25th March, 2025. I am blessed with great recall of memories of my early years (except the embarassing incidents, which do not bless me!). I can recall life in my pram, my own ‘baby-in-pram smell’, and the time when – among the shopping items my mother put in the bottom of the pram – a treacle tin burst its lid (and I’ve loved it ever since!) And I can picture the wallpaper in my bedroom, pale green with a ring design on it. Once, when I tapped on it, there was a hollow sound; and, to my amusement somebody tapped a response from the adjoining terraced house.
In primary school we would swap jokes (fortunately mainly clean, which cannot be said of the teenage years at secondary school). One common one was to ask “What’s the first sign of madness?” (Answer: “Hairs growing on the palms of your hands”). This was followed up with “And what’s the second sign?” (Answer: “looking for them!”). Another variant to the opening question elicited the answer: “Talking to yourself!” And the second sign? “Answering yourself back!”
It was all child banter, of course, but when I became a Christian, and added a few experiences to my life, I came to realise that talking to yourself – far from indicating the onset of ‘madness’ – was very conducive to good mental health. As a Theology student I learned that the human being – as taught by the Bible – is made up of Body, Mind and Spirit (Tri-partite). But as we go deeper – as St. Paul does when he teaches that the Word of God can divide up the Soul from the Spirit – we learn that the Spirit (which exercises our relationship with God) needs to govern our Soul (which exercises our earthly consciousness). This is because our Soul, if only prompted by our Mind, will promote feelings which will express themselves in poor behaviour in our Body. Our communion with God in worship, fellowship, prayer and Bible-study (all functions of the Spirit), redirects our mind and creates wholesome feelings, which result in good behaviour.
When the psalmist, David, repeatedly expressed the words: “Why are you cast down, O my soul?…..Hope in God!” (Psalm 42:5, 11; 43:5) his Spirit was taking authority over his Soul, to change his feelings and behaviour. Or, to use the terms from popular psychology, he employed his divinely-instructed Conscious Mind to challenge and re-direct his Subconscious Mind. From my own experience of Depression twice in my life, I can testify to the stabilizing effect of regular meditation on the life-giving Word of God. Rather than allowing my circumstances to dictate my mood, I remind (that is Re-Mind) myself of the truth that God states about the me that is “in Christ”. Just this morning in my devotions I came to Isaiah 26:3 “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you”.
This is the approach I take when I lead weekly meditations on the Word of God, and in my book “Biblical Meditation – your Spiritual Medication”. It is folly to neglect the discipline of strengthening of your spiritual and mental life by daily exposure to the life-giving Word of God. I would even go as far as to say that, for a Christian who has regular access to the Bible, “The first sign of madness is ……to ignore the life-giving truth that the Word of God has for you each day!”
Healing in Jesus' Name 