That’s The Problem With Our Problems

The other morning on television I watched a group of people sitting on the ground in a circle expressing forced laughter.  Apparently research has shown that the health benefits of laughter are far-reaching, strengthening one’s immune system, boosting energy, diminishing pain and giving protection from the damaging effects of stress.  More than one person had a stressed out look on their face and so I couldn’t help but wonder how the rest of the day was going to pan out for them when once again they’re on their own left with their thoughts, fears and worries – especially in the middle of the night when so many people lie awake with them.

I don’t say that with any hint of cynicism or skepticism, but I’ve spoken with many a person over the years who’ve gotten themselves involved with happiness groups, self-help and positive thinking groups and the like, and whilst involvement in them can be therapeutical for all together as a group, the effects of such can wear off pretty quickly when faced alone again with their issues.  More than one elderly person has shared with me that while the group has helped him/her get through the day, it’s talk-back radio that’s helped them get through the night – every night!  So many people can’t wait for night to come and when it arrives they can’t wait for the day to come – and it goes on and on and on like that day in day out.

I’m not sure how accurate the research is about the benefits of laughter unless one deals with their issues at the same time. Before I became a Christian I once worked with an over-weight man and at the end of every comment he made, came laughter. I knew nothing about anything in those days but I couldn’t help but think his laughter was a front for his issues. Similarly, it was the habit of a business man to greet all with the biggest of smiles, the strongest of handshakes, the loudest, “great to see you” and the heartiest of laughter expressed for any comments made.  Not a trouble in all the world one would have thought and it went on for years like that.

Then one day I was told he was in hospital as a result of having a nervous break-down.  A few weeks went by before I saw him again.  What shock it was to greet him – a shell of his former self both in body and personality.  Some years later when I was in the Lord, I worked with a man who loved comedy.  He owned dozens of comedy CD’s and records and he loved to quote the one-liners of the famous comedians, roll around laughing at them etc, but I knew that all was not well within.  I once tried to share the gospel with him but he didn’t want to know.  He died of cancer a couple of years down the track.

I know a couple of people who began to read positive thinking books over twenty-five years ago.  They discovered they were negative thinkers and so decided to change their thinking.  Now I would much rather spend my time with a positive thinker than a negative thinker any day, negative thinkers are not pleasant to be around … you throw one positive idea to them and they’ll immediately throw two or three negative excuses back at you.  But here’s what I’ve noticed about those positive thinkers too after all these years.  They’ve still got their issues.  I don’t know if they keep them awake at night but I do know that during the day they are restless, unfulfilled people.

The famous poem says, “Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone.”  That’s pretty much the way it is for most people.  In my experience working with and talking to them, many there are who are weeping alone.  Some have told me that and others have no need to tell me.  Someone once said to me, “All my problems are in my head.”  He was a druggie.  I informed him that that’s the way I used to think too until one day I discovered in the gospels of the Lord Jesus Christ that He would respond to such a statement with,   “Maybe so, but they all originated in your heart.” Mark 7:21-23.  That’s the problem with our problems. 

As good, noble and well meaning as laughter and happiness clubs, positive thinking groups, books, programs or motivators are, and no matter how effective all forms of psychological therapy may be, they miss the mark because they fail to address the heart of the matter.  I read a comment from a well known “Christian” psychologist recently and he was criticizing the churches for remaining uninterested in the teachings of psychology as a means of helping people get released from their issues.  The reality is the best that psychology can deliver is relief … not release.  Relief is temporary, release is permanent.

That’s why a Holy Spirit-led, Jesus Christ-centered, Bible-based church won’t touch psychology.  That kind of church is not interested in dealing with people’s heads, only their hearts.  First deal with the heart, then the head (mind) gets fixed along the way; it gets renewed as we take on the mind of Christ 1 Corinthians 2:16; Ephesians 4:23; Philippians 2:5.  In my post: But they still have a god I say of myself, I looked into my being one day and I found one who was empty, lonely, guilty and fearful – especially of death.  And … I discovered in the New Testament that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost.  I was one of them.  No wonder I was empty, lonely, guilty and fearful, I was lost big-time.   

I didn’t get that first insight from my head – no way!  My head was telling me other stuff that it was full of lies, fantasies, unrealities, garbage; I had to break through all that and listen to my heart.  At the time I didn’t know Jesus’ words in Mark 7:21-23 existed, but I knew the truth of it all, nevertheless.  Why?  Because God had placed the truth of it all within me as He has done with each one of us.  We don’t really need words in that sense and that is why He tells us in Romans 1:18-20 that we are without excuse whether we know the words of the Lord Jesus or not.  People say, “Ignorance is bliss.”  Not in this case; there’s no such thing.

Whether they were eighteen or eighty, I’ve been privileged to speak with lots of people who told me their issues were worry, fear, anxiety and guilt.  Having previously looked into my own life I knew that these were not the core issues so with the guidance of the Holy Spirit I would ask them why they had this stuff going on.  In a nutshell, most of it stemmed from a combination of hurts and wrongs they’d done to others, and hurts and wrongs done to them. Wherever those things are anger, bitterness and unforgiveness are not far away either.  That’s the normal human life!  There’s not one human being exempt from this. That’s why release is the solution, not relief!

In the gospels we read of Jesus; He stood up one day in the synagogue of His hometown and read a couple of Scriptures that prophetically spoke of Himself, and part of the reading says, “….He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives…” Luke 4:18. The captives He spoke about were those trapped in their issues – all manner of issues with sin being the root cause.  In other words, sin was/is the core problem of every person without exemption and only Jesus Christ is qualified to deal with it so as we can be permanently released from it.  That truth offended His own people – so much so, that they threw Him out of town.

It is this same truth that offends people today.  That’s why psychologists will give it any other name other than what it truly is – sin.  They’ll call it a sickness or illness but they will not call it sin.  Not only that, but most of them think they’re doing people with issues a great service.  They are blind to the fact that they’re actually doing them great harm. Why harm?  If people are diagnosed with an illness, most of them will not stop to question the cause, they will simply accept it as so.  In addition, they will hang off every word told them about their illness and will reinforce it over and over and over again in their thoughts and speech.  Listen to people talk about them – “I’ve got…” “The doctor said…” “There’s no cure for…”

Please Note: the above para is referring to that which is a result of sin, (anger, bitterness, unforgiveness etc) not an illness void of those things.  Although, too many people cement  illness in their thinking too when God’s better way would be to have them believe on Him as Redeemer and Healer of sickness and disease, every bit as much as He is that for sin.  At the very least they will experience His great love, grace, mercy and compassion.  There’s many a person who can give a wonderful testimony to physical healing coming from such a focus on the Lord.  Jehovah-Rapha – I am the Lord who heals you still applies to God’s people today and I pray that we pray for the sick amongst us.

It is true that “a merry (gleeful, glad, joyful) heart does good, like a medicine,” Proverbs 17:23, but it also says, “but a broken (afflicted, stricken, wounded) spirit dries up the bones.”  So as is nearly always the case, the experts are only ever partially correct when they tell us what’s good and not good for us.  Rarely do we get the full picture and rarely does human nature stop to consider that there even is a full picture.  Of the many people I had the pleasure of listening and speaking to there were only a few who could (at the time) see their issues for what they were and let go of them – get released.  Just as He did in hometown Nazareth, Jesus offended most of the others here in hometown Melbourne too.  Sad but true.

Proverbs 14:13 tells us, “Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness.” A biblical commentator summed that Scripture up well over two hundred years ago when he said, “Many a time is a smile forced upon the face, when the heart is in deep distress.  And it is a hard task to put on the face of mirth, when a man has a heavy heart.”  I guess that was his experience, it certainly was mine … but the Lord Jesus removed it from me when he removed my issues – sin.  It’s easy to laugh now. “When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion, we were like those who dream.  Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing……” Psalm 126:1-2. “When you lie down, you will not be afraid; Yes, you will lie down and your sleep will be sweet.” Proverbs 3:24.