Who Are You #RTTBROS #Nightlight

Who Are You? #RTTBROS #Nightlight

You Are Not Your Diagnosis

(On identity and mental health, drawing on Tim Clinton and the Soul Care Bible's core message)

You Are Not Your Diagnosis 

"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." — Romans 8:38-39

I want to talk to you tonight about something that I see happen to people, good people, people of faith, people I care about deeply. They receive a diagnosis. Depression. Anxiety disorder. PTSD. Bipolar disorder. And slowly, almost without realizing it, that diagnosis becomes their identity. They stop being themselves and start being their condition.

Tim Clinton, who served as the executive editor of the Soul Care Bible and as president of the American Association of Christian Counselors, has built much of his life's work around one central conviction: that God cares for the whole person, and that no matter what someone is walking through, the message of the gospel is that their identity is secure in Christ.

Now, I want to be careful here, because I'm not saying diagnoses aren't real. I've been a chaplain long enough to know they are very real. I'm not suggesting anyone stop taking their medication or avoid professional help. Please don't hear that. What I am saying is something different.

Your diagnosis describes something you are experiencing. It does not define who you are.

You are a child of God. You are someone Jesus thought was worth dying for. You are someone the Holy Spirit has taken up residence in, if you know Christ. And Paul's magnificent declaration in Romans 8 doesn't have a footnote that says "except for people with mental health struggles." Nothing, absolutely nothing, separates you from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

I'm too soon old and too late smart, but one of the things I've come to believe with everything in me is this: the enemy loves nothing more than to take your hardest season and convince you it's your permanent address. It isn't. You are passing through. And the One who walks with you through it knows every step of the path, because history is just HIS story, and your chapter is not finished yet.

You are not your diagnosis. You are His.

Let's pray: Father, speak identity over the weary hearts listening tonight. Remind us that our worth was settled at the cross, not in a doctor's office. You love us completely, in our struggles and through them. In Jesus' name, Amen.

#Identity #MentalHealth #SoulCare #YouAreHis #Faith #ChristianLiving #RTTBROS #Nightlight

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