Anti-Depressants, Sleep, Diet, and Exercise
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00:00:02.580 | - So we've been talking about anxiety and ADD
00:00:08.520 | in the last two episodes, episodes 281 and 282.
00:00:12.140 | And Pastor John, you wanted to talk specifically
00:00:14.040 | about physical forces on our lives
00:00:15.960 | and how to use natural strategies to both cope and flourish
00:00:19.360 | within our personal limitations and challenges.
00:00:22.240 | - Right, this is huge to me.
00:00:23.920 | And I think I'm still learning about it.
00:00:26.520 | It relates to ADD, it relates to anxiety and anxiety attacks
00:00:29.980 | panic attacks, to the issue of whether they're sin
00:00:34.000 | or sickness or a mixture.
00:00:36.000 | And it might be helpful to lay out just a little bit
00:00:41.000 | of what I've learned about making the physical remedies
00:00:46.560 | or strategies spiritual.
00:00:49.980 | And that's the way I think about it is,
00:00:52.920 | what makes the use of a physical strategy
00:00:58.840 | in coping or flourishing with ADD or anxiety attacks
00:01:02.960 | or any other problem for that matter,
00:01:04.920 | what makes a Christian experience Christian or spiritual
00:01:09.920 | when they use the things that the world would use?
00:01:13.580 | And we all know that our spiritual condition
00:01:17.540 | is affected by physical aspects of life.
00:01:20.700 | Our souls are woven together with our bodies
00:01:24.380 | and our environment in ways that are complex, inevitable.
00:01:27.700 | God made us that way.
00:01:29.300 | We are souls with bodies.
00:01:30.780 | We always will be souls with bodies.
00:01:32.840 | We're not platonic trying to slough off our body.
00:01:35.940 | We are gonna be raised as bodies and souls in the last day.
00:01:40.060 | And so this is huge.
00:01:42.540 | We are physical, spiritual creatures.
00:01:46.060 | And we know that our spiritual responses in life
00:01:51.060 | are treating people with grace, for example,
00:01:54.700 | is affected by sleep, food and nutrition,
00:01:59.700 | drink, whether water for hydration or coffee or alcohol,
00:02:04.580 | all those affect us.
00:02:06.260 | Exercise affects brain chemicals
00:02:09.940 | are brought about by heavy workout,
00:02:12.380 | weather conditions with high and low pressure.
00:02:15.260 | When I was in Germany,
00:02:16.540 | everybody blamed certain traffic patterns on the food.
00:02:20.380 | This was a weather condition of certain kinds of pressures
00:02:23.700 | that made everybody more irritable, they thought.
00:02:27.380 | Inactivity, sitting around all day can make you listless
00:02:30.660 | and it has an effect on your mind.
00:02:33.220 | A bracing walk on the beach
00:02:35.260 | or a peaceful chair by a sunset on a lake
00:02:37.980 | will have a different effect on your mood
00:02:39.740 | than if you're stuck in traffic all afternoon.
00:02:42.980 | Smells of new moon grass and pine woods
00:02:46.440 | and ocean spray and cooking bacon.
00:02:49.500 | I mean, you're talking about the things
00:02:51.180 | that just changed my whole outlook, right?
00:02:53.900 | On life hormone replacements for women, for example,
00:02:58.900 | in menopause, things like that,
00:03:01.140 | iron supplements in your diet,
00:03:04.300 | and then of course, antidepressants.
00:03:06.060 | And so you see the whole range
00:03:08.020 | all the way from sleep to antidepressants.
00:03:10.140 | We are people who are affected by the physical strategies
00:03:15.140 | and physical remedies that we embrace.
00:03:19.260 | And so the question that we ask is one that Paul asks,
00:03:24.100 | I think in 1 Timothy 4, 4 and 5,
00:03:27.020 | where he's referring to food and sex.
00:03:29.420 | And he says, "Everything created by God is good.
00:03:33.460 | "Nothing is to be rejected
00:03:35.020 | "if it is received with thanksgiving,
00:03:37.600 | "for it is made holy,"
00:03:40.300 | so now he's thinking sex and food,
00:03:42.500 | "it is made holy by the word of God and prayer."
00:03:45.900 | So embedded in those two verses is the question,
00:03:50.140 | how do you take a natural thing
00:03:52.540 | that the world enjoys as well as we do
00:03:55.460 | and turn it into something spiritual or holy?
00:03:58.900 | And here are my five steps for doing that, Tony.
00:04:01.500 | This may be, this is my best shot
00:04:03.660 | at trying to help a person practically
00:04:05.760 | think about sleep or antidepressants
00:04:07.680 | or the whole range of everything else in between
00:04:10.280 | that affects our moods and our spiritual condition.
00:04:14.020 | Number one, acknowledge this physical benefit
00:04:18.060 | that we are now getting,
00:04:18.900 | whether it's sleep or food or exercise or medication,
00:04:22.260 | acknowledge that this physical benefit is a gift of God,
00:04:26.260 | not just nature.
00:04:28.380 | What do you have that you did not receive?
00:04:30.060 | Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4, 7.
00:04:32.980 | Number two, admit you are dependent utterly on God,
00:04:37.500 | totally on God,
00:04:38.900 | whether through a created help or supernatural,
00:04:43.560 | this is gonna make a difference.
00:04:45.220 | I mean, God can step in supernaturally
00:04:47.060 | and cause a difference,
00:04:48.020 | or he could use the natural means we're using.
00:04:50.420 | John 15, five, "Without me, you can do nothing."
00:04:53.260 | And so we're utterly dependent on him.
00:04:55.980 | Number three, pray for his intervention
00:05:00.700 | through this physical means,
00:05:03.980 | or if he pleases, supernatural.
00:05:07.340 | Let all your requests be made known to God
00:05:10.220 | and the peace of God will keep your mind.
00:05:12.300 | So pray. Number four,
00:05:14.240 | trust him to fulfill the promise of his help.
00:05:18.440 | This is where the rubber meets the road.
00:05:20.920 | I will help you, I'll strengthen you,
00:05:22.920 | I'll hold you up with my righteous right hand.
00:05:26.000 | So trust me, trust me that this is gonna make a difference
00:05:29.440 | and I'll help you through this physical means.
00:05:33.360 | And then finally, number five,
00:05:35.280 | thank him for what he does.
00:05:36.960 | Give thanks in all of those circumstances.
00:05:41.200 | So, conclusion, whether it's sleep or coffee
00:05:46.200 | or exercise or antidepressants,
00:05:50.960 | this is how we take the gifts of God in the physical world
00:05:55.200 | and sanctify them for the sake of our souls.
00:06:00.120 | - Yes, thank you, Pastor John.
00:06:01.280 | And thanks for listening to this episode.
00:06:03.700 | This episode follows two earlier ones on anxiety and ADD.
00:06:07.000 | Those were episodes 281 and 282,
00:06:09.080 | which can be found in the Ask Pastor John archive.
00:06:12.600 | Well, imagine you meet a young man
00:06:14.840 | who is a brand new believer.
00:06:16.320 | He holds out to you his brand new Bible
00:06:19.040 | and he asks you where he should start reading
00:06:21.320 | this intimidatingly long and old book with no pictures.
00:06:24.960 | Where do you encourage him to start reading?
00:06:27.200 | I'll ask Pastor John that very question on Monday.
00:06:30.200 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:06:31.280 | Have a great weekend.
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