Purity 266 11/16/2020
Good morning!
Today’s photo comes from a friend’s hike from back in
October, the friend and the location are a mystery to me as I “grabbed it”
about a month ago, on the 18th. So if it’s you or you know the
location and want to share, leave it in the comments or message me and I will
update the post. My friends come from
all over this country and some overseas and sometimes I lose track of where
these sights come from.
I share it because of its natural beauty and I imagine coming
through “the woods of the weekend” and embarking on a journey into a week clear
of holidays and prayerfully a week clear of obstacles and undue stress.
Well the weekend flew by with my Saturday being consumed by
car repairs and a project to lay some bricks to border my house and new Generac
generator system. It was a hasty project
with humbling results, and I was happy my back wasn’t too pained after placing approximately
70 paving 1 foot square paving stones (my mind still struggles with that number
– I know how many I returned… but maybe Lowes didn’t give me what they said
they did – it seems too high). The good
news is it is finished, the unused materials were returned, and I was so busy I
easily stayed within the limits of my eating plan.
But…Sunday Bloody Sunday….
Our church was hosting Thanksgiving meals at all of the life
groups and I had intended to be true to my plan and even calculated some likely
consumables into my fitness app before going to know my limitations but quickly
gave into temptation and decided that this Sunday would be a cheat day. So I over indulged at the Johnson family’s
life group, and because I’m a social guy, I stopped at the Lambert family’s
life group too!
I was too ashamed to even try to calculate the damage but
today is a new day and a new week! I have already hit the ground running by
working out and by deciding to fast breakfast to compensate for yesterday’s feast.
And that brings us to grace, and paradox of Christians as Saints
who Sin rather than Sinners saved by grace.
When we have come to Christ and made Him Lord and Savior, all
our sins are forgiven: past, present, and future! We also receive the indwelling
presence of the Holy Spirit, the fullness of God’s love, as we are adopted into
His royal family, and the power to say no to sin, or freedom from sin.
If we have truly come to Christ, we can live a holy life if
we follow Him. The problem is we lived independently of God for so long that we
have to renew our minds to think and therefore behave like Christians. And that’s
key – we have to change our minds and hearts to follow Christ. Changing our behavior isn’t enough.
We had some measure of success changing our behaviors before
coming to Christ but we predominantly we would always fall back into our sin – which
is best defined as “missing the mark”.
It was “only food” but I “missed the mark” yesterday. What I did went against what I wanted in
terms of my goals. However, there is grace in failure.
God forgives us everything. If we’ve placed our faith in Him,
NOTHING we do will separate us from His love. Our relationship with God is not
performance based. He loves and forgives
us regardless of what we do.
However, He loves us so much that He wants us to do what is
righteous and good because He knows that is what is best for us and that when
we do that we best represent Him as His children.
He understands that we won’t always do things perfectly, but
He continues to call us to follow His ways for our good and for His plan for
our lives.
So, what do I do today? Do I hide in shame and guilt and beat
myself up? NO! I have God’s grace. I’m
forgiven. He loves me no matter what!
However, I don’t take “missing the mark” lightly either. I
have asked for God’s forgiveness, strength, and guidance in prayer to better
follow His plan for my life, to strive for a healthy body that can be a better
temple for the Holy Spirit, better suited to work for His kingdom, and to enjoy
life.
It's not about perfection, its about progress. It’s not about
pleasure, it’s about peace. It’s not
about impressing other people, it’s about following the Lord. It’s not about
living up to the world’s standards through our efforts, It’s about believing
what God’s word says about who we are in Christ and living according to it
continually.
Today we continue to share from Anderson & Baumchen’s
Finding Hope Again, where I will share a lengthy amount about the Mind Body
Correlation, Bipolar Depression, and Unipolar depression.
I’m reading ahead and have decided to share larger portions
of the basics and medical information so we can get to “the good stuff”. All of this is good stuff, but I want to get
to the aspects of how our faith as Christians comes into treating depression.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes
and encourage all to purchase Anderson’s books for your own private study and
to support his work:
The Mind-Brain Correlation
The correlation between the mind and
the brain is obvious, but there is a fundamental difference between the two.
The brain came from the dust of this earth, and will return to dust when we die
physically. At that moment we will be absent from our bodies and present with
the Lord (see 2 Cor. 5:6-9), but we will not be mindless.
Today, we have a wonderful analogy
to illustrate the working relationship between the brain and the mind. Between
our ears is a very sophisticated computer operation. Like every computer
system, it comprises two distinct components, the hardware and the software.
The hardware (the computer itself) is obviously the brain in this analogy.
The brain functions much like a
digital computer having millions of switching transistors that code all the
information in a binary numbering system of 0s and 1s. The miniaturization of
circuitry has made it possible to store and compile an incredible amount of
information in a computer the size of a notebook. However, humankind has not
even come close to making a computer as sophisticated as the one that is now
making it possible for you to read and comprehend this book. A computer is
mechanical, but our brains are living organisms composed of approximately 100
billion neurons. Each neuron is a living organism that in and of itself is a
microcomputer.
A brief but basic anatomy lesson
should be shared at this point because we will be referring to its components
as we discuss possible causes and cures for endogenous depression. Every neuron
is composed of a brain cell, an axon and many dendrites (inputs to the brain
cell), as shown in the following illustration:
Each brain cell has many inputs (dendrites) and only one output through the axon that channels neurotransmitters to other dendrites. The axon has a covering known as the myelin sheath for insulation because the cell sends electrochemical messages along the axon. Every neuron is connected to tens of thousands of other neurons. Given that there are 100 billion neurons, the potential number of combinations is mind-boggling.
A junction between the axon of one
neuron and the dendrites of another is called a synapse. Through its
dendrites, every brain cell receives information, which it processes,
integrates and sends on to other neurons.
In the axon exist many mitochondria
that produce neurotransmitters. When a signal from the cell reaches the
axon it releases neurotransmitters across the synapse to other dendrites. There
are numerous types of neurotransmitters. The best known, and possibly the most
important for our discussion of depression, are norepinephrine, dopamine,
serotonin and acetylcholine.
Endogenous depression is categorized
as either bipolar or unipolar. A bipolar or manic-depressive illness has two
poles: highs (called manic moods) and lows (depressed moods). The manic
symptoms include the following: increased energy, unrealistic and grandiose
beliefs in one's own power and ability, racing ideas and thoughts, poor
judgment, increased talking or social activity, extreme euphoria, impulsivity,
irritability and distractibility, obnoxious, insensitive or irritating
behavior, and abuse of alcohol or drugs. Paranoid, delusional and psychotic
thinking is also possible in the manic phase.
Current estimates indicate that
about .5 to 1 percent of the adult population suffers from manic depression.
That means between 1 and 2 million Americans have had or will have this
affliction. Bipolar illness is equally common in men and women. It is typically
a recurrent or episodic disorder: a 1973 study examined nearly 400 patients who
had an episode of manic-depressive illness, and only two failed to have a
recurrence.
Kay Jamison, one of the foremost
experts on this illness, struggled with manic depression herself. She wrote a
fascinating book called Touched With Fire that revealed the relationship
between art and madness (mania). Some of the most creative people in the world
have struggled with this illness. Included in the list compiled by the author are,
among writers, Hans Christian Andersen, John Bunyan, Samuel Clemens, Ralph
Waldo Emerson, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Herman Melville, Robert
Louis Stevenson, Tennessee Williams and Virginia Woolf; composers, George
Frideric Handel, Robert Schumann, Peter Tchaikovsky, Irving Berlin, Noel
Coward, Stephen Foster and Cole Porter; and artists, Vincent van Gogh and
Michelangelo.
Faulkner, Hemingway, Williams,
Woolf, Schumann, Berlin and van Gogh all spent time in an asylum or psychiatric
hospital. Hemingway, Woolf and van Gogh committed suicide.
In her autobiography, An Unquiet
Mind, Jamison shares her struggle with this illness and describes her
incredible accomplishments during periods of mania. Treating her illness with
lithium brought her great relief, but also decreased her creativity and productivity.
She also said that taking medicine was not enough. She needed the objectivity
of someone else to help her get through the depressive cycle. Like many who
struggle with bipolar depression, her lows were so awful that suicide often
seemed to be the only way out.
Leo Tolstoy shared what others are
undoubtedly thinking during the low moments of depression:
The thought of suicide came to me as naturally then as the thought of improving life had come to me before. This thought was such a temptation that I had to use cunning against myself in order not to go through with it too hastily. I did not want to be in a hurry only because I wanted to use all my strength to untangle my thoughts. If I could not get them untangled, I told myself, I could always go ahead with it. And there I was, a fortunate man, carrying a rope from my room, where I was alone every night as I undressed, so that I would not hang myself from the beam between the closets. And I quit going hunting with a gun, so that I would not be too easily tempted to rid myself of life. I myself did not know what I wanted. I was afraid of life. I struggled to get rid of it, and yet I hoped for something from it.
And
this was happening to me at a time when, from all indications, I should have
been considered a completely happy man; this was when I was not yet fifty years
old. I had a good, loving, and beloved wife, fine children, and a large estate
that was growing and expanding without any effort on my part. More than ever
before I was respected by friends and acquaintances, praised by strangers, and
I could claim a certain renown without really deluding myself.
Endogenous depression may have
nothing to do with external circumstances, as in the case of Tolstoy. This is
an internal or physical struggle due to a chemical imbalance in the brain or
possibly a battle for the mind, as shall be examined in later chapters.
The transmission of a message
through the brain cells requires a certain balance of sodium (positive) and
chloride (negative) ions. In bipolar illnesses, the balance and polarity of
positive and negative ions is abnormal. In depression, the sodium ions increase
about 50 percent, and along with the mania they increase as much as 200
percent. (Compare the way electricity flows through copper better than it does
through iron, due to the chemical makeup of each substance.)
The drug of choice for treating
bipolar depression is lithium carbonate, which is an inert salt. This reduces
the number of sodium and chloride ions that allow the transmission to proceed
more normally through the cell and into other neurons.
Unipolar Depression
Episodes of serious depression
without corresponding "highs" often indicate "unipolar"
depression. Depression of this type affects nearly 10 percent of the American
population and appears to be growing. Two major studies in the late 1970s
revealed a tenfold increase in depression over the course of this century! As
noted earlier, the diagnosis of depression has nearly doubled since the mid-1980s.
This tremendous increase in depression has experts everywhere proclaiming that
an epidemic of "the blues" is upon us.
Finding Hope Again: Overcoming Depression.
------------------------------more
on Monday-------------------------
God
bless you all!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.