You Can't Think Your Way Out of This
The “cure” we’re looking for isn't more insight, more Bible facts, more theological precision. It’s faith.
I’m spending the month of May as an on-staff spiritual director at a Christian mental health clinic. I’m helping hurting folks heal their relationship with Jesus and themselves. Here’s what I’ve learned: Their struggles are my struggles (and yours!), just amplified.
We’re all trying our darndest to think our way out of our problems.
And it doesn’t work.
The Diagnosis
I’ve told myself:
- “If I could just figure this out!”
- “If I could just remember that I serve God.”
- “If I could just understand why I do that every time...”
As if the solution to my problem is just one insight, one mental hack away! I’m looking for the "right” cognitive framework or the "correct” mental strategy. But my problem isn’t really with my head. It’s with my heart.
The Chesterton Connection
Chesterton wrote about this in Orthodoxy. The madman, he says, is not irrational. He's too rational. His unhealthy understanding of the world is perfectly logical, so the escape cannot be through logic.
Chesterton’s example is the paranoid man who thinks his friends are conspiring against him. In trying to help him, it’s no use pointing out that his friends deny it. That’s exactly what conspirators would do! “His explanation covers the facts as much as yours.”
The paranoid man’s logic is airtight. He’s trapped inside a narrow little circle of his own thinking.
The Cure
Chesterton describes the cure: “the man must stop thinking, if he is to go on living… If thy HEAD offend thee, cut it off… A man cannot think himself out of mental evil, he can only be saved by faith!”
Psychologists call this “radical acceptance.” Accept ALL of reality as it really is, pain and all. Let go control.
If the paranoid man would only make that move. If he would only allow the world to be for him as it really is. Says Chesterton, “How much larger your life would be if your self could become smaller in it!”
In the spiritual world it’s called faith. The “cure” we’re looking for isn't more insight, more Bible facts, more theological precision.
It’s faith. It’s a trust fall into Jesus’ arms! It’s giving up my death-grip on my own life. It’s releasing my choke-hold on the future. It’s abandoning myself into God’s hands.
It’s praying with my gut rather than with my head. “In to your hands, O Lord, I commit my spirit.”
But…
“But I don’t understand!” I hear you yelling at your screen. “How do I do that?!”
“That doesn’t make any sense!?” I hear myself screaming at God, “How is doing nothing going to help! That doesn’t pay my bills, or change my family, or resolve my past!”
I know. I know. It doesn’t make sense.
We can’t think our way out of our struggles; we can’t will our way out either.
The solution is to give up. Let go of my demands and logic, and trust Jesus’ good will for me.
In this case, it’s actually easier done than said.
Try it now.
I sincerely wish I could explain myself better. But again, the problem isn’t with the logic. There’s nothing for it but to do it.
And honestly, it’s nearly impossible to do this alone, we all need support and help. That’s why Signpost Inn exists! Please consider joining us for a webinar or trying out spiritual direction.
In the meantime, you can start with this classic prayer. As you say the words, mean them with your heart, feel them in your gut, intend them by relaxing your shoulders.
God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things
I cannot change,
Courage to change the
things I can, and the
wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardship as the
pathway to peace.
Taking, as [Jesus] did, this
sinful world as it is,
not as I would have it.
Trusting that He will make
all things right if I
surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy
in this life, and supremely
happy with Him forever in
the next.
Amen
Reinhold Niebuhr (1926)
Transform your relationship with God (and others!)
Join our next Heal and Deepen Your Relationship With God Intensive in July, and transform your relationship with God! Discover simple, effective ways to experience God's closeness and care, and to transform spiritual practices from tasks to moments of mutual delight with God.
This intensive includes:
- 2 private, confidential spiritual direction sessions with a trained spiritual director
- 4 live group-instructions sessions over Zoom (1.5 hours each)
- A printable workbook with daily, guided-prayers and journaling prompts
- Access to the instructors and group, to ask questions and receive support!
And so much more! We can't wait to see you there!
Provisions for the Road
A Book Recommendation by Brandon
I (Brandon) have been spending my time at Sanctuary Clinics here in Cozumel Mexico teaching classes on getting to know Jesus as he really is and providing individual spiritual direction to the clients. During my off time I’ve been slowly working my way through James K. A. Smith’s new book: Make Your Home In This Luminous Dark.
It’s a fantastic read, and an excellent introduction to the contemplative way of spirituality for those who are addicted to philosophical analysis and certainty. I highly recommend it!
Food for Thought
Things the team found interesting this week, no endorsement implied.
Gen Z Isn’t Asking Why Bad Things Happen to Good People - Christianity Today
By Jared Dodson at Christianity Today
Christians have long asked how a good God can let evil happen. Gen Z wants to know when the evil will get their due. I (Brandon) have long contended that this is the question we should be asking! It is, after all, one of the questions the Bible actually answers!
But this trend is also a sign that our society has circled all the way back to a pre-christian pagan society that doesn't see inherent dignity in humans and believes that mercy is weakness.
How American Dads Became the Parents Their Fathers Never Were
By Derek Thompson on Substack
Compared to their parents, Millennial fathers have roughly tripled the amount of time they spend with kids. The new American dad is more present and more exhausted—but also, more satisfied with life.
Our Man In Havana
Something for fun!
When I (Brandon) showed up in Cozumel with my linen jacket and white hat, a friend called me this. I’ve always wondered where it came from, so I went digging. It’s the title of a 1958 spy novel by Graham Greene that satirizes British intelligence services during the Cold War. And they made it into a movie! You can watch the whole thing for free!
Best quote: “No, you are interested in the person, not in life, and people die, but I am interested in scientific living things, now I have an experiment which has to do with the blueness of cheese! Which can be important and which will never die!"
