Stigma Busters
Humble, Helpful, Brave, Bold
words from Billy Graham, C. H. Spurgeon, Abraham Lincoln, & Hershel Walker
Billy Graham
The older I get the more I marvel at the complexity of our minds. The psalmist exclaimed, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalms 139:14). I used to think this verse referred only to our bodies, but I realize now that it applies to our whole beings, including our minds and emotions. God made you a unique, complex person, and just as your body is uniquely yours, so too is your personality. We truly are “fearfully and wonderfully made!”
Like everything else, however, our emotions have been corrupted by sin. Emotions aren’t bad in themselves, but they can become twisted or even destructive. They may even become so overwhelming, that we require professional help to restore us to health. We still have so much to learn about the human mind, but I’m thankful for gifted counselors and psychologist who seek to help those suffering from serious emotional problems.
Graham, Billy “The Journey: How To Live By Faith In An Uncertain World” p.177-178.
God made you a unique, complex person, and just as your body is uniquely yours, so too is your personality.
Ask not ‘why are they so nervous and so absurdly fearful?’ No… I beseech you, remember that you understand not your fellow man.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Spurgeon in sermon “Israel’s God and God’s Israel.”
I suppose that some brethren neither have much elevation or depression. I could almost wish to share their peaceful life. For I am much tossed up and down, and although my joy is greater than the most of men, my depression of spirit is such as few can have an idea of.
Spurgeon, in sermon “Man Unknown to Man.”
Especially judge not the sons and daughters of sorrow. Allow no ungenerous suspicions of the afflicted, the poor, and the despondent.
Do not hastily say they ought to be more brave, and exhibit a greater faith. Ask not ‘why are they so nervous and so absurdly fearful?’ No… I beseech you, remember that you understand not your fellow man.
Spurgeon in sermon “The Saddest Cry from the Cross.”
Strong-minded people are very apt to be hard upon nervous folk and to speak harshly to people who are very depressed in spirit, saying ‘really, you ought to rouse yourself out of that state’.
Taken from Zack Eswine’s “Spurgeon’s Sorrows” and Michael Reeve’s discussion of Spurgeon’s depression.
https://thewearychristian.com/spurgeons-greatest-hits-on-depression-anxiety-and-panic/
Abraham Lincoln
Fortunately for Lincoln and the country, he learned to defeat depression and he maintained a healthy attitude about it. “A tendency to melancholy….,” he wrote in a letter to a friend, “let it be observed, is a misfortune, not a fault.” The unfortunate stigma surrounding depression and mental illness that exists today was not as prevalent in Lincoln’s day.
His humility allowed him to accept his own failures and not be threatened by the success of others. So his moods were not affected by his own success or failures. Lincoln also used his faith to bolster him in times of hardship and depression.
Street, Elizabeth. “Overcoming Obstacles: How Abraham Lincoln Defeated Depression,”
Learning Liftoff Jan 6, 2015.
https://www.learningliftoff.com/overcoming-obstacles-how-abraham-lincoln-defeated-depression/
A tendency to melancholy . . . is a misfortune, not a fault.
During the most trying times, when I was struggling the most with the diagnosis and the stigma of having a mental illness, . . . . I remembered Mama sitting in an old rocking chair, slowly rocking back and forth with that big black book, the Bible in her lap.
Hershel Walker
“My treatment was also supplemented by my faith in God. During the most trying times, when I was struggling the most with the diagnosis and the stigma of having a mental illness, I called upon my life long faith and the lessons my mother taught me. I remembered Mama sitting in an old rocking chair, slowly rocking back and forth with that big black book, the Bible in her lap.”
Walker, Hershel. “Breaking Free: My Life with Dissociative Identity Disorder” p.222
