There's a story I like to tell people who say that someone's faith is not big enough or strong enough to have them not need medications or medical help of sorts...
There was this man, he was on a deserted island. The rain started coming down and the water started rising around him. He cried out to God and asked for a miracle, for him to be saved.
After that plea, a man came by on a boat and offered to take the man to dry land. The man on the island turned him down and said he was waiting for a miracle from God.
The man in the boat left.
Then, a second boat and a third boat passed by and offered the same help. The man on the island responded the same. He was waiting for God to save him, so he passed on the offers, even though the waters had risen so high.
The man cried out again to God, "oh God! Why have you forgotten about me?" God replied that He did not forget about him, and that He had tried 3 times to show him that He was sending a miracle. But each time it was turned down.
How does your miracle come? In the form of medication to help stabilize a chemical imbalance? To prevent seizures?
Does it mean that you don't continue having faith? Does it mean that you have given up on your miracle? Does it mean that God has forgotten you?
No, it absolutely does not. It means that you are accepting a miracle that God has sent - He created the Dr's, He created the science used to find these cures, even if some are only temporary, He gave someone the idea and the knowledge to make these things work to help us.
The diseases are real, the diagnoses are real, the families dealing with them are real. Mental Health Issues are not a sign of lack of faith. Christians need to break this stigma, the world needs to break this stigma...we all need to realize where the miracles really lie.
That's my story. That's how we have Faith. That's why I am on medications, along with my child. I am grateful for the miracle of medical science that the Dr's have shared with us. I am thankful to God for reminding me that I am no less a Christian or have a lesser faith for accepting medications to help us through our diagnoses.
Mental Health Issues do not define who I am, who my child is, how much or how little faith I have. It reminds me that we all have different journies in life, and it would be wrong for me to judge another for a journey I know nothing about.
That would be ignorance.
I don't struggle with this sort of thing, but because of sin this world is cursed. We see that in physical sicknesses like cancer so why not mental? Depression and other sorts of mental health issues are very real.
ReplyDeleteI think they can be triggered by outside circumstances, but so can physical sickness again; think of lung cancer and smoking.
words to live by , thanks for sharing , very nice :) rafflecopter name Treen Goodwin :)
ReplyDeleteI agree wholeheartedly with you. I need to be on several medications and I know that it bothers my husband who feels prayer and faith should be enough. But they don't seem to have been which is why I need the extra help.
ReplyDeleteI wholeheartedly agree with your opinion on this issue. My son has epilepsy, he is on medication for the disorder. He also has autism. His health issues definitely do not define who he is & he's amazing!
ReplyDeleteI remember reading that story before, it was quite interesting. I agree, religion needs to break the stigma associated with health issues and how it should be handled. Everyone deals with things different, if medicine helps you then go for it, religion should have no say in it.
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