I don’t know if anyone still reads this, but I wanted to write these thoughts down, so that I wouldn’t forget them.
Over the last several years, I have been thinking a lot about mental health, negative thoughts, having the right mindset, and reframing past trauma. just the other day I was reading in the book of lamentations, and it seems like the author, Jeremiah, is thinking about all of the same things.
Jeremiah had a good reason to struggle with his mental health. He was a prophet of God since he was a child, and he was given the task of delivering bad news to the nation of Israel. His job was to warn Israel about an attack from the Babylonian empire; and unfortunately for him, no one listened to his message or believed him. As a result, he was humiliated, and eventually imprisoned. On top of all of that, he witnessed the invasion from Babylon and the destruction of Israel with his own eyes. Bible scholars call him the weeping prophet. Lamentations are his songs of grief.
In lamentations chapter 3, Jeremiah lists out the many reasons he has for grief. And then he says, “I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.”
Twice he uses this phrase, “I remember." To me, Jeremiah is revealing where his mind and thoughts are. his mind and thoughts are on the past and on his pain; and the result is depression. he says “my soul is downcast within me.”
There is a link between where he is focusing his thoughts and his mental health. He continues, “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
Again, he talks about his mindset and his mental focus: he says, “yet a call this to mind.” Instead of putting his mental focus on the pain of the past, he intentionally shifts his mental focus to God and his faithfulness; and the result is a change in his mental health. he says because of his new mindset, he now has hope.
In verse 24 he says, “I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;”
He uses this phrase, “I say to myself…" To me, this says that he is speaking to himself and coaching himself to be disciplined in where he puts his mental focus. He is making a deliberate choice not to dwell on the past, but to focus his thoughts on God‘s goodness, faithfulness and kindness to him.
I certainly don’t have the story that Jeremiah has, but I have seen my own share of grief over the last several years. This passage is a good reminder to develop the habit of asking myself where my mental focus is in any given moment.
Am I dwelling on the pain of the past? What is that doing for me?
Just like Jeremiah, it is only producing more grief.
This is a good reminder to be disciplined to change my mental focus and to remember all of the good things that God is doing and has done for me.
Just like Jeremiah, that shift will result in moving my heart from grief to hope.
I meet with my friend Mike every week and talk with him about these things. He often uses a metaphor about a record player. He often says “you need to change the record that is playing in your mind. You need it to change that record from the negative one to the positive one.”
A couple of years back, I read a book that challenged me to ask my thoughts three questions, 1. Is this thought true? If it’s not true, then I need to stop thinking it.
2. Is this thought helpful? By thinking this thought, am I helping myself? If not, then I need to be disciplined to stop thinking that thought.
3. Is this thought kind? Would I say the negative things that I am thinking about myself to a friend? If I did, would they still want to be my friend? If not, then, why would I say this thought to myself? I’m only being rude to myself.
In 2 Corinthians 10:5, the apostle Paul writes “we take captive every thought, to make it obedient to Christ.”
Again, this speaks to the habit that we need to take ownership of what we’re thinking, to ask ourselves where our mindset is, and to be disciplined to choose a better and more helpful thought.
There are some people that I know that are so good at this and they do it instinctively and effortlessly. for others, like me, we need some reminders to be more disciplined in our where our thoughts are being focused.
Just like Jeremiah, it’s easy for me to let my thoughts veer toward the pain of the past, but it’s a much better choice to stop those thoughts, to change my mind, and to focus on the good things that God has done, is doing, and will do for me.
God is love.
– rev-rob
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