Once, some friends and I were in the church kitchen washing dishes after a potluck. They started sharing their therapy experiences. All of them saw some benefit yet believed they should feel better than they did. When they asked for my thoughts, I replied, “Most of us already have what we need to get through rough patches in life; we just don’t make good use of it. Therapy is more like an Ace bandage that helps heal in the short term, but we shouldn’t keep wearing it.”
Professional treatment can help, yet recent articles by practitioners like Clay Routledge, Camille Bromley, and Daniel Duane raise good questions about our culture’s over-reliance on expensive, protracted interventions and medications just to get through normal life circumstances. As every sniffle or ache doesn’t mean a trip to the doctor, many bumps in life’s road often just need some intentional action on our part and some friendly support from people around us.
Physical health matters. Good diet, exercise, and regular sleep contribute to emotional wellness. Be careful about relying on substances or influencers. Get out and about, especially for productive activities that help others. I admire how women’s sewing groups or men’s work crews do more than make stuff. Conversations and relationships in such groups help many people through tough times.
What about faith and the Bible? In one way, they prescribe, showing us what to do, like pray. Most therapy is just unloading on a listening ear. Unloading on God is cheaper and always available. David’s psalms show a lot of therapy! The Bible’s guidance for personal conduct, like the Ten Commandments and Paul’s house rules in his letters, addresses the psychological stressors emerging from dysfunctional human interactions. If we lived more like God instructs us, we’d have less dysfunction and more resilience (see Isaiah 48:18).
The Bible also describes, giving a picture of certain people and how they lived. In this picture, we see that other people faced tough times; they didn’t suffer alone, and adversity is part of life. Bible heroes don’t always understand why things happen, but they trust God. The hard chapters aren’t left out; they become part of a bigger story that still gives hope thousands of years later.
Good professionals, including your regular doctor, do good work. Use them wisely. Do your own work to help make your struggles become part of your wonderful story that blesses others.
Dr. Carl Grosse is an ordained pastor and the author of Faith Along the Way, a weekly reflection for KnoxTNToday that encourages readers to discover God’s presence in everyday life and share His love with others.
Follow KnoxTNToday on Facebook, Instagram, X, and LinkedIn. Get all KnoxTNToday articles in one place with our free newsletter. Comments may be sent to news@knoxtntoday.com.
