So what do I really think about mental health?

Some of you may wonder what I really think about the idea of supernatural peace. I realize that my posts may seem like a conundrum: 

• A few months ago I wrote that emotions are simply the product of our choices. 
• Yet, several days ago I wrote that mental health issues are more nuanced than we like to admit. 
• Then my last post I wrote about God's perfect peace. 
  
• Not to mention my speech about eating disorders. 

​So must Christians have inner peace or not? How do I reconcile this conundrum?

I believe that sometimes God doesn't give once-and done easy fixes (2 Corinthians 12:8-9). I believe this sometimes happens to our emotions as well. Sometimes He leads us on a winding, lonely, dark path--because, in His omniscient love, he wants us to learn something there we would miss otherwise. Instead of giving us a free ski-lift ride to the mountaintop, he calls us climb rocky terrain because he knows it's better for our spiritual health. 

And yet, He also knows our limits (Hebrews 4:15-16). He kneels by our side in our time of greatest weakness and holds us up when we would fall (Psalm 91:12). It is during the darkest times of life that we most rejoice to see the light.

Most importantly, that light of hope is unlike anything the world can offer. Instead of mere distractions, Christ offers genuine peace for our trouble, meaning for our suffering and hope for our future.

Yet, every day—every moment--we must fight to keep our eyes focused on that hope set before us (2 Corinthians 10:5, Hebrews 12:1-2). Every person has that battle. Some people are in a hotter part of the combat, or don't have as much training, or they may have taken some hits and don't have the strength to fight. 

Romans 15:1 commands, "We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves."

Since it is only by God's grace that we achieve any measure of spiritual success (1 Corinthians 15:10), we must never look down on those who are struggling. Instead, we should come by their side and point them to the One who seems so far away. And we should stay there with them as long as it takes for them to see that glorious light of hope.