We get a lot of questions and emails about anxiety disorders and ADD, attention deficit disorder. One listener asks if ADD is simply a mental disorder or is there sin mixed in here? And last time in episode 281, you addressed anxiety, but you wanted to save ADD for a whole 'nother episode, so let's talk about that today.

What would you say about this disorder? The first thing I'd say, I'm thinking back now that what I said in the last podcast about anxiety and the use of natural strategies as well as spiritual strategies to both cope and flourish in our own limitations, that applies here big time as well.

Let's start with the definition. This is really big, and I have some exposure to it personally, and I've read some about it, so this is my best shot. I'm not an expert in ADD, but here's what I understand it to be. ADD, attention deficit disorder, goes by other names as well, sometimes ADHD, is a brain configuration that presents unusual challenges because of a combination of deficient focus and hyperfocus.

In other words, adults, there are whole books on adult ADD as well as children. We usually think of it as kids, you know, acting out in school and certainly, a brain condition that may focus intensely on one thing for hours and be utterly oblivious of a whole bunch of other things.

So there's a combination of hyperfocus and deficient focus, and I would say this condition in the brain, and I suspect it is physiological, I don't know how all that works in terms of the way the brain is patterned over time as a child, but yes, dimensions of physical shaping in the brain has all the marks of the fall, like all of our brains, and their deficiencies.

I mean, you can think of all kinds of conditions that are physically affected by the nature of the brain, and that's because the brain is affected by the fall, and yet, I would say that a structurally different brain is not an act of sin. So that's the question sometimes, is it a sin to be ADD?

And I'm saying no, but like all brains, the ADD brain will be prone to sin in certain ways. That's the way to think about it. And so, like all of us, John Piper is prone to sin in certain ways, that Tony Ranke is not prone to sin, because the way my genetic makeup, my background, inclines me to struggle with certain things that you don't struggle with and vice versa.

The saint with ADD, I like the sound of that, the saint, yes, the saint with ADD will need the grace and humility, it seems to me, to take steps to fight the peculiar ways that ADD inclines him or her to sin. For example, it's not a sin, I don't think, to forget a task or to fail to see clutter.

But it is a sin when wise and loving people give suggestions to how you might compensate for a weakness, and your pride or your self-sufficiency rejects them. This is the interplay between the soul and the brain. This is where the gospel of Jesus is always relevant to our physical conditions.

The gospel may not change the structure of the brain, but it will humble the heart to be receptive to counsel and practical help that God has provided in the body of Christ and in the natural resources of the world. So the spiritual transformation of the heart's humility through faith in Christ can make all the difference in the world how happily and fruitfully a person with ADD lives.

So in real life, the way ADD and other syndromes work out is that the physical and the spiritual are woven together. We are never only physical or only spiritual. Every one of us should strive to know ourselves and our peculiar bent towards sinning. It's always influenced by physical reality as well as spiritual.

And then we should embrace, by grace, through faith, embrace all the means of grace and seek to live our humble, loving, helpful lives within the limits and the temptations that we have. Good. Thank you, Pastor John. And we'll follow up and talk more tomorrow about antidepressants and sleep patterns, diet, and exercise.

Until then, please email your questions to us at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org. And you can visit us online at DesiringGod.org to find thousands of books, articles, sermons, and other resources from John Piper, all free of charge. I'm your host, Tony Ranke. We'll see you tomorrow.