Hopeful words for suffering people

In his concise, relevant and encouraging personal essay, author Alan Noble asserts that everyone experiences mental suffering at one point or another in their lives. Noble’s subject matter is broad, but he doesn’t attempt to cover every mental illness. He believes that his essay will speak to almost everyone who has suffered some mental anguish – or knows of someone who has. That includes more people than we realize because we live in a culture that embraces “a kind of unspoken conspiracy to ignore how difficult life is, or to reframe it as something romantic – a heroic challenge we overcome on our way to the good life.”

Noble points out that, despite the vast array of available therapies, medications, self-help books, life coaches and more, every day it is up to people to make the choice to get out of bed or not: “All the medication and cognitive therapy and latest research and self-care in the world can’t replace your choice. This decision can be aided by these resources but never replaced by them. Which means that you have to have an answer to a fundamental question.: Why get out of bed? Or, more bluntly, why live?”

Noble’s answer to these questions is rooted in the biblical truth that God is love and God is good; life is a gift from God even when mental anguish clouds our vision; God calls us to be witnesses and our lives are a witness even when we are unaware of that fact; and the choices we make fundamentally influence the lives of our family, friends and community.

Particularly refreshing is Noble’s insight that it is an act of worship when we choose to get out of bed because we know our Creator and his good purposes for our lives: “When we act on that goodness by rising out of bed, when we take that step to the block in radical defiance of suffering and our own anxiety and depression and hopelessness, with our heads held high, we honor God and His creation, and we testify to our family, to our neighbors, and to our friends of His goodness. This act is worship.”

Noble’s pithy book might seem rather challenging, even harsh, when considering the mental pain people suffer. However, having suffered mental affliction himself and having witnessed it in the lives of others, Noble’s words for suffering people are credible, realistic and ultimately hopeful as he never loses sight of God and his glory.