One of the things I love about my daily conversations with soldiers is their ability to think deeply. I talked with a lower enlisted soldier about the ethics of abortion. We disagreed on the issue, but instead of spitting out soundbytes, we discussed matters such as the origin of personhood, equal protection under the law, and whether circumstances--however dire--negate a fundamental right.
The person across from the enlisted soldier is a high-ranking officer. I have discussed religion with him many-a-time, as he believes that the integrity of one's spirituality is defined by whether one adhere's to it. I am of the mind that a spirituality that simply baptizes one's beliefs and choices is self-indulgent. There is no accountability to a higher standard, no responsibility toward others.
The value of these warm and civil conversations between people with widely divergent worldviews is found in peeling back the veneer of the "What I believe" in favor of the deeper "Why I believe it." Behind every assertion is a worldview--ultimately theological in nature--that speaks to the existence in activity of God, the origin, nature and purpose of man, etc. This deeper plane is the one worth probing, resulting in a new calibur of conversation.
In that vein...
This is why psychology will always fall short in the realm of mental health. As discussed yesterday, there are some psychological pioneers with wonderful methods for self-improvement. The "learned helplessness" model is particularly fascinating and useful. At the end of the day, however, the ABC's of identifying and disputing one's explanatory style, however helpful, is not ultimately satisfying. It takes the same nature of man that is fundamentally broken (though dignified), seeks to reinterpret a thought process that belongs to a broken mind, in order to restore what will still be a broken person.
In an age in which the "spiritual furniture" has more or less been discarded, and the consequent rise of man's self-esteem has made him particularly vulnerable to the realities of a broken world and broken nature, we again return to man as the subject of his own hope. In other words, we are asking him to rely upon the same nature to save him that failed him the first place. He identifies his negative thought patterns, but mistakes the symptom for the disease, which is really the pervasive power of sin upon every human faculty, including the mind. In misdiagnosing this illness, he entrusts himself to the same thing that failed him in the first place, creating an endless cycle of failure, misdiagnosis, temporary change, failture, misdiagnosis...
The Bible asserts that man's fundamental problem is his sin. There is no integrity in self-justification, but in humbling oneself before the God who is just in His judgments and who alone can justify. In Ps. 42 (the passage I'm memorizing), the Psalmist continually looks to God for his hope and salvation, knowing that the a darkened world and human race only finds its light in Him. Of course, one is ultimately only secure by grace through faith in Christ. By His perfect life and atoning death, only He can make a race a dual sinner-sufferers into "new creations." Only He can guarantee that one's life can be "hidden with Christ in God" so that no one "can snatch you from [His] hand."
This security will not always be felt by the redeemed sinner, but it will never be separated from the redeemed sinner either. As a result, there is no longer a chaotic quest for security that latches onto a false hope that slips through fingers like sand, but simply a growth in security through the power of the Holy Spirit, the gracious tools of the ordinary means of grace (preaching/sacraments/prayer), and the God who "works in you to will and work according to His good pleasure."
