Tags
culture, depression, faith, healing, insanitybytes, life, love, opinion
I speak of course of Joel Osteen, the happy preacher, the TV mega church pastor, one of my favorite targets. I actually don’t watch him, but I clean house for a woman who has him blasting 24/7. She is so spiritually broken, so filled with despair, she is permanently disabled due to depression. Western medicine does not always address these things well, they tend to just help people develop an addiction to pain pills and other assorted pharma drugs.
It’s tragic, I’ve lost 3 people this way, they eventually died of despair, depression, drug overdoses. We do a lousy job of caring for those who have mental and spiritual health issues. There’s nothing physically wrong with these people, not at first, not until they spend 10 years actively dying. You’re either busy living or you’re busy dying. There is no in between.
The juxtaposition between the Happy Preacher blasting in the background and the Woman of Such Despair is a surreal one that messes with my head. The last thing she needs is Joel Osteen. I tend to have the most success with her when I kick her in the pants. That’s nursing terminology for dragging her out into the sunlight and forcing her to move. The best way to love her is actually to not accept that she is disabled, that she suffers from a permanent disease, that she must be must be catered to and accommodated in every way.
A few years back there was a huge surge in disability claims, people now permanently disabled due to depression caused by chronic unemployment. The government, the medical system, all pretty much just validated these people’s perception that the fault must lie with them, that there must be something wrong with them, some disease. Combine that with the need to financially survive and doctors willing to prescribe opiates for the vague, unnamed pain in your left hand, and these people were pretty much doomed, casualties of a broken system.
Depression is a real thing in the world, and yes it can cause chemical changes in the brain and become a disorder, but it need not be a life sentence, a state of being.
I’m mad about these things, about broken leadership really, about the failures of those we turn to for help in our darkest hour. I’m mad at the government, mad at the doctors, and mad at Joel Osteen for having let this woman down, for telling her what she wants to hear rather than what she needs to hear.
Somewhat ironic, but one of the best things for depression is anger. Often we suppress and internalize our anger, render ourselves powerless, just keep swallowing the bitter until we can no longer move. Anger is a powerful emotion, it can help to pull us out of that place of despair. Me and her. Sometimes making people angry is the best way to love them.
newenglandsun said:
LikeLiked by 2 people
insanitybytes22 said:
LOL! Oh my goodness, that was really funny! Thanks for the laugh. It reminds me a bit of Monty Python and some gallows humor. I love gallows humor. 🙂
LikeLike
newenglandsun said:
i’m worried for my girlfriend right now…
LikeLike
insanitybytes22 said:
I’m sorry. I know you’re having a really hard time right now. Hang in there and keep the faith, will you?
LikeLike
newenglandsun said:
I’m trying but I want her to be okay and at a stable point herself in her life where she isn’t desiring so much verbal abuse and that she would just be comfortable telling me when she needs to step away from me for a while…
LikeLiked by 1 person
insanitybytes22 said:
Relationships can be really tough, perhaps the hardest thing we ever do. The only way I know to get through them is to put God first and to focus on ourselves and our relationship with Him. We tend to get entangled with one another if we don’t. Hang in there and take care of your own self first. You can’t go wrong putting your eyes on Christ and letting Him do the work.
LikeLiked by 1 person
newenglandsun said:
Sometimes I wish someone could tell her that I genuinely believe she is an angel and she should not seek abuse but simply be an angel but then the problem is I snap at her sometimes–I snap at all my friends.
LikeLike
Paul said:
Very true IB.
LikeLiked by 1 person
insanitybytes22 said:
Thanks, Paul.
LikeLike
Rebecca LuElla Miller said:
The thing is, God’s word is so real, so true to life, so authentic, and the perfect comfort for the brokenhearted. It’s so sad that some hear only a distortion of it.
Becky
LikeLiked by 2 people
insanitybytes22 said:
It really is sad, isn’t it? That’s a question I hope to ask God someday. Why do some not know you? Not avail themselves of scripture? Suffering of course can come from many places, but some of us seem to inflict it on ourselves needlessly.
LikeLike
Tricia said:
Some deep truths you bring up IB about our increasing dependency culture and the devastating effects of victimhood mentality. I’ve been guilty myself of kid gloving it with people who really need tough love to get back on track.
I like what you say too about anger being a powerful motivator. So very true.
LikeLiked by 3 people
SLIMJIM said:
Thank you for this post! I’ve found in my own life those who are Osteen addicts are actually the very opposite of the rosy Osteen image…there’s something about chasing “happiness” instead of God that we miss God…and happiness.
LikeLiked by 2 people
insanitybytes22 said:
Oh, well said! There really is something about chasing happiness that can lead us to miss God completely…and happiness.
LikeLiked by 1 person
gmgoetz said:
Reblogged this on thotsfromgeorge and commented:
🙂 Thank you for speaking Truth and Love.
So many people look, and then latch onto Preachers who make them feel good.
If they would only seek truth on their own, reading Scripture if possible to see Truth.
And watch a Gospel Preaching, Truth Speaking Man of God, who does not promote himself continually.
Keep sharing the Word and Truth in Love, Sister.
By the way. I re blogged.
.
LikeLike
gmgoetz said:
🙂 Thank you for speaking Truth and Love.
So many people look, and then latch onto Preachers who make them feel good.
If they would only seek truth on their own, reading Scripture if possible to see Truth.
And watch a Gospel Preaching, Truth Speaking Man of God, who does not promote himself continually.
Keep sharing the Word and Truth in Love, Sister.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fromscratchmom said:
Ah, yes, the importance of anger. If I’d never gotten angry I’d be dead by now. Usually you’re angry at things that are wrong you will be accused of sinning just for feeling anger, or holl red at and accused of all sorts of evil and crazy by those who are guilty of the evil you’re angry about, or, you’ll be accused of making yourself a victim, or, …or, or, or,…. Our society is full of unhealthy unwise reactions to justifiable anger. Sometimes the healthiest response you can have is to recognize that a thing is wrong and to feel angry about it. In many cases the best thing to do next may be to then turn that anger over to God. But it’s totally self-sabotaging if you deny your own agency, in the first place, to recognize what’s wrong and to be effected by the wrongness of it.
LikeLike
insanitybytes22 said:
“If I’d never gotten angry I’d be dead by now.”
Oh, so well said! Me too.
LikeLike
Pingback: Things I have read on the internet – 45 | clydeherrin