Paul David Tripp
@PaulTripp • 205,278 subscribers
Pastor. Author. Conference Speaker. Connecting the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life.
Videos
Is mental health biblical? --- Well, here are the two extremes that you want to avoid. The culture, because it doesn't believe in the heart in the way the Scripture defines it. The heart is the center of your emotions, your mind, your will. The heart is the causal core, it's the directional system of a human being. Since the world doesn't believe that, the world tends to biologize everything. Everything is biological or physical. That's an unbiblical view of a human being. The other extreme is in the church, and it's a tendency for us to spiritualize everything; every dysfunction is somehow a sin issue. And neither one of those two extremes are biblical. The biblical view is I'm a duality. I'm a spiritual and a physical being. The language that is more current is, “I'm an embodied soul.” So, there is dysfunction of soul and dysfunction of body. For example, I was looking yesterday at an antibiotic, and one of the side effects of this antibiotic, this is very interesting to me, is anxiety. It's not an anxiety that's a failure of hope in God. It's an anxiety that is physiological-induced by a medication that causes you to be unable to deal with the things emotionally that you could normally deal with. Now, that is a mental health issue. Does it become a heart issue? Sure, it does because everything is a heart issue because the heart is the control center. In the midst of that experience, I could get angry at God; I could doubt His goodness. All kinds of things can happen, but it's not first a spiritual issue. I had a counseling experience with a guy who had a huge personality change, became a very angry man, and we discovered it was a result of an accident that affected the limbic area of his brain that was swollen. They call that the ‘rage center’ of the brain. He got medication and was fine. By then, his church had already disciplined him for a sin against his wife and family. I heard what was going on; I immediately sent him to a major hospital for a multidiscipline examination, and they found out what was wrong with him. So, we can't deny the body, and we can't deny the soul. We have to have a category for things, whether you call them mental health or whatever, we have to have a category for body dysfunction that creates behavioral thought-emotion difficulty. And that needs to be part of a Christian worldview; it needs to be part of a system of Christian biblical counseling. There are body issues. There are mental dysfunctions. We know that there are people who don't process well. Dyslexia is a mental processing issue. ADHD is a distractibility mental processing issue. So, we've got to have a category that remembers that God not only created souls; we're not disembodied souls, but we have bodies. And the fall didn't just affect the heart and the soul. The fall affected the body as well. #askpaultripp episode 2
Paul David Tripp30,423 görüntüleme • 24 gün önce
Several weeks after the September 11th terrorist attacks, I had a heart-wrenching conversation with a manager of one of the restaurants in the World Trade Centers. He told me, “I can’t get over the grief that I never saw the 250 people who worked for me as people. They were waiters, chefs, busboys, hosts, event planners—but they weren’t people to me. And over the last three weeks, I’ve gone to funeral after funeral and sat with their moms and dads, husbands and wives, and children and heard the stories of their lives. Now they are people to me, but now they’re gone.” He wept as he told me that story. I wept as I listened. It’s hard not to get emotional thinking back to that story today, 22 years later. And it’s hard not to feel guilt. I think this attitude is typical of many of us. I know it’s true for me. I often don’t see people as people. It’s the barista whose job it is to create my perfect coffee order. It’s the supermarket assistant who is there to speed up my process on the self-checkout scanner. It’s the waiter who exists to get me my delicious meal without any delays or mistakes. Do you see people as people? Or are they functions to assist you in creating a day that is as stress-free and enjoyable as possible? If you want to shine as a light in this world, pray that God will give you the eyes to see people as people. Slow down, look into their eyes, and remember that this is a human being created in the image of God, who has a heart, an eternal destiny, a story, a desire to be loved, with legitimate fears and concerns, and hopes and dreams. Then, adjust your schedule or make sacrifices to bump into these people more frequently. That could mean going to the same place at the same time so you can interact with the same person on their regular shift pattern. Maybe that means shopping differently to build relationships with people who live or work in your neighborhood. Sadly, too many of us are chasing an ever-growing to-do list as we try to build a kingdom of created delights, which causes us to rush past people, or worse, use them to make life as efficient, convenient, and pleasurable as possible. Lastly, ask questions. Simple questions are a great starting point: How are you doing today? How has your week been? What do you have going on this weekend? What are you most excited about? How are your kids doing in school? I was at a restaurant once, and the man dining with me said to the waiter, “We’re a group of people who like to pray before we eat. Is there anything we can pray for you?” The waiter was taken off guard, stumbled, and said, “Uh, I don’t think I really need anything right now.” But then he came back five minutes later. “Actually, I think I could use your prayer. I just found out my girlfriend is pregnant, and I’m terrified. I have no idea how to be a father. Would you pray for me?” What a fantastic opportunity! And it was so simple. My friend saw the waiter as a person, not a function, and he asked a simple question. Then, go back again and again to develop a relationship and wait for the opportunities that God gives you as a result. “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:36–38). 𝗔 𝗣𝗿𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗧𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆: God, would you help me to see people as people and not as cogs in the machine of my day to make my life more comfortable and easy? Would you provide me with opportunities to engage with the people you have placed in my life and when those opportunities arise, would you give me the courage to lean in and ask questions of them? Would you help to make my heart sensitive and caring to others that you might use me in whatever way you want. Thank you, Lord. Amen.
Paul David Tripp41,138 görüntüleme • 2 yıl önce
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