Make My Day
Micah 6:1-8
Friends, I haven't written a pastoral reflection since my baby girl, Zoë, was born October 6, 2022! I am so excited to be back fully to see what 2023 has in store for us at Lakewood UMC. We are in the midst of epiphany, and for this epiphany season prior to entering into our Lent we will engage in a new worship series: "S.A.D.: Shining a Light on the 'Blahs.'"
Thankfully, talking about mental health is far less stigmatized than it used to be. I remember a time that when mental health was brought up in conversation it meant we were discussing serious issues: addiction, clinical depression, bi polar disorder, schizophrenia, and the like. But I would challenge us to recognize that we all have "mental health" to maintain.
All of us have had passing depression. All of us have been affected in serious ways by grief, we have been unmotivated and beset by the "blahs," we have been stuck in anger, or blissfully afloat in denial. These are all aspects of mental health too!
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a clinically observable form of intermittent depression linked to the changing of seasons. If you have had SAD, you might start to feel low when fall begins and this sense of sadness or "blah" can persist throughout winter, only to resolve in the spring and summer months. SAD can lead to weight gain, oversleeping, appetite changes, and tiredness or low energy. It has the potential to be incredibly severe and life threatening, too. If this is something you have encountered in yourself, I encourage you to seek treatment--for if you have the Fall/Winter version of it, you are in the depths of it now.
But what if there is such a thing as Spiritual Affective Disorder? What if going to church, or praying, or living out your faith in the ways you might normally do barely elicits a shrug? I get this feeling after the big holidays: Christmas, Easter, etc. All of the work and energy and excitement of these holidays can sometimes leave a feeling of "blah" in the following weeks.
And I don't know about you, but I have felt a Spiritual Affective Disorder in response to these past years of the pandemic, witnessing the end of the United Methodist Church as we know it, watching church communities die, and witnessing the rising irrelevance of Christianity in US culture by our own doing. I think I am particularly prone to feeling spiritual "blahs," in fact. It is so hard to find the joy and the hope when I see so much hurt, so much harm, and so much wrong in the world.
I will be preaching from Micah 6:1-8 this Sunday, where the prophet Micah proclaims the very well-known verse: "He has told you, O mortal, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?" Normally I read this passage and latch on to the words about justice and think about protests and activism, but this week I am directing my attention to the other requirement: love kindness.
In this series, each week comes with a focus on a particular regular day to day action that can become a spiritual act--and also something that benefits our mental health. Did you know that we are hardwired to experience mental health benefits from acts of kindness? There are many studies that indicate how good deeds give us a "helper's high" and can even lengthen our life. Also cool is recognizing that good deeds are contagious. If you are kind, it can infect someone else to be kind, too!
I know I was the recipient of kindness from many of you before Zoë was born. You sent us greeting cards, advice, nursery essentials, and FOOD! It made the first hardest weeks of Zoë's life for us so much more manageable. And now, when I struggle to find examples of joy or hope to combat my pessimism, I can think of your kindness and generosity.
Sometimes we need to be the recipient of kindness, and sometimes we need to be the one sharing kindness. In either case, our mental and spiritual health benefits from it.
