Jan 11, 2011 6 min read

While I would afford modern medicine the right to give a proven drug to a patient, I firmly believe that is an exception rather than a rule, and most certainly only for a ?time,? not the rest of their life. Unfortunately, psychological drugs are the savior of those who are mentally desperate, just as welfare is the savior of those who are financially desperate. The ?help? of a psychological drug or a government check is, in its rightful place, intended to alliviate an acute burden while the recipient seeks a more permanent solution. It should not be used to dull the senses, reliquish responsibility or be be an ultimate end for the rest of life as we know it?yet that is precisely what psychological drugs are intended and prescribed for today as well as how many view their first of the month handout. These are the saviors of the 21st century which are actually broken cisterns and false gods. Has a nation ever changed its gods?

(Yet they are not gods at all.)

But my people have exchanged their glorious God

for worthless idols.

12 Be appalled at this, you heavens,

and shudder with great horror,?

declares the LORD.

13 ?My people have committed two sins:

They have forsaken me,

the spring of living water,

and have dug their own cisterns,

broken cisterns that cannot hold water.~Jeremiah 2:11-13

Our culture has created its own cisterns that hold no water and forsaken the true and living water our Lord freely gives. These broken cisterns do not ?cure? people either, but they keep them just above the breaking point where they must fall if change is going to come about in their lives. A great man once said, ?Until the pain it takes to stay the same becomes greater than the pain it takes to change, you will not change.?

Both the mentally desperate and the financially desperate have equally serious spiritual problems if they are relying on drugs or checks to fix their lives. When we not only allow, but insist that these false gods can save, there is no room for Christ to actually save because there is no room for the Holy Spirit to convict toward repentance. Thankfully, God saves despite our lack of diligence toward Him, but let us not grieve the Holy Spirit by contradicting His works and His ways with our own ways which are diabolically opposed to His.

And what of those who are saved and seek these methods? Does God not have the power to save and keep? I wouldn?t trust a God with my eternity if I couldn?t trust Him with my present struggles.

Mia is my five year old. She is the spitting image and personality of her father. My husband is very intellegent, but had trouble in school because of his ?hyperactivity.? He, as well as she, has a personality trait that (is actually a strength) detracts from their ability to focus on things they are not interested in without other interests coming to mind constantly or being distracted easily. While he had trouble sitting and reading a book his entire life up until the past few years, within one year of homeschooling, Mia has overcome her ?label? and can, to my amazement, sit and focus on phonics or read to me while the baby is crying, Addie is running around or the phone is ringing.

I tell you this not to say I am a good teacher on any level, but because my obedience to Christ?s directives in that still small voice to homeschool even though, 1. It didn?t make sense 2. it is very difficult 3. I initially didn?t want to, have produced a fruit in my daughter that, if I had neglected and denied, would have instead forced her into a setting where she would have struggled and been ?diagnosed? psychologically (for the rest of her life, perhaps!) as ?ADHD? or the like as my husband was.

A man?s heart plans his way,

But the LORD directs his steps. ~Proverbs 16:9

Are people prone to certain flaws, difficulties and challanges in their personalities? Absolutely. Is it cause for psychological treatment, diagnosis, drugs and councel? Absolutely not. It is cause to turn to Christ and rely solely on Him.

To me, psychological help, along with all it?s many facets are the Emperor?s New Clothes. Everyone trust in, esteems and reccommends them to their distraught aquaintances but they and their king ? Freud ? are standing in their underware. Personally, I?m tired of looking at their indecentcy and enduring their exploitation of the people I love while everyone stands around applauding.

Though I purport that psychology should be under fire, I equally believe the church should be under fire in this area 1. Because they support these methods and 2. Because they have abdicated their responsibility to serve those whom psychology exploits ? not only by forgetting and avoiding them because of their ?quirks,? but also by pointing them to someone else ? anyone else – so they might not have to invest in such ones.

My mother has lived in the same area for over thirty years. Most of that time she has attended churches frequently, yet not one individual from any of them has independantly (without being asked), genuinely taken an interest in her as a person for any length of time. That, to me, is abhorrent.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. ~James 1:27

So, the solution is not a cure for the symptoms. My mother will always be bipolar. She will always get depressed and she will always experience periods of severe mania. The solution for her is Christ and her support should be His church. He may well and most probably not choose to ?cure? her physically on this side of eternity -but He does expect her to obey Him if she is His. he also commands me to love her, serve her, honor her and respect her as long as she lives despite her abnormal actions. He calls us to love one another through a genuine relationship and investment in each other. My security will never be found in a drug or a doctor as far as human behavior is concerned. Only Christ can cure that ? He is the doctor we veraciously and deperately need.

On hearing this, Jesus said, ?It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ?I desire mercy, not sacrifice.?~Matthew 9:12-13