Resilience in Faith: Unraveling the Parallels Between Jonah's Story and Modern Mental Health Struggles

Ever considered how a pop star's lyrics could intersect with the timeless tales of the Bible? Have you wondered how these narratives can tackle the pressing issues of mental health? Join us as we weave together the story of Jonah and the music of Taylor Swift to unravel the beautiful message of resilience in faith. We discuss how this biblical account echoes in modern struggles and mental health battles, offering hope and understanding to those grappling with these invisible challenges.

In a candid conversation, we reflect on the rising mental health concerns and their societal impact, drawing parallels from personal experiences of celebrities like Simone Biles and Matthew Perry. This episode is a journey through the words of Jonah, interpreted through the lens of today's mental health issues. We explore the idea of a God who doesn’t view us as problems but supports us in our struggles. Discover the power of resilience and faith in facing life’s toughest challenges, and be inspired by the transformative potential of God’s gracious and gentle presence in our lives. Through this unique blend of Christian perspectives and pop culture references, experience the scripture anew and find resonance in the struggles and victories of those around us.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

Welcome to Resilient Faith, the podcast. Opportunities to find deeper resilience within ourselves can come when life seems most challenging. This podcast is to help you develop that resilience and connection with God. Being resilient and having power starts with faith. Welcome, friends, to the Resilient Faith podcast sponsored by Brentwood Presbyterian Church in West Los Angeles. We are sharing our sermons from our recent series, the Gospel According to Taylor Swift. This was a six-week sermon series in the fall of 2023.

Speaker 1: 1:00

It's important in this day and age to talk about current events and pop culture in our worship and be in dialogue with Christian perspectives and scripture. Using Taylor Swift's lyrics and some of her songs as a launching pad, we are discussing some of the important issues and looking through them with a Christian lens. Thanks for listening and we pray that the Holy Spirit reaches you through this series. Our text for today is the second chapter of the book of Jonah, so something very new going with something very old, both relevant and related. You'll see, jonah is famous for being called by God to Nineveh and instead of doing what God asks, he literally tries to run away. In fact, the text says he went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. There's a big storm, the mariners end up throwing Jonah overboard, and then the Lord provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. So I invite you to hear this text through the lens of mental health issues.

Speaker 1: 2:25

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God, from the belly of the fish, saying I called to the Lord out of my distress and he answered me. Out of the belly of Shale, I cried and you heard my voice. You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me. All your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said I am driven away from your sight. How shall I look again upon your holy temple? The waters closed in over me, the deep surrounded me, weeds were wrapped around my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever. Yet you brought up my life from the pit. Oh Lord, my God, as my life was ebbing away, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty, but I, with the voice of Thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the Lord. Then the Lord spoke to the fish and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land. This is the word of God for the people of God. Thank you, god.

Speaker 1: 4:11

I think it's safe to say this is a very dark moment for Jonah. I can imagine him in the belly of this fish, deeply stressing out Depression, anxiety, self-loathing, loneliness are not hard to imagine. It's me, hi. I'm the problem. It's me, and perhaps some of us have familiarity with feeling overwhelmed, crushed, suffocated, terrified and exhausted. How Jonah cries out to God and expresses his despair is only too relatable. One of the reasons why anti-hero is so popular as a song is because the feelings that Taylor is expressing are so familiar to many of us.

Speaker 1: 5:12

So let me throw out some statistics here real quick, as I reference mental health. According to the National Alliance of Mental Illness, anxiety disorders are the most common mental health concern in the United States. In 2020, about 21 million US adults that's 8.4% of the population had at least one major depressive episode. The US Surgeon General, vivek Murthy, wrote in the New York Times at the end of April about the loneliness epidemic. Eating disorders affect at least 9% of the population worldwide. 28.8 million Americans will have an eating disorder in their lifetime. The results of the 2023 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count found that 25% of our unhoused neighbors report experiencing serious illness in LA County. And finally, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is one of the leading causes of death in the United States, which is why it's important that we all memorize the free suicide and crisis lifeline number 988. Save it in your phone so you can share it anytime. Call or text 247 for confidential emotional support 988. Now, thankfully, mental health awareness has grown over the years and these statistics show how prevalent of an issue this is. It's been helped by some major celebrities speaking out about their own struggles with mental health. Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, for example, has been open about her mental health struggles. That started very publicly at the Olympics two years ago and, after being very intentional in prioritizing her mental health, she just won a record-setting eighth all-around title at the US Gymnastics Championship.

Speaker 1: 7:21

I heard a great podcast interview recently between Christian author Amanda Held Obelt and Christian singer-songwriter Leah Wren. Amanda has been very open about her deep grief after the sudden death of her sister a few years ago. Christian author Rachel Held Evans. Leah is a Christian singer-songwriter who has been open about her struggles with chronic physical and mental health issues. In their conversation, leah named the tension that is very real in our discipleship between God's goodness in the midst of our suffering. She spoke of the misconception that if God is good, I'm supposed to feel great and not have anything bad happen to me, but rather God's goodness is about holding us in the midst of pain, not taking us out of the situation. The miracle isn't always the healing. Sometimes it's the caring and the dwelling with God. Amanda spoke of the need to normalize the experience of pain rather than shoving it to the margins and acting like you're an anomaly because you're struggling. We wanna fix the problem, but we don't have the capacity to be patient with our pain. We have a very real need for companionship and the ability to say yes. Being human is hard. I have been there. I am with you. You have my love and my support and my solidarity.

Speaker 1: 9:12

Christian author Sarah Clarkson writes about her experience with mental illness in the latest issue of Plow Magazine. She tells of how, at 17, her mind became her enemy. Eventually, diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder, she was taught to interact with her mind in terms of hostility as something to resist, to fight to subdue. Actor Matthew Perry uses similar language in his memoir about addiction and substance abuse. This is a battle and the mind is the foe.

Speaker 1: 9:57

Clarkson, however, poses the question through a Christian lens of how to love your enemy when your enemy is your own mind, when your mind tells you things that aren't true about the world around you or even about yourself. We see this reflected in Taylor Swift's music video, and we can probably relate to instances of self-loathing and the mean, awful things we say to ourselves that we would never say to or about another person, especially someone whom we love. We can easily drown in that self-loathing, in that depression, in that anxiety Waters closing in deep, surrounding weeds wrapped around our heads. As Jonah says, it's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me. So Sarah Clarkson, then, considering the command from Jesus to love our enemies, has to reconsider her relationship with her mind.

Speaker 1: 11:26

It's an intentional shift to no longer think of approaching her mental illness through conflict, combat and power struggle. She writes, it's easy to baptize a view of power that sees God as the ultimate strongman just waiting to crush all the things we most dislike, including what is weak in ourselves. But the power of God is Jesus, the suffering servant, born simply to die for the healing of his people. And so now she sees God as first a healer. She writes that's how I recognized God's arrival in my own story by a grace and gentle presence that restored and healed me even as it bore the darkness of my broken mind. A grace and gentle presence that restores and heals, that restores and heals even as it bears the darkness of a broken mind. This is not a God who rejects us as problems, but gently and graciously holds us fast.

Speaker 1: 13:04

When it comes to issues of mental health, there are no quick fixes, no easy answers, no simple prayers or spiritual practices to make it all go away. Often it takes medicine and counseling and lots of support and patience. But knowing that we are not alone in our struggling, that we are supported and loved by a God who suffers with us, alongside us, by a God who is good and righteous and merciful and just apart from whether or not our bodies and minds are fully healthy and whole, perhaps that offers a sliver of peace that surpasses all understanding and buoys us in a love that doesn't let us go, regardless of how far down into the pit we might find ourselves. The pit is real, but it doesn't have to be where we stay alone, for God goes with us to bear the darkness. So, from the belly of the fish, jonah cried out it's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me. That's not a direct quote, but it's close enough. What he did say is you brought up my life from the pit. Oh Lord, my God, deliverance belongs to the Lord, and maybe, by the grace of God, like Jonah, our antihero, we too will not remain in darkness but eventually get spewed back onto dry land. Friends, may it be so for you and for me. Amen.

Speaker 1: 15:31

You've been listening to Resilient Faith. The podcast Resilient Faith is sponsored by Brentwood Presbyterian Church in West Los Angeles. You can follow our church and this podcast on Facebook at BPCTeam, and Instagram at BPC underscore USA. Make sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, and thanks for listening.