Editorial: Fall 2021
Fall 2021
The Tokyo Olympic Games are now written in history and one of the stories that will resonate for years to come is the health of Simone Biles. She entered the Olympics with many claiming she was the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) of gymnastics. Her unexpected withdrawal from the team final came with the news that she was going to prioritize her mental health. Withdrawals from other events followed and the term “twisties” entered the consciousness of sports fans. “Twisties” describes a sort of mental block in gymnastics in which a gymnast will struggle to twist and spin, even “getting lost” in midair.
Confession time–I’m not a big gymnastics fan, but this story caught my attention. There are various elements here that reflect our society, including the obvious reality that human achievement is ultimately fleeting. Success is transient. The greatest are fallible. Many have climbed to the top of the sporting ladder to find the frustration that reaching their goals did not satisfy their longing for meaning. Sport presents us with loud warnings against idolatry and the pursuit of man’s acclaim.
Beyond the obvious you couldn’t avoid noticing the responses to Miss Biles’ afflictions. A BBC headline read, “Why ‘superhuman’ Simone Biles could change attitudes to mental health in sport.” Yet a headline in the Daily Mail online stated, “Sorry Simone Biles…you let down your team-mates, your fans and your country.” Such polarized views engendered fierce debate on social media.
I’m not in a place to make comment on the mental health of a famous US gymnast, but the responses demonstrate a problem we face in the church. How are we to react to others struggling with their mental health? Is my depressed brother guilty of some hidden, unconfessed sin? Is my anxious sister simply guilty of a lack of faith? Or do we see them as suffering from the effects of the Fall on health and thus conclude the Bible is insufficient to help them? They need the care of psychiatrist or psychologist, but not the counsel of a pastor. Do we sympathize with the sufferer while questioning their spiritual health? Or do we point them to the help of the world and ignore the help of the Lord and His Word? Polarized views about mental health exist in most churches.
Paul gives us some words of counsel: “Warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men” (1 Thessalonians 5:14). We should recognize that different saints will struggle with different problems. Just because we may not suffer as they do doesn’t mean that their battles are not real. We shouldn’t presume to know their minds or to judge their hearts. When confronted with a depressed or anxious believer, we must be careful to treat them as individuals. First and foremost, we must comfort and support them in the spirit of patience. And yet we must not ignore sin. When sin is present, we must engage words of compassionate warning. At all times, our response to someone battling mental issues must be marked by compassion, whatever the cause of the symptoms.
It’s not surprising that opinions are so diverse when people assess an athlete who shows herself to be human. It is more surprising when the children of God, sinners who profess to know the grace of God, fail to show the compassion of God to those suffering in a fallen world.
We do see every day that among the best of God’s servants, there are those who are always doubting, always looking to the dark side of every providence, who look at the threatening more than at the promise, who are ready to write bitter things against themselves.
C.H. Spurgeon, “Weak Hands and Feeble Knees”
Some of you may be in great distress of mind, a distress out of which no fellow-creature can deliver you. You are poor nervous people at whom others often laugh. I can assure you that God will not laugh at you; He knows all about the sad complaint of yours, so I urge you to go to Him, for the experience of many has taught us that, “the Lord is gracious and full of compassion.”
C.H. Spurgeon, “Remembering God’s Works”