Just Because You're Paranoid...

As I write something’s happening which, is the past, might have fed into paranoia. It’s the middle of July and we’re having an abysmal summer. Today, however, it’s not raining, it’s warm despite being cloudy, and there are even flashes of sunshine. Just right for sitting in the garden! Or it would be if one of the neighbours wasn’t bang-bang-banging, fixing the roof of his shed! Yes, it’s annoying, but he’s not doing it to stop me sitting outside!  And this is the difference between normality and paranoia. A paranoid would consider it an attack by the person against them. I’ve been there – oh, have I been there!

Paranoia can be an expression of depression. You think everything’s about you. Any inconvenience is a deliberate attack against you. “They” are out to get you. Some enemy’s trying to ruin you. This is largely irrational. I’ve often found, while walking along, there’s a slowcoach in front of me and I’ve been anxious to overtake them. So, I start to move to the right and – Slowcoach moves to the right. So I start to move left to overtake them – Slowcoach moves left. I’m not kidding! Slowcoach can have moved in the same direction as me, at the same time, six times. It’s as though they’ve been toying with me. As if they’ve eyes in the back of their heads. But it’s an unlikely coincidence – nothing more. Nothing to see here – move on! (Well, I will if they let me!!!)

Now, that shed-banging neighbour isn’t out to get me. He’s just mending his shed while the weather’s good. Most times I sit out there undisturbed. But the paranoid mind doesn’t work like that. It’s convinced there’s a global conspiracy against it.

Christians of certain persuasions get paranoid over the end times. I’ve been there – oh, yes! We play games like “pin the tail on the Antichrist” or “which of the seven seals are we in”. People convince themselves they know the answers, but they don’t. Since Christ died people have looked at world events and attached apocalyptic significance to them. Incorrectly so. We really should not let this side-track us so much.

Focus rather on this - God is for us!

Romans 8:28 – “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Romans 8:31-32 – “If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all.”

Romans 8:38-39 –“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Now, Christians do have an invisible enemy. 1 Peter 5:8-9 – “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”

The devil is against all believers, not just you. He can only be in one place, so you’re unlikely to be a priority. Peter tells us how to act. Be alert, be sober, resist him, stand firm in the faith. None of these are actions of the paranoid.

So cheer up! God is for us! Most of those things you consider to be attacks are just coincidences. Move along. God has won.

* * * * 

Here is a link to a poem on my other blog which addresses this subject:
http://witandwisdompoetry.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/conspiracy.html

Three Good Things

*This post deals with an issue that depressed people have but the advice is for everyone, so don’t think it’s only relevant to the depressed.*

When you’re depressed it can be very difficult to see any good in your life.  Even if you do see it, you can’t necessarily feel it. Good can seem distant and emotionally unconnected from you. This is horrible. You feel hopeless, useless and miserable. Yet this is an illusion. There are so many good things in our lives to be grateful for. Yet often we take them for granted even if we’re aware of them.

Here’s something we can all do this week. It shouldn’t be difficult. It’s an exercise at the shallow end of gratitude. When you go to bed pause to think over your day and recollect three good things. They don’t have to make you FEEL good. When I was depressed, NOTHING made me feel good. Even things I knew in my head I liked didn’t make me feel good. But they were good. So think of three things which were objectively good in your day. If you really can’t think of three, start with one or two. If you can think of more than three, don’t feel you have to stop. Go ahead and knock yourself out!

Try think of things specific to that day rather than general things. Three things may not seem like much, but if you’re depressed even that’s hard work, so if you make it to three, give yourself a pat on the back – seriously! Any dent in a tide of negativity is welcome.

Here’s a way to take it further. Don’t wait till bedtime. Pause during the day at a time you’ve decided in advance and think of three good things up to that point, as well as at night. The more positive awareness you get in your life, the better.

If you really want to turbocharge this practice, look out for good things during the day. Before writing I made myself a coffee and considered how many good things were involved in its making. God created coffee beans, someone hit upon the idea of harvesting, roasting them and boiling them in water. Brave soul! Imagine if they’d been poisonous! Someone else invented sweetener tablets and coffee whitener. Plus electric kettles, without which making coffee would be more hassle. Electricity, too. That was discovered and now, all around the world, people are working to generate it so we don’t have to light fires to boil water. And somebody manufactured the mug I’m drinking from. As well as the spoon I stirred it with, so I wouldn’t have to use my finger and burn it in the scalding hot water. And the water! Men gather it, clean it up and pump it into my house through pipes that other men have laid! When you think through stuff like this once in a while it expands your awareness beyond yourself. You see how a hot drink connects you with so many other people!

We can thank them and thank God. Because without the raw material the Creator made, man could do none of this. In all things we’re supposed to give thanks to God, but do we? It’s a tough ask because we’re so distracted. He realizes we are but dust. However, Christians are redeemed dust and gratitude to Him is part of that redemption.

Finding good things alone will not cure depression. But it’s a big step to see that not everything is bad. There are good things in your life. And you have someone to thank!

It Was Very Good!

If I’m looking for something beautiful and majestic, what better than a holiday to the countryside or mountains? You can’t go far wrong in the majestic stakes if you’re driving through a mountainous area, looking up at those huge, rocky protrusions all around you. Or pausing for a view over vast, lush green hillsides – oh, yes, and don’t forget the lakes! My heart’s already getting excited at the thought of it! It feels like these are the crowning glory of all earthly creation! Only they are not! I realized this mistake as Genesis 1:31 hit me, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good”. Whatever your Christian view of Creation, God saw it was good until He made man in His image - only then was it “very good”.

Now this is a bit of a shock, really. When I look at humanity I don’t see “very good”. I pretty much see the opposite. I don’t see the crowning glory of Creation, I see a mess – sometimes a very nasty mess. This may be partly the fault of news organizations, which highlight the mess rather than the good. Or maybe they’re showing Psalm 14:1-3 in action: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.”

“Original sin” is at work here, the result of an act of disobedience towards God which had the consequence of spoiling everything. But what of the lesser known concept of “original goodness”. Humanity was made (very) good – in the image of the Good God. That being-made-in-God’s-image is what sets us apart from the rest of the majestic creation. Perhaps less “apart” as “above”?

Turns out I’m not the first to have such ideas:

“Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

…When I consider your heavens,
    the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
    which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
    human beings that you care for them?

You have made them a little lower than the angels
    and crowned them with glory and honour.
You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
    you put everything under their feet:
all flocks and herds,
    and the animals of the wild,
the birds in the sky,
    and the fish in the sea,
    all that swim the paths of the seas.

Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

(Psalm 8)

So, what happened when it all went wrong? If I were God I’d probably have torn it up and started afresh. But no! He already had a plan. To restore Original Goodness by sending a perfect Redeemer who would die for our disobedience. That was His Son, Jesus. Jesus was no reluctant sacrifice. He wanted to do it. Why? Love. Love for His Father, desiring a holy people for His Name. And love for us. Not wanting us to perish, to die in a state of disobedience.

This is cause for great happiness and will end in ultimate happiness. Let these words of Jesus from John 15:9 sink in – “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.” The love which Jesus has for us is the same love the Father has for Jesus!