Dangerous Minds

There has been a lot of talk about Simone Biles withdrawing from the the Olympics due to mental health issues. When I heard about it I remember thinking wow thats surprising…however the more I thought about it the more it began to make sense.

I mean Simone is 24 years old this is her 3rd Olympics. This means that she probably began her training at at least 10 or 11 years old. Countless hours in the gym, sacrificing regular life to pursue her dream.

This lifestyle choice requires a ton of mental toughness as well as physical toughness under the best of situations. However add to that the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of the former team Doctor Larry Nassar, add to that being put so high up on a pedestal that anything other than bringing home the the Gold would be failure and all the sudden one might get a since of the emotional strain she was under.

With all of this I went from saying wow thats strange to WoW why didn’t it happen sooner?

Then a few hours after this announcement I was equally surprised at how aggressively she was ridiculed from some who seemed to believe that their expectations of a gold medal was somehow more important than Simone as a person.

People saying everything from she let her team down, she let her country down, and moving from there to mocking her mental state as fragile, and all the in my day talk....was disheartening to say the least.

I mean what about all the professional athletes that ignored their emotional health and continued even though they were not in the right head space? There are too many to name and all of their stories are a bit tragic.

Society and the Church sometimes send mixed messages about the importance of emotional health. The result of this mixed message is often burnout and mistrust of others and even God.

When we ignore our emotional health we give it power to destroy us.

Are there jobs you think people should not do if they are not in the right head space? Talk back here.

Doctor, Airline pilot, Police officer, etc....

When these people are not in a good emotional state bad things happen.

David was a man after God’s own heart…he had great moments of emotional intelligence…he waited for Saul to die, and he accepted God’s decision not to allow him to build the temple even though he desperately wanted to.

However he had one moment of emotional weakness which not only did he ignore but then tried to cover up that lead to a terrible ending to what should have been a beautiful life.

2 Samuel 11:1-5

New Living Translation Chapter 11

In the spring of the year, when kings normally go out to war, David sent Joab and the Israelite army to fight the Ammonites. They destroyed the Ammonite army and laid siege to the city of Rabbah. However, David stayed behind in Jerusalem.

2 Late one afternoon, after his midday rest, David got out of bed and was walking on the roof of the palace. As he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath. 3 He sent someone to find out who she was, and he was told, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her; and when she came to the palace, he slept with her. She had just completed the purification rites after having her menstrual period. Then she returned home. 5 Later, when Bathsheba discovered that she was pregnant, she sent David a message, saying, “I’m pregnant.”

The rest of the story is basically this…he killed Bathsheba’s husband, was found out and confronted by Nathan…and as a result of this his entire family disintegrated into the model of dysfunction…sons trying to kill him and so on.

All becuase David ignored his emotional state and where it was leading him.

Let’s look at some key things David did wrong.

He was not in the right place physically…He was supposed to be with the army....

He was not in the right palce emotionally.....He allowed his boredom, loneliness and lust for Bathsheba and power to lead him to a bad decisions.

By ignoring his emotional weakness he destroyed his legacy.

If we are going to maintain a Holy life we have to listen to our emotions or we too will allow them to lead us to a destructive place.

Now there is a difference between listening to our emotions and being led by them…emotions act as caution lights for bad decisions if we are close to God and allow Holy Spirit to make us aware of what is going on.

We must not be led by emotions but we should be aware of where they are leading us.

How do we allow the Holy Spirit to keep us aware of our emotions?

Choose the Church as a place of healing

Reach out to Godly people who can help

Think about your legacy if you ignore your emotional health

Illustration The Blue Line from MNU

I am going to ask you to take time in your seat this morning to ask God to reveal your emotional state to you. If you are struggling I want you to confess this to God. Ask God to give you the courage to allow Holy Spirit to bring peace to you be showing you what needs to change in your thought process, attitude and spiritual growth.

Then When you are ready Come forward and receive the Broken Body and Shed blood of Jesus and Consider yourself dismissed.

Please hold your conversations in the foyer or outside so those seeking emotional reset allow God to bring to mind how to help them before they receive communion.

Prayer/Communion