping identify my symptoms and how to deal with them, as well as gaining insight into my own natural depressive and manic cycles, and how to adjust to these while striving to live a normal life.

PA S T O R S O N T H E

“We recently had to

I was out to get him. We

go of this fear. One of our

CHALLENGE OF

dismiss a man from

had walked with this man

elders kept in touch with

M E N TA L I L L N E S S

membership for refusing

and his family through

him until he began going

to attend the church

previous periods of psy-

to another church in a

because he feared that

chosis, but he could not let

neighboring community.”

IN THE CHURCH

MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

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Where does mental illness end and personal choice begin? How are they related?

a.

choices I make, but I am ultimately responsible for each and every one of my choices. I would much rather plead the blood of Jesus in the final judgment than try to get off on a flimsy (and ultimately fallacious) technicality like “bipolar made me do it.” Talk about a lame defense! I’ll take Christ and his perfect and complete work any day.

Funny question! I have come to conclude that we are all mentally ill due to our own sinfulness (in the Romans 1 sense), where we have become futile in our thinking, and that this is God’s providential work to point us to our need for Christ. I know that I didn’t show up at the “Plaza for Fallen Your pilgrimage has taken you in and out of differHuman Proclivities” and get in the bipolar line. ent churches throughout the course of your mental But I also believe we are incredibly integrated illness. What role has the church and its theology beings, and how our immaterial selves (mind, played in living with a mental disorder? spirit, soul) interact with our bodies is something of which modern medicine has very little When I began to discover my struggle with understanding. The way I have come to undermental illness, I was a member of a large, broadly stand the connection between being bipolar and evangelical church in Southern California. my personal choices is pretty simple, and I don’t Thankfully, while I was a student at the Bible think one has to have a mental illness to come to a college, I was also attending a Lutheran congresimilar conclusion. There are many contributing gation. While I did not understand it at the time, factors to the choices I make: family upbringing, their emphasis on word and sacrament was probmood, whether I am hungry, tired, or grumpy, and ably the most important influence on how I would even the fact that I am bipolar. deal with my struggles with bipolar However, as a Christian who disorder in the years that followed. believes what the Westminster It was a bit of a surprise to hear after Shorter Catechism teaches in its coming out of the evangelical world, answer to Q.18 that we are not PA S T O R S O N T H E where so much stock is placed on only guilty of the sin of our first CHALLENGE OF the application of biblical princifather Adam, I believe we are ples and following the right steps in also guilty for all of our own willM E N TA L I L L N E S S order to keep on God’s “good side,” ful misdeeds and transgressions.

IN THE CHURCH where his blessings can be accessed.

Just as we cannot plead innoInstead of being admonished to pray cence before God for the fact that harder and have more faith, I was Adam’s fall contributed directly encouraged by the reminder that to our own sinfulness and subse“Having ministered to receiving God’s grace is not at all quent choices, I cannot say, “Well, members diagnosed contingent on me, my efforts, or my since I am bipolar and my gray with schizophrenia, mental state. matter doesn’t work like it is supbipolar disorder, and I have come to appreciate two posed to, I am absolved of all of clinical depression, I can things most as a Reformed Christian. the consequences of my choices.” only say that these saints The first is that whatever can be said Life doesn’t work that way—just require a lot of patience, of my life as a Christian, it is a reflecask my wife! My choices are my love, and listening. There tion of God’s own faithful work to own. However my psychologiis no easy answer to complete what he has started in me cal tendencies might influence (Phil. 1:6). If God is true, I can trust those choices, I have never been their suffering. What him to complete in me what I cannot so incoherent or unaware of the they experience is dark complete for myself. myself. Second, rightness or wrongness of my and complex and often my own congregation’s emphasis on actions to not know what the requires treatment weekly Communion makes a lot of right thing to do was in any given beyond our care.” sense to a guy who has to take pills situation. Yes, my mental illness every day. I cannot always be sure my is a contributing factor to the

a.

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“WE ALL INHABIT FALLEN BODIES AND LIVE IN A FALLEN WORLD, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER OR NOT SOMEONE HAS A M E N T A L I L L N E S S.” pills are working, but I have confidence in Christ’s body and blood offered in the bread and the wine.

They are a sign and a seal of Christ’s victory over sin—my sin—and death, and my own innate weaknesses. To partake of the Lord’s Supper is to have a small foretaste of that final celebratory feast where sin, death, and all of life’s perplexing and painful struggles are vanquished by Christ and his work on the cross. This gives me a great deal of hope that I am defined by Christ’s finished work in me, not by the fact that I struggle with mental illness on this side of glory.

How have your brothers and sisters in the church comforted and encouraged you during the days when the burden was especially difficult to bear?

a. My brothers and sisters have been so help-

ful in their gracious and patient understanding that God’s work takes time, sometimes lots of it, in those of us who struggle with mental illness.

Prayer is important, along with the willingness to just listen to me when I need someone who can encourage me without necessarily having to identify personally with my struggle. The fact of the matter is that sin has touched us all; we all inhabit

fallen bodies and live in a fallen world, regardless of whether or not someone has a mental illness.

I’m very grateful for those dear brothers and sisters who have continued to point me to what Christ has accomplished for sinners like me. It’s so hard to approach the battle with sin with a sound mind, especially if your mind is the physiological and psychological source of the problem.

One kind word or timely note of encouragement can be a powerful instrument in God’s hand to remind me of God’s great love for me, and that this illness is part of his gracious work to shape me into Christ’s image. The worst thing I have experienced as a Christian battling mental illness is the sense that I am alone in my struggles, so the encouragement from Christian brothers and sisters who have been willing to bear up under my burdens and speak the truth to me in love has been a great blessing. They’ve reminded me that in the coming kingdom, my mind will be stilled, and that I am not defined by being bipolar, but

by Christ and his loving work on my behalf.

Jed Paschall lives and works in Temecula, California, and is a member of Christ Presbyterian Church.

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CARING FO R T H OSE I N D I S T R E SS

by CRAIG MARSHALL

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W

suffer is one of the most difficult realities of the human experience.

We can feel helpless when it comes to others’ internal struggles, especially when they come with daunting labels like depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, anorexia, bulimia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (just to name a few). Some assert that these types of “problems” need to be dealt with outside the church, while others relegate such things to the category of “sin problem” and ostracize those who are not quickly changed. Both of these responses fail to see the amazing work God does when his church ATCHING OTHER PEOPLE

enters into these exact situations. How does God call us to engage in these struggles? While the specifics in each situation obviously vary, in one sense it’s as simple as seeking to love a fellow brother or sister.

This may sound a bit elementary, but when we grasp the biblical realities of all that it means to be human, it helps us better love and care for one another as we live in this fallen world.

We Have More In Common Than We Think Sometimes a particular struggle seems so foreign that we feel we don’t know how to interact with someone in the throes of it. We fear awkward pauses.

We don’t want to ask the wrong question or embarrass them. We don’t want to reveal how much we really don’t know. The reality is that being human yourself gives you a lot more to go on than you may think. Paul reminds us that “no temptation has seized you except that is common to man,” and the Teacher reminds us that “there is nothing new under the sun” (1 Cor. 10:13; Eccles. 1:9). There is a sense in which our common experience of living as humans in a fallen world with a fallen body and a fallen heart enables us to enter into the struggle of another. In this way, even Christ himself became the perfect high priest, able to sympathize with our weaknesses and make intercession for us (Heb. 2:14–18; 4:14– 16). As believers, we have been given the opportunity

40

to engage in the lives of fellow strugglers, following in the steps of our compassionate Savior. The key is for us to remember that we are seeking ultimately to point them to him, not to be their savior ourselves.

As humans, we are more alike than we are different, so we can have confidence in our ability to engage compassionately in one another’s lives.

We Have More Differences Than We Know On the other hand, be careful not to assume that you understand another’s situation or to equate your struggles with theirs. I have heard people try to encourage others, who are in the midst of trial, by saying that they have personally faced “harder” struggles in their own lives. This can be dehumanizing and makes a personal struggle into something that we rate and compare, like earthquakes or hurricanes. Part of treating someone as a human is understanding that this person is unique. Medical studies have made us more aware than ever of the wide variety of physical differences between us.

Some have higher pain tolerances, others can deal well with less sleep, some struggle deeply with substance addiction, and others seem prone to discouragement and depression. Some have minds that do not function as they ought. The reality is that our “natures” can be very different, impacting our ability to deal with trials.

While we don’t believe that one’s upbringing or life experiences are determinative in the absolute sense, we do know that one’s “nurture” can also greatly impact how a person perceives and responds to life. Has the person had a traumatic experience in the past? What was his home situation like, and how did his parents and siblings treat him? Has there been a pattern of a particular struggle throughout his life? Yes, our own humanity gives us enough common ground to seek to engage, but the complexity of these factors demands humility when entering into the suffering of another. The most effective engagement will be that which seeks to truly understand and serve another in self-sacrificing love (Prov. 20:5; Phil. 2:3–4).

We Have Bodies That Need Care Sometimes Christians focus exclusively on the spiritual aspect of a struggle and neglect the physical.

While it is important not to posture as a medical professional if you are not one, it is also crucial that you acknowledge the profound interplay between the body and the soul and seek to help as you are able.

Often a person struggling deeply will not see the possible connection between bodily neglect and further difficulty. Encouraging the person to seek proper medical assessment is an act of love, and often what they will need most is someone to accompany them to hear the prognosis and help them decide on and implement a course of action. Our heavenly Father cares for our physical needs, and we have the opportunity to exhibit this care toward those who are suffering (Matt. 6:30–32; James 2:14–17).

We Have Souls That Need Care While the medical role many of us can play will be limited, the Bible teaches that we all can have a

“THE REALITY IS THAT BEING HUMAN YOURSELF GIVES YOU A LOT MORE TO GO ON THAN YOU MAY THINK.”

great impact on the soul of another. In writing to the Romans, the Apostle Paul was confident of their goodness, knowledge, and ability to instruct one another (Rom. 15:14). As embodied souls, every struggle we face in this life has a spiritual component. Our hearts are affected by our situations and shape how we respond. Mental illnesses, physical difficulties, and besetting sins are particularly disorienting. The interplay between body and soul can be very confusing. As believers, we have the opportunity to move toward those who are suffering, seek to better understand their hearts, and gently and lovingly speak words of truth, life, and hope found in Scripture (Gal. 6:1). Sharing truth in this way can send beams of light through the darkness of confusion and despair.

We Are Made to Be Cared for by Others The independent, self-sufficient culture in which we live causes many people to lose sight of how interrelated the body of Christ is meant to be. God intends for us to truly depend upon one another. A person in the midst of a serious struggle, however, often

PA S T O R S O N T H E

“While on vacation, I

of a congregant because

another elder remove

CHALLENGE OF

received an emergency

she was convinced her

electrical outlet covers to

M E N TA L I L L N E S S

phone call from a local

husband was trying to

make sure there were no

police officer who had

kill her. This is the same

spying devices installed in

been called to the home

woman who had me and

her house.”

IN THE CHURCH

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feels shame over his condition and reluctance to reach out to others for help. Mental difficulties may make it necessary for that person to learn to trust others to help him understand what is true, because his mind is not always reliable. Such trials can serve as opportunities to bring the body of Christ together, poignantly demonstrating how incomplete we really are without one another. It is not just the weak who need the strong. Paul reminds us that the weaker parts are indispensable, and God has designed it in this way so the body together can glorify him (1 Cor. 12:14–27).

wanting the struggle to end. A person with a mental disorder may think PA S T O R S O N T H E that evidence of God working in his life would be his mind being clear CHALLENGE OF again. A depressed person views M E N TA L I L L N E S S the might of God as lifting the darkIN THE CHURCH ness: life once again having meaning, peaceful sleep returning, and once again experiencing delight. While we hope and pray for these great dis“Seminary didn’t prepare plays of the power of God, the Bible me for how to meet with opens our eyes to much more. my parishioners while Paul prays that the Colossians they were admitted to would be “strengthened with all mental health facilities. power, according to his gloriWithin the first five years ous might, for all endurance and patience” (Col. 1:11). Peter speaks of of my ministry, I had being grieved by various trials in this visited every facility in We Are Made to Have Hope age so that our faith may be shown the county, some more forth in a way that brings divine than once.” praise (1 Pet. 1:7). We see God’s gloriPart of being human is that we were ous might working in a person’s life created for more than life in this when he is able to endure even the fallen world (Heb. 2:5–10; Eccles. 3:11). We even most trying situations and still bless the Lord (Job see this in the world’s messages of trite consolation: 1:21). On this side of glory, we don’t have guarantees “I’m sure things are going to get better”; “I know it’s that struggles will ever end. But we do know that the going to be okay”; or “It will all work out in the end.”

Spirit of God is at work in the hearts of struggling Believers, however, have real words of hope because believers. As those coming alongside, we get a frontthe eternal glories have begun in us even now. These row seat to the budding and growth of spiritual fruit. troubles of mind and body will not compare with the Even the fact that the person is still struggling—still glory that is to be revealed in us in the age to come coming to church and participating in the means (Rom. 8:18). Yet our hope is not merely in the fact of grace, still crying to God for help—these are all that God will one day consummate a perfect existestimonies of a life filled with the “glorious might” tence for all of his own. Part of our present hope is of Christ himself. We need to help shine the light of the encouragement that God is working in us even these supernatural realities into the life of the strugnow as the firstfruits of that new creation (2 Cor. gler, allowing them to see glimpses of the glory of 5:17; James 1:18). We are able to see the supernatural God at work in them. work that God is doing, even in the darkness of sin Engaging in the sufferings of humanity is by no and suffering. Helping a suffering brother to recogmeans easy, but Christ’s love for us in the gospel nize that work is perhaps one of the most important gives us the supernatural ability to truly love others ways to truly treat them as human—because it con(1 John 4:19). May God grant us wisdom and grace nects the difficulties of his life with the eternal as we tread these valleys of the shadow. May we be purposes of our good and loving God. vessels of his goodness and mercy until at last we all dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Conclusion

Craig Marshall (DMin candidate, Reformed Presbyterian Theo-

Those in the midst of suffering often have a truncated view of what constitutes God’s working in a given situation. Such a view can easily be confined to

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logical Seminary; MDiv, Westminster Seminary California) is pastor of Grace Bible Church in Escondido, California, and assistant director of the Institute for Biblical Counseling and Discipleship.

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book reviews 46 “They are first and foremost people, created in the image of God.”

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BOOK REVIEWS

Ministry with Persons with Mental Illness and their Families EDITED BY ROBERT H. ALBERS, WILLIAM H. MELLER, AND STEVEN D. THURBER Fortress Press, 2012 256 pages (paperback), $29.00

I

n this scholarly textbook, eighteen authors collaborate in an effort “to develop an integrated and interrelated approach that honors the work of the specialists in psychiatry, psychology, and theology” (5). Even though the overall tone leans toward the clinical (with no shortage of medical, scientific, and public health terminology), most of the authors are to be commended for translating the jargon into language that is generally accessible. Their heir effort is limited to nine diagnoses out of hundreds “that are either most common in this society [i.e., Western society] or are most challenging” (8), such as depression, anxiety disorders, psychotic disorders, personality disorders, substance-use disorders, eating disorders, autism, acquired brain injury, and dementia.

The he authors come “together in an interdisciplinary, collaborative effort to ensure accuracy of information concerning the medical dimensions of mental illness, interpret these illnesses from a faith perspective, and make suggestions relative to effective ministry. Readers will learn how science and a faith tradition can not only coexist but work in tandem to alleviate the pain of the afflicted and affected.” This threefold purpose finds expression in every chapter, each addressing a single diagnosis (or diagnostic group) in the following manner: first, an exemplary case study; second, a psychiatric or psychological presentation of clinical features and social implications of

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the diagnosis; and third, a theological presentation of ideas for ministering (i.e., caregiving) to persons with mental illness and their families.

The psychiatrist and psychologist contributors are concerned with overcoming both ignorance and misinformation about how they understand and approach the treatment of mental illness. Overall, I found the “accuracy of information concerning the medical dimensions of mental illness” to be good and helpful in their descriptions. If you have not already encountered family, friends, or congregants fitting the descriptions offered here, I agree with the editors that you most likely will. I have known and ministered to at least one person fitting each description, most of whom have a working knowledge of their clinical diagnosis vocaband corresponding vocab ulary. The psychiatric / presentapsychological presenta tions are well suited to help the reader apprehend how clinical professionals and their patients understand and communicate these disorders.

I did not find the authors’ interpretations of “these illnesses from a faith perspective” nearly so helpful. It became evident early on that I do not share many of the authors’ religious convictions. I therefore found myself often struggling against or outright rejecting many of their interpretations. Although all of the theological contributors were trained and/or serve in Christian institutions, none offers an interpretation from a specifically Christian perspective.

The “faith perspective” offered here is intended to be broad enough for synagogue, church, or mosque. The Bible, although occasionally referenced, is but one resource among “various sacred texts.” Several contributors were explicit in their

effort to encourage dialogue among people in varying faith communities.

In his contribution on depression, Robert H. Albers is right to remind us that “the diagnosis of the person afflicted with any mental illness does not become her or his identity….They are first and foremost people, created in the image of God” (20).

Most of the theological interpretations and recommendations offered throughout this volume are applications of this bedrock doctrine with which we heartily agree. Beyond that, however, direct use of Christian Scripture is not only minimal, it is often perturbing. For example, referencing the casting out of Legion by Jesus in Mark 5:1–20, Albers asserts that “exorcism was the singular ‘treatment of choice,’ simply because knowledge of mental illnesses as we know them today had not yet been discovered” (4). His interpretation suggests not only what C. S. Lewis called “chronological snobbery,” but also a troubling doctrine of Scripture. Theological interpretations throughout this volume suggest that the underlying doctrines of God, man, sin, and salvation are likewise troubling.

The aforementioned doctrine clearly informs the many practical “suggestions relative to effective ministry” offered in each chapter. The common thread upon which many helpful suggestions hang is this: persons are more than material bodies with a diagnosis, and persons afflicted with or affected by mental illness need and deserve compassion and care.

Even so, there are many riches to be mined from the experiences of others presented in these chapters. I found the chapters on autism, acquired brain injury, and dementia especially poignant and illuminating.

As the authors see it, “ministry” is driven by the moral imperative “to address effectively the agony and anguish that is often experienced when a person in the family or in the wider community is diagnosed with a mental illness” (6). Its goal is by and large therapeutic. Quoting Albers again: “For the people who claim a particular faith tradition, there are rites, rituals, traditions, and insights that are germane to assist in their healing” (6). In particular, religious caregivers are encouraged to show compassion to individuals and their affected families and communities, facilitate comfort and trusting patience in the ministrations of psychiatrists and other medical caregivers, and promote understanding of mental illness within the faith communities.

This book offers much to help “religious caregivers” understand not only people with mental illness and their families, but also the prevailing therapeutic framework within which they are diagnosed and treated. Christians should read this book with discernment.

Rev. Stephen Donovan (MDiv, Westminster Seminary California) is the Pastor of Congregational Life at Escondido United Reformed Church in Escondido, California.

Martin Luther: Preacher of the Cross

BY JOHN T. PLESS Concordia, 2013 140 pages (paperback), $24.99

M

artin Luther is widely known as the church reformer par excellence. In just over three years, the world will celebrate the five hundredth anniversary of the posting of the Ninety-Five Theses, marking the beginning of the Reformation.

There is no doubt that such an occasion will stir up a renewed interest in the Reformer’s life, thought, and influence on the history of Western civilization. While Luther’s theological treatises—Bondage of the Will, Babylonian Captivity, and Freedom of a Christian—continue to be printed and enjoy a place on the required reading list of many seminaries, we often forget that Luther was also a pastor. In John Pless’s latest book, Martin Luther: Preacher of the Cross, we get a rare glimpse into how Luther applied his evangelical theology to the care of souls.

Enlisting his experience as a pastor and professor of pastoral theology at Concordia Theological Seminary, Pless taps into Luther’s letters, dedicatory epistles, and lesser known works to show how the Reformer brought gospel comfort and consolation to people under his care. Readers hoping to find quickfix techniques to move people toward a relationship with God will surely be disappointed. Instead, you’ll find that Luther’s pastoral care is always focused on God’s movement to sinners in Christ. Pless observes: “For Luther, pastoral care is always preaching or proclamation in the broadest sense of the term, for it has to do with the delivery of the divine promise in the scriptural Word, the preached Word, and the sacramental Word” (24).

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The full scope of the pastoral vocation is on display as the book is arranged topically through the window of pastoral care, which includes sections on visitation, catechesis, anxiety, doubt, vocation, marriage, care for the poor and needy, as well as for the sick, dying, and grieving. In each instance, we are given a view of Luther seldom seen in the biographies that paint him with much broader strokes.

Here we find Luther, in his own words, demonstrating pastoral sensitivity, sacrificial love, and compassion for sinners in need of Christ’s saving work.

Through Luther’s letters you find that he was certainly no “respecter of persons.” For example, we find him offering spiritual comfort to the mel-ancholic Prince Joachim of Anhalt, as well as taking the time to teach his Wittenberg barber, Peter Benkensdorf, enkensdorf, how to pray. Hee played the advocate for a lowly fisherman who found himself in trouble with the civil authorities, and offered instruction to a woman anxious over the doctrine of predestination.

Pless also reminds us that the biblical doctrines that Luther recovered, such as the two kingdoms or the priesthood of all believers, were not simply ivory-tower theological debates; they found application and expression in a variety of vocations spanning from pastor to painter to politician. I particularly found Luther’s spiritual care for soldiers useful for my own pastoral context (70–73).

Pastors will be especially drawn to the chapter on pastoral care for marriages, and perhaps will find some consolation and humor in Luther’s complaint over spending all of his time working with troubled marriages (77)! Like all pastors, Luther occasionally found himself caught between a rock and a hard place, stumped by the sins and perplexing situations of his parishioners.

Here Luther’s distinction and use of the law and

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gospel are particularly helpful. Luther certainly desired that marriage be held in honor as a gift of the Creator. Thus he could preach in a wedding sermon in 1531, “For there is no jewelry more precious than God’s Word; through it you come to regard your spouse as a gift of God and as long as you do that, you have no regrets” (80).

My only critique is that one of the most beneficial aspects of this book was relegated to the appendix: “Baptism as Means of C o n s o l a t i o n i n L u t h e r ’s Pastoral Theology.” While this had previously been delivered as a lecture and subsequently published in a journal, it is refashdeserving of being refash ioned into part of the book proper. Because Luther’s sacramental theology is so often misunderstood, this section demonstrates the profound importance Luther placed on baptism as God’s external conword and, therefore, its con tinued relevance for pastoral care in the life of the believer from cradle to grave. As Luther writes in the Large Catechism, “Christians always have enough to do to firmly believe what baptism promises and brings—victory over death and the devil, the forgiveness of sin, God’s grace, the entire Christ, and the Holy Spirit with his gifts” (123). If you typically forego book appendices, I highly recommend taking the time to read through this one.

The past few decades have witnessed an increased interest in pastoral theology. The fruit of such labor has, unfortunately, led to the adoption of therapeutic models: pastor as therapist, counselor, and psychological healer (9). Hebrews exhorts us, “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith” (Heb. 13:7). My hope is that through this little book, pastors and laity will rediscover the lost art of pastoral care.

Despite the span of nearly five hundred years, some

things have not changed. Sinners still find themselves in need of a Savior, and Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb.13:8). Thus Luther could offer these comforting words to his own mother when she grew seriously ill: You know the real basis and foundation of your salvation, on which you must rest your confidence in this and all troubles, namely Jesus Christ, the cornerstone, who will never waver or fail us, nor allow us to sink and perish, for he is the Savior and he is called the Savior of all poor souls, of all who face tribulation and death, of all who rely on him and call on his name. (120)

Brian Thomas is associate pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in San Diego, California.

God in the Whirlwind: How the Holy-love of God Reorients Our World

BY DAVID F. WELLS Crossway, 2014 272 pages (hardcover), $24.99

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ith this publication, David We l l s a d d s a fifth book to a collection of writings that began some years ago with a sabbatical research project exploring why evangelicals, broadly understood, don’t do theology. While the former books focused on the interplay between Christ and culture, this book is the first to focus more on Christ—whom he sees as the answer to the questions raised in the other books. As I scanned the chapter headings and subheadings, I saw that the contents looked solid and worthy of time and attention. But I found that this book was less accessible to me. I like structure and overview, usually an area of strength for Wells, so that readers can see where they are headed. But the more I stared at the table of contents and flipped through the chapters to get a sense of the layout of the book, the more

confused I became. As subsections of chapters, we have “God as Holy-love” (chapter 1), “God’s Holylove” (chapter 4), “God’s Holy-love” (chapter 6) and “Holy-love” (chapter 9). The book seems to be variations on a theme.

Readers come to books with expectations. Wells has noted that many readers were disappointed with some of the earlier books for not offering solutions.

Other readers, nevertheless, valued a clear statement of the problem. If I have a suggestion here, it is to come to the book with the right expectations.

If I may indulge in a travel analogy, this is neither a gossipy travel log, nor a monograph on a subject that an author became interested in during travel. It’s more like an annotated itinerary. It is an itinerary purged of the dross.

It won’t waste your time. But you will have to do your own traveling to discover why this route makes sense.

Wells’s thesis is that God’s holiness and love, being attriattri butes of a unified being, are never found apart from each other and that they condition each other. The former argument is denied by religious liberals who wish to worship a God of love, relegating holi holiness and wrath to the Old Testament. So far so good, except that Wells intends to write about Christ and culcul ture with the focus on Christ.

Unfortunately, I think much of what he explores is focused on God, apart from Christ. As such, many of the points could be made, and likely have been made, by commentators such as Dennis Prager, who calls himself an “ethical monotheist.” In other words, there is nothing specifically Christian about many of the insights in the book. I leave it to the reader to decide whether that is a problem.

There are also some unique perspectives that arise in his discussion of divine attributes. Wells lists some attributes under the headings of holiness and love, with righteousness, goodness, justice, jealousy, and wrath coming under the broader heading of “holiness,” and mercy, compassion, kindness, and MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

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patience under the broader heading of “love.” I found it interesting that Wells places “goodness” under holiness rather than love, implying that he sees goodness as an abstract moral term (other writers would use “goodness” as a term for benevolence). And holiness itself might be taken in a narrow way to mean moral holiness, while God’s holiness is often of a broader sort.

God is set apart from us in many ways. He is transcendent. In any case, this discussion is breezed through. This is exactly the kind of place to slow down and tease things apart carefully, surveying where others have taken a different turn.

Or at the very least, distinguish ways certain terms have been used. As a Lutheran, it was frustrating to me to read Wells’s dismissal of Martin Luther at some key points. The first was Luther’s discussion of God’s wrath as his “strange” work and his love as his proper work (122). The argument seems to be that wrath is God’s proper work as much as love, because judgment is part of his eternal character. And God’s justice solves problems. Somehow I don’t think this is sufficient to dismiss Luther. Luther is talking about God’s love of his people. It is “strange” when he punishes them (as in Isaiah 28:21, from whence Luther derived this expression), and proper when he loves them. To cite the fact that it is proper for God to punish the enemies of his people doesn’t prove that it is equally proper for him to punish his own people. Wells seems to read Luther in the abstract, as if the Reformer meant that God’s love in general was proper, while any justice of God was strange. But more care could be taken to interpret the Reformer in context (though I don’t have the space here to explain further).

Wells has a worthwhile point to make regarding God’s “holy-love.” God’s love and his holiness are not to be separated, though modern theology tends to focus on either one attribute or the other.

There is a real tension between these attributes that warrants discussion. Wells thinks he has found a solution to the tension in the hyphen. I don’t. A distinction is not a separation, and two things found together don’t make one thing.

In Lutheran terms, this seems to be a wrestling

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with the nature of law and gospel. Lutherans like to emphasize that both law and gospel are part of the word of God. We like to say that both are further rooted in the character of God. Even when we see them “simultaneously” in the same event, like the cross, they are to be distinguished. God’s love is shown in that Christ died for us. God’s moral holiness was involved. Had God not been holy, he could have just cleared the guilty without a sacrifice, but the debt of sin had to be paid. Still, many have seen this as an example where even in being perfectly fulfilled, the law was transcended. The law condemns the one who justifies the wicked.

But God justifies the wicked after fulfilling the law for them. There is nothing in the law itself that hints of the gospel. The gospel is a surprise.

Equalizing the attributes for the sake of systematic unity doesn’t do justice to the text.

As I read the book, I discovered many worthwhile discussions, even where I disagreed. But I find myself removed from the book’s stance on cultural problems in the church. As a churchman, I know what it is to look at these problems and wonder what we are to do. Anywhere you look, it seems there is no first move that makes sense.

Wells closes the book by saying that when we are God-centered in our thoughts and God-fearing in our hearts, we become true citizens of heaven, and the church becomes an outpost of eternity in our world. Then the world sees God’s glory anew.

I can think of many biblical parallels to this language, and there is much to commend it. The idea that God must be the initiator is solid teaching.

My own hope is that this is already happening, sometimes in small ways we don’t see. Where Wells speaks of “seeing tomorrow” in his last chapter subheading, I would rather end with the vision of the book of Revelation where the New Jerusalem comes out of the sky from God. That was the vision God gave his church in the dark times, and it’s what we need now in our day.

Rick Ritchie is a long-time contributor to Modern Reformation. He is a graduate of Christ College Irvine and GordonConwell Theological Seminary.

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GEEK S QUAD

W I L L I A M C OW P E R : D E P R E S S I O N A N D T H E A RT O F H Y M N W R I T I N G

S

by BARB DUGUID

ometimes God’s grace is not a pretty sight. We love to romanticize the gospel, but at times, when God lays hold of people who are caught in the grip of the saddest vignettes of human experience, the end product is something we would hardly want to sing about, let alone live through ourselves. So it is with the puzzling life of William Cowper, renowned poet and hymn writer of the seventeenth century. The beginning of his story fits well with our fancies of gospel transformation. Sad, depressed, suicidal person meets wonderful Christian psychiatrist who loves the gospel. Sad person accepts Christ and his life is dramatically transformed. He goes on to write humorous, witty poetry and becomes nationally famous. Then, after another traumatic event in his life, he becomes sad again and meets a kind and gracious pastor. Godly people take him in and love him sacrificially, and the depressed person blossoms under spiritual truth and nurturing love, writing many wonderful hymns and clever poems.

This was William Cowper’s story. Before Cowper was born in 1731 into a pastor’s household, his parents had lost two children; they lost two more before his mother died when he was six years old. William was sent to boarding school and suffered a great deal of bullying. These sad events shaped the landscape of fear, anxiety, and depression against which William would live out his days. Rev. Cowper chose the law as a career

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for his emotionally fragile son, who crumbled at the prospect of his examination for a clerkship at the House of Lords in 1763. Following three suicide attempts, he was admitted to Nathaniel Cotton’s asylum at St. Alban’s for treatment. Through the gospel ministry of this godly doctor, Cowper came to faith in Christ and began to flourish emotionally and spiritually for a period of years.

Although God granted him intermittent periods of spiritual and emotional stability, the end of Cowper’s story isn’t very sweet or romantic. A series of emotional traumas sent Cowper into a deep spiral of anguish and despair that lasted for years.

A failed courtship and persistent inability to handle the stresses of the working world contributed to his depression. The final blow came with the death of his dear friend, Mary Unwin, who had nursed him faithfully for more than thirty years. Cowper never recovered from this loss. This extraordinarily gifted man, who had written such profound hymns, ended his days (in 1800) as a functional atheist, with no assurance of faith, unable to pray or attend church.

What are we to make of William Cowper? We love to hear stories of whispered faith firmly exhaled with a dying breath, but we scarcely know what to do with weak and troubled faith that languishes for long periods and seems to flicker out at last. But God sees things differently.

Though God reigns enthroned in power and might, the Bible tells us of his care for the weak and helpless. The promised Servant of the Lord in Isaiah will not break the bruised reed or put out the smoldering wick (Isa. 42:3)—attributes that Jesus demonstrated in his healing ministry as he cared for people with broken bodies and troubled minds (Matt. 12:15–22).

HANDWRITING AND SIGNATURE OF WILLIAM COWPER, JANUARY 1, 1786 (PEN & INK ON PAPER), PRIVATE COLLECTION / THE BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY

God’s might is not only demonstrated in strengthening us with his power; it is equally on display in sustaining us in our great weakness.

We tend to view God’s work from the microscope of our tiny lives, and we search for evidence of his victories to assure ourselves we are safe. Yet God’s great work in us is designed to demonstrate his power and unique wisdom to all the hosts of heaven—to the angels and archangels, and even to Satan himself (Eph. 3:8–10). Sometimes this power is displayed in a work of grand transformation, in which he makes the weak strong and lifts up the downcast. At other times, God glorifies himself by showing that his power is sufficient to preserve the most fragile person connected to him by the smallest faith—the bruised reeds that seem like they must inevitably break, and the smoldering wicks that seem impossible to keep alight. God thereby displays to the whole spiritual realm that he alone can save and keep the frailest of human beings.

How does this principle help us to understand Cowper as a hymnist, and the people in our own lives who struggle endlessly with depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, mania, and paranoia? Cowper’s hymns and poems give us a hint. For a time, Cowper was England’s foremost poet. Much of his work sparkles with a wit and humor so delightful that MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

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it defies the haunting story of his life.

His poem “The Task” began as a playful request from a friend for some blank verse about a sofa. It developed into a 5,000-line masterpiece that begins with a humble sofa but moves on to discuss a vast range of topics with wisdom and that eye for detail that only a gifted pen can draw out.

Cowper’s hymns are an equally powerful blend of light and darkness.

Whereas we often trade saccharine assurances that in Jesus we are happy all the day, Cowper wrote of a God “who moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform.”1 This God cannot be judged by feeble senses, still less by blind unbelief, and may at times show his people a frowning providence.

But behind these incomprehensible realities of life, God is at work with never failing skill to accomplish his sovereign purposes. Indeed, the dark clouds of life that cause so much fear “are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head.” Behind the frowning providence lies a smiling divine face.

Cowper’s life was a lived-out attempt to hold on to the faith expressed in that hymn in the face of the desperate difficulties of life. I too have had glimpses of fear, pain, depression, and despair. Yet I can’t imagine living with all of them as steady daily companions. Many of us can sing, “Where is the blessedness I knew when first I saw the Lord?

Where is the soul-refreshing view of Jesus and his Word?”2 But can you imagine the challenge of singing that when you have become convinced that you have indeed been cast off by God? In the midst of his pain and confusion, Cowper expressed something about God in his hymns that is unusually rich and powerful. Cowper’s life and work remind us that God’s ways are often mysterious and perplexing. They can bring us to despair because God refuses to bow to our pathetic wisdom, and his stories don’t fit neatly

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on a religious greeting card. God doesn’t save people and make their lives delightful and funfilled. Rather, he calls his people to take up a heavy, brutal cross of suffering and follow Christ. Nor do God’s mysterious ways always have peaceful and sentimental endings, the “calm and serene frame” for which Cowper longed. The “unfathomable mines” of his purposes include godly men and women inflicted with Alzheimer’s, and battles with cancer fought and painfully lost by gentle saints who lacked assurance and peace all the way to the end. They include Christians unable to rest in the comfort of the gospel and driven to end their own lives. Is the account of God’s redemption big enough to include these stories? Is the gospel able to trump the most distressing earthly narrative and save even those who have given up hope for themselves?

PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM COWPER (OIL ON CANVAS), BY LEMUEL FRANCIS ABBOTT (1792)

“INSTEAD OF FEELING EMBARRASSED BY BROTHERS AND SISTERS WHO STRUGGLE WITH DESPERATELY WEAK ASSURANCE, WITH MENTAL ILLNESS, OR WITH TRAUMAS SO SEVERE THAT BRAINS HAVE BEEN ALTERED AND MINDS SHATTERED, PERHAPS WE SHOULD RECOGNIZE THESE AS THE TRUE HEROES OF OUR FAITH.” In his better moments, William Cowper knew that “the dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day, and there have I though vile as he, washed all my sins away.”3 Cowper knew that there was nothing wonderful about his faith that he could offer to God. He was utterly broken, clinging to those who could be strong for him, comforted by the faith of those whom God gave an assurance that he himself lacked. Cowper cast himself on the mercy of God: Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood shall never lose its power; Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more.

Such a salvation is sufficient to take whatever Satan throws at it, sufficient to triumph over our fear and cowardice, even over decaying minds and malfunctioning brains. This salvation doesn’t depend on our dying well or experiencing triumphant daily victories; it depends wholly on Christ’s powerful blood.

John Newton likened suffering saints, such as Cowper, to the burning bush that Moses encountered: always burning but never consumed. 4 Sometimes God allows Satan to torment and buffet his people, over and over again, as if to say, “Do your worst, Satan, but you cannot have this one” (Luke 22:31). In this way, God glorifies himself by demonstrating Satan’s inability to triumph over even the weakest of God’s people.

Instead of feeling embarrassed by brothers and sisters who struggle with desperately weak assurance, with mental illness, or with traumas so severe that brains have been altered and minds shattered, perhaps we should recognize these as the true heroes of our faith. For most of us, our faith grants us a measure of comfort and peace,

even in the dark places of this world. But God asks some of his people to walk by a faith of which they rarely feel the comfort. Their glimpses of hope are transient and barely remembered; their memories of God’s kindness so impaired that they cannot bring them to bear on the next trial. For them, despair is nearly constant, while joy and hope are fleeting and immediately forgotten.

Yet the last shall be first when we reach our heavenly home. Scripture tells us to hold on gently to the weak and fragile people like William Cowper in our church families, and to be patient with them.

They endure a dark life without many of the joys and comforts we experience. But can you hear the shouts of joy when God brings them safely home?

Can you imagine the celebration in heaven when these “poor, lisping, stammering tongues,” much to their own amazement, join in singing, There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins; And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

Such are perhaps the greatest trophies of God’s grace, the most dazzling testimonies of God’s incredible power to save to the uttermost.

Barb Duguid holds an advanced counseling certificate from the Christian Counseling and Education Foundation and counsels on the staff of Christ Presbyterian Church in Grove City, Pennsylvania. She is the author of Extravagant Grace: God’s Glory Displayed in Our Weakness (P&R, 2013).

1 2 3 4

“God Moves in a Mysterious Way,” 1774.

“O for a Closer Walk with God,” 1772.

“There is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” 1772.

John Newton, The Letters of John Newton (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2011 reprint), 151.

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B A C K PA G E

Oh how I love blessed Jesus the one who died to save us He makes me laugh like I was Beavis.

He is my strongest reason, the only one who stays through the seasons.

He picks up my broken pieces.

He’s there in every stroke of genius.

He forgives me for my constant treason.

Been watching since I was a fetus.

—JONATHA N CARR

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LETTERING BY ASHLEY SHUGART

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