THE BIPOLAR PROPHET

In the final chapter of his epistle, the author of the book of James talked about the power of  prayer.   

The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.  (James 5: 16)

For the righteous man who best exemplified effective and fervent prayer, James chose the Old Testament prophet Elijah.  But, James’ description of Elijah didn’t concentrate on Elijah’s effectiveness, his fervency, or his righteousness.   The focus was on Elijah’s ISSUES.

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. (James 5: 16-18)

Like all of us, the Elijah had issues.  Elijah’s specific issue was that the prophet was bipolar.

The Mayo Clinic website provides the following definition:

Bipolar disorder, formerly called manic depression, causes extreme mood swings that include emotional highs (mania or hypomania) and lows (depression). When you become depressed, you may feel sad or hopeless and lose interest or pleasure in most activities. When your mood shifts in the other direction, you may feel euphoric and full of energy. Mood shifts may occur only a few times a year or as often as several times a week.

Now read back through  1 Kings 18.

Elijah got all up in King Ahab’s face and said, “I’m not the one causing trouble in Israel. YOU’RE the one causing trouble in Israel!  YOU. YOUR WIFE. YO’ MAMA. AND EVERYBODY IN YO’ HOUSE!” (1 Kings 18: 16-18, “slightly” paraphrased)

In verses 19-24,  Elijah challenged 850 pagan prophets to a winner-take-all pray-off in front of the whole country.

Elijah prayed down fire from Heaven.

He incited a violent uprising against the pagan priests favored by King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. (verses 36-40)

Afterwards, Elijah told the king, “Bro, you better grab a snack cause I’m bout ta’ bring the rain.” (verse 41, paraphrased)

And then, after giving Ahab’s royal chariot a head start, Elijah outran the chariot--- on foot!

So he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot, and go down before the rain stops you.’ ” … Then the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah; and he girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.  (1 Kings 18: 44-46)

That’s about 30 miles by Route 66 in Israel.  On foot!

Wow! Just wow!  1 Kings 18 was the greatest emotional high of Elijah’s prophetic career.

And the opening verses of the next chapter, immediately after all of this, is Elijah running away, all the way out of the country, dropping off his assistant, and going off into the woods to sit under a tree and think suicidal thoughts.  (1 Kings 19: 3-4)

Elijah’s suicidal depression was triggered when Queen Jezebel threatened his life (verses 1-2)--- which, given Jezebel’s well-established record of systematically killing off all the Jewish prophets she could find, shouldn’t have been a shock to Elijah, especially after Elijah had 400 of her favorite pagans killed.

Elijah’s feelings were not rationally proportionate to the situation.  But, depression isn’t proportionate or rational. Depression is all-consuming.

By fleeing to Judah and then leaving his servant in Beersheba, Elijah isolated himself.

An angel made Elijah get up and eat only to come back the and find him again still curled up alone and not eating. (verses 5-7)

Even, after 40 days, when Elijah had made his way to Mt. Horeb, the mountain of the Lord, where God was going to speak to him, the prophet was still in a deep, dark emotional place.

Twice, God asked Elijah, “What are you doing?”

Twice Elijah, gave the same pitiful answer:

“I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.” (1 Kings 19: 10)

From hyper, chariot-racing, rain-bringing, fire-starting champion, to suicidal, emo, repeating-himself basketcase.

Elijah was bipolar.

Point?

1)      Mental illness is not a sin.  Elijah was bipolar, but he was also the New Testament example of a righteous man whose prayers God heard and answered.

2)      Your “issues” don’t have to keep you away from God.  Elijah prayed while he was suicidal, and God answered. 

3)      The absence of an immediate answer doesn’t mean the absence of an answer.  Elijah was out in the wilderness, under trees, and in caves for over 40 days before God spoke to him in the still small voice that showed the way out.

4)      Your issues don’t change your calling.  After 1 Kings 18 & 19, Elijah was still bipolar, and he was still the great prophet of Israel.  The Lord sent Elijah back to do the exact same work he had run away from.

The LORD said to him, "Go back the way you came. (1 Kings 19: 15, NIV)

Dealing with your mental issues will make your ministry even stronger.  After this episode, Elijah went on to anoint two kings (different countries) and his own successor, whom Elijah personally trained and left with a double portion of spiritual power. (2 Kings 2)

5)      Your “anointing” doesn’t fix your mental illness.  I repeat: You may be genuinely called, anointed, and gifted for a great spiritual work; and still need outside help with your mental health issues.

In 1 Kings 19, God sent a mighty whirlwind, a great earthquake, and a consuming fire; but after all those miracles Elijah still had the same depression-driven  answer to the question: What are you doing here? (1 Kings 19: 11-13)

Which brings us to the final point.

6)      If you are a man or woman with issues like Elijah, or any other mental health issue, keep praying mightily for others, but also GET YOURSELF SOME HELP.

The still small voice of God commanded Elijah to stop isolating himself.  God told Elijah to get help from Jehu of Israel, Hazael of Syria, and Elisha of Abel Meholah; and God referred Elijah to the 7,000 member sons of the prophets support group.  (verses 16-18)

Of all the mighty men and women of prayer in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit told James to write about Elijah.  That wasn’t an accident. 

Learn the lessons of the bipolar prophet. 

This post expands on my notes for the sermon “Plans & Issues.”  Click here to listen to the complete message.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

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Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

NO. ACTUALLY, YOU DON'T KNOW

It’s popular say, “You don’t know my story.  You don’t know my struggle.”

Well sometimes we do.

For example, we all know the professional and personal life of actor and comedian Robin Williams.  You and I know the story of his life.  We can download a list of his struggles.

We know his story and struggles so well that when he committed suicide, we assumed that it had to do with his past struggles with drugs, or the past story of depression off-setting his manic stage presence, or the old story of an ego crushed by waning popularity.  We knew that these were problems he’d faced repeatedly in the past.   So people speculated and pontificated based on what they knew of his story and his struggles.

But we didn’t know until days after he died that Robin Williams had Parkinson’s disease.  This incurable, degenerative disease of the central nervous system gradually robs its victims of control of their body, their voice, and their mind. Advanced Parkinson’s brings dementia, but every stage of the disease causes depression.

So maybe Robin Williams wasn’t too “weak” to stay off drugs.  Maybe he wasn’t too much of a “coward” to deal with being less popular on camera.  Maybe he was, in the most basic, literal, physically observable sense of the word, just SICK.

Maybe Robin Williams wasn’t looking back at the stories and struggles we commonly knew of his past, but ahead at the new struggles and the impending story we didn’t suspect were in his future.

Robin Williams lead a very, very public life.  We knew his story.  We knew his struggles.

But we really didn’t know.

We didn’t know his whole story, and the struggles we knew weren’t the toughest struggles he had to face.

Which is true for EVERYone. 

No matter how well you know someone either publicly or personally, you never really know their whole story.    You may know what they HAVE struggled with; but until (and unless) they tell you, you don’t know what they ARE struggling with.

But we assume we know, don’t we?  At a certain point, we have so much information about them already that we stop listening. 

 

They start a sentence and you finish it for them----- but do you see the look in their eyes, a pained look that says, ”No.  That’s not what I’m feeling”?

They tell you what they feel and you waive it off because you’re certain it’ll pass like all the other times, but do you see the hurt in their eyes that says, “It’s not going to pass this time,” and maybe, “It’s NEVER passed.  You just stopped paying attention”?

Jesus’ disciples knew His story.   They’d been to His hometown of Nazareth.  They’d met His mom and siblings.  They’d heard the stories of His birth and early years in Bethlehem and Egypt.  Some of them were there,\ the day John baptized Him.  They witnessed the Pharisees' attacks.  They sat with Him at night and reviewed each long day of healing and preaching.  They asked Jesus about what he did in the years not recorded in the gospels.  They watched His every move for 3 ½ years.  The disciples knew Jesus’ story.  They knew Jesus’ struggle. 

But they really didn’t.

When Jesus said, “I’m going to be killed.”  They said, “No, you ain’t.” (Matthew 16: 21-23)

Jesus told them and showed them who He was.  They affirmed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” but they didn’t really see Him for Who He is. (John 6: 69; 14: 1-12)

Jesus told His disciples what He needed from them as followers and as friends, but they assumed that it wasn’t that big a deal or that it would pass like every other previous storm had passed.

 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.”…

Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping. (Matthew 26: 37-38, 40)

They didn’t see; they didn’t understand.    This wasn’t just a passing request.  This was it.  This was what it has always been, but you think you know me so well that you don’t take me seriously anymore.

“What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?”(Matthew 26: 40)

The night Jesus was taken away to be killed, He was alone.  He was in a garden with his 11 closest friends just a stone’s throw away, but He was alone because His friends didn’t really know His story.  They didn’t really know His struggle.

The disciples only really learned Jesus after His death and resurrection.

The public is learning Robin Williams after his death.

So sad, that we wait that long to really know someone’s story and struggle.

We don’t have to. 

Listen to the ones you love. Hear them for who they are not just for who you already automatically know they have been.

Give them the space to tell you what their story IS, what their struggles ARE.

You never know when morning will come and they won’t be there to tell you.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church (5220 Myron Massey Boulevard) in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to  

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064