The Mental-Health Practices of Jesus
Americans are gripped by anxiety and depression—it’s the silent epidemic that is not-so-silent. Just in the last decade, the number of people reporting depression symptoms is up by 60 percent. We see it in our congregation, on our ministry team, and under our own roof. It’s why, at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, I partnered with psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Emina to write a book about mental health and the way of Jesus. If our mission in life is to “love the Lord your God with all [our] heart, all your soul, and all [our] mind” and to “love [our] neighbor as [our]self,” our mental health will play a key role. So Daniel and I took a deep dive into the intersection between the practical science of mental health and the practical theology of mental health.
Daniel wanted to title the book A Way to Live, but the publisher landed on The Suicide Solution. Daniel’s title is actually a much better take on the book’s scope and impact. Jesus tells us He came to “give [us] a rich and satisfying life,” and that means He taught and modeled a way of living that helps us to flourish in life—in our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Embedded in His lifestyle, and in the values of the Kingdom of God He practices, are the building blocks of our mental-health foundation. So, I’ve extracted what I call the “mental-health practices of Jesus” from the work Daniel and I did for The Suicide Solution—these are everyday patterns and practices that bring healing, wholeness, and resilience to our lives…
First, a Preamble…
In the book, Daniel and I compare our mental health to a computer’s hardware and software working together. Our hardware is our biology, and our software is our soul. Our emotional and psychological challenges are influenced by both our hardware and software, so our strategies for flourishing must include interventions in both aspects of our life. When Jesus told the Parable of the Wheat and Weeds (Matthew 13:24-30) He challenged us to discern between the “healthy wheat” He’s planted in the field of our soul and the “tares” planted by the influence of a conniving enemy. Often, these tares are deceptive storylines planted in our personal narrative that are intended to harm us, or break down our mental health.
Story works to construct, give meaning to, and set boundaries around our experience of reality. Our story is the “narrative code” that unlocks the meaning behind our experiences in life. The story we tell ourselves, about ourselves, determines how we function, and influences our limitations and possibilities in life. Dan McAdams, a professor of psychology at Northwestern University, calls this our “narrative identity”—it’s our own personal mythology, complete with plot twists, thematic threads, and heroes and villains. McAdams says we tell ourselves two basic self-narratives: 1) Redemptive Stories, and 2) Contamination Stories. The first kind of story is transplanted from the Kingdom of God, where redemption is not only the mission of the Messiah, but the heartbeat of life. The second kind of story is exported and propagated by the Kingdom of Darkness, where “killing, stealing, and destroying” (John 10:10) is the mission.
The “bugs” (or viruses) in our story are destructive narratives that operate, often undetected, in the background of our emotional/spiritual/psychological operating system—distortions that cause us to perceive reality, and our own story, inaccurately. When Jesus launched His public ministry by proclaiming, “I have come to set captives free” (Luke 4:18), He meant that He’d come to tell us the truth about our story and to “de-bug” us. You could say that Jesus’s de-captivating mission is to offer tech support for our human hardware/software issues—to find the destructive narratives embedded in our story and eradicate them.
But He will not do this unilaterally in our life; in the Kingdom of God, transformation is always tied to invitation. Jesus is inviting us to partner with Him to first surface, then move past our debilitating bugs…
A Way to Live…
If we pay close attention to the teaching and life-practices of Jesus, we discover His way of living promotes psychological and emotional wellbeing…
- A healthy brain—like a healthy body or healthy spiritual life or healthy psychology—is the product of a fitness mentality. The function of our brain is not fixed, but constantly changes in the context of biological influences, psychological influences, social influences, and spiritual influences. So, when Jesus tells us the fruit of our relationship with Him is a “rich and satisfying life,” we know He is working in every aspect of our life to improve our “fitness.” When we embrace “the mind of Christ,” we’re embracing a healthy-brain mentality.
- Jesus has come to de-captivate our story… He practices a dependent relationship with His Father, continuously “remaining” in Him as His mirror reflecting the truth about His being. And He invites us to do the same with Him: “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit” (John 15:4-5). So, when we are remaining in Jesus—continuously centering our heart, mind, soul, and strength on Him—we are always looking into a mirror that reflects the truth about our story, or the truth about who we are. When Jesus looks in that mirror, He sees: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased. Listen to Him!”
- Jesus lived a physically health life – Jesus lived an intensely physical, relational, and purpose-driven life: walking long distances, eating simple foods, working with His hands, spending a lot of time outdoors, maintaining close community, and regularly withdrawing for prayer and rest. His relationship with God was threaded into all His physical activities. And our physical fitness has a profound impact on our mental fitness.
- The Beatitudes as a Template – “The Beatitudes,” the prelude to what we now call “The Sermon on the Mount” (Matthew 5 and 6), is a series of eight broad blessings, all beginning with “Blessed are those who…” Jesus’ lifestyle reflected emotional and spiritual wholeness—He practiced compassion, resisted anxiety about status or possessions, and lived with a clear sense of mission and dependence on God. So, locked inside His blessings are mental-health practices that are remarkably practical for everyday life…
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- “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” People who recognize their deep need for God are welcomed into His kingdom. Practice confession and dependence on God. Regularly acknowledge your need for God through prayer, honesty, and humility.
- “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Those who grieve over sin, brokenness, and suffering will receive God’s comfort and restoration. Practice lament and compassion. Make space to grieve brokenness honestly instead of avoiding pain or numbing it.
- “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Humble people who surrender power to God rather than grasping for control will ultimately receive His blessing. Practice surrender and gentleness. Choose other-centeredness, humility, listening, and self-control rather than domination or defensiveness.
- “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” People who passionately long for God’s goodness and justice will be satisfied by Him. Practice pursuing what is good and just. A lifestyle of justice, or intentionally seek alignment with Jesus’ priorities in your choices and, relationships, and life mission.
- “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” Those who extend compassion and forgiveness to others will experience God’s mercy themselves. Practice forgiveness and empathy. Extend grace to people who fail, wound, or inconvenience you.
- “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” People with sincere, undivided devotion to Jesus will experience deep intimacy with Him. Practice integrity and simplicity. Live with an undivided (congruent) heart, where your outward actions match your inner motives.
- “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” Those who actively pursue reconciliation and healing reflect the character of God’s family. Practice reconciliation. Move toward conflict with courage and humility, helping restore damaged relationships.
- “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” People who suffer because they remain faithful to God belong to His kingdom. Practice courageous faithfulness—or nurture your convictions about Jesus. Pay ridiculous attention to His heart—the “why’s” behind how He relates to people. Remain committed to what is right even when it costs you approval, comfort, or opportunity.
- “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you… on my account.” Jesus says His followers can rejoice when they are opposed for following Him because they share in the reward of God’s faithful servants. Practice joyful endurance. Stay rooted in hope and love when misunderstood, criticized, or rejected for your faith. This comes from our dependence on His strength, not on our own willpower.
First Things, First
When Paul writes to the young church in Corinth, he feels compelled to remind the followers of Jesus in this multi-ethnic, multi-faith, cosmopolitan port city about a “first thing” that will impact every aspect of their lives: “I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2, NASB). In a “first things first” lifestyle, knowing, loving, and walking in the way of Jesus is the gate to whole-person health. He has come not just to redeem us, but to restore us into wholeness.
Rick Lawrence is Executive Director of Vibrant Faith—he created the new curriculum Following Jesus. He’s editor of the Jesus-Centered Bible and author of 40 books, including his newest Editing Jesus: Confronting the Distorted Faith of the American Church, The Suicide Solution, The Jesus-Centered Life and Jesus-Centered Daily. He hosts the podcast Paying Ridiculous Attention to Jesus.