I'm of two minds, about whether I want a mental health condition, in *Heaven*?

[Gottservant]

Hi there,

So yes, you can tell I'm an old hand at this, from the title. I have been on the ins and outs of schizophrenia for a couple of decades now and I have to say it hasn't all been roses. It started out with my sense of meaning slipping from reality and became a full blown delusion about what I could do about a bunch of things that weren't right in my life. The thing I learned is: if you can find a faster way to be at peace, with what you are actually doing, you can't put it past a paranoid hypervigilance with repetitive features schizophrenia, to implode whatever would have been a drawn out moment of ignorance. And by implode, I literally mean perceptual paralysis.

That said - the negative aside - I am in no way just a mental "type" and I think that my schizophrenia has really added to my life: I have perceptual depth that other people struggle to get, I can give God praise that I am big, tough and can't be pushed around, I think I have expectations of originality that were inspired by the Holy Spirit (originality that wouldn't have been nearly encouraging, if there was nothing different about me, put it that way). I'm so confident and so patient with my schizophrenia, that it has dawned on me "maybe I get to be like this, in Heaven". I'm not saying I want all the negative stuff - but I'm not saying it is all negative.

Tell me if you read this, that you see it in yourself - it would be great to hear that there were others like me that wanted to enjoy how God had created them, in Heaven! I mean, from what I gather from reading posts here, that people have problems with this or that "feature" of their mental health condition, but never so much so that they wish they'd never heard of a different way of being with God or whatever it is you do? I mean I have meant some really talented people on these forums and have gotten great joy that not all their struggles are apart from help. Maybe that helps you too?!

Anyway, it's not something I have talked to the Holy Spirit about (mental health conditions in Heaven) maybe I should see to that first or now or whatever. I think the advice is all there in the Bible, if you are looking for it - I guess it would help to get the Holy Spirit's help on how to interpret it, if nothing else. Holy Spirit, as we are all reading this, give us clarity and percetion and understanding as to what we are going through (in our mental health conditions) in Jesus' Name Amen. Yeah, so as I was saying, there is a place for schizophrenia in my life (if not others) and I can certainly look forward to the time when the tyranny of the normal is no more (the tyranny, not the being normal!) it is a skill you have to develop: when to trust you or someone else's condition, but it's not the end of the world, if it doesn't happen instantly. True...

Thanks for hanging in their with me, I pray it blesses you and your walk with the Holy Spirit (while in this world). If you don't want your mental health condition, that's fine, I'm sure that God has much more than that in store for you... waiting up there!

 

[pdudgeon]

I think that's a beautiful prayer!

 

[BobRyan]

Hi there,

So yes, you can tell I'm an old hand at this, from the title. I have been on the ins and outs of schizophrenia for a couple of decades now and I have to say it hasn't all been roses. It started out with my sense of meaning slipping from reality and became a full blown delusion about what I could do about a bunch of things that weren't right in my life. The thing I learned is: if you can find a faster way to be at peace, with what you are actually doing, you can't put it past a paranoid hypervigilance with repetitive features schizophrenia, to implode whatever would have been a drawn out moment of ignorance. And by implode, I literally mean perceptual paralysis.

That said - the negative aside - I am in no way just a mental "type" and I think that my schizophrenia has really added to my life: I have perceptual depth that other people struggle to get, I can give God praise that I am big, tough and can't be pushed around, I think I have expectations of originality that were inspired by the Holy Spirit (originality that wouldn't have been nearly encouraging, if there was nothing different about me, put it that way). I'm so confident and so patient with my schizophrenia, that it has dawned on me "maybe I get to be like this, in Heaven". I'm not saying I want all the negative stuff - but I'm not saying it is all negative.

Tell me if you read this, that you see it in yourself - it would be great to hear that there were others like me that wanted to enjoy how God had created them, in Heaven! I mean, from what I gather from reading posts here, that people have problems with this or that "feature" of their mental health condition, but never so much so that they wish they'd never heard of a different way of being with God or whatever it is you do? I mean I have meant some really talented people on these forums and have gotten great joy that not all their struggles are apart from help. Maybe that helps you too?!

Anyway, it's not something I have talked to the Holy Spirit about (mental health conditions in Heaven) maybe I should see to that first or now or whatever. I think the advice is all there in the Bible, if you are looking for it - I guess it would help to get the Holy Spirit's help on how to interpret it, if nothing else. Holy Spirit, as we are all reading this, give us clarity and percetion and understanding as to what we are going through (in our mental health conditions) in Jesus' Name Amen. Yeah, so as I was saying, there is a place for schizophrenia in my life (if not others) and I can certainly look forward to the time when the tyranny of the normal is no more (the tyranny, not the being normal!) it is a skill you have to develop: when to trust you or someone else's condition, but it's not the end of the world, if it doesn't happen instantly. True...

Thanks for hanging in their with me, I pray it blesses you and your walk with the Holy Spirit (while in this world). If you don't want your mental health condition, that's fine, I'm sure that God has much more than that in store for you... waiting up there!

let's look at John 3
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. 18 The one who believes in Him is not judged; the one who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, so that his deeds will not be exposed.

That verse highlighted gets covered up by the overall message of accepting Christ. But in vs 19 we are informed that it is the nature of our sinful nature to "love darkness" - to love the brokenness of this world. Being informed of this - it should not surprise us that we have that tendency.

Imagine someone who is "offended" by everything that they hear that does not agree with their bias. They then conclude "I was made this way" ... "It is my nature" and while at times it annoys them at other times they enjoy that abnormal behavior quite a bit. The old adage "being offended does not make you right" sometimes troubles them and sometimes not. It is easy to see in this case that they should try not to be confused by the inner bent telling them that a bad thing is good to cling to after all "it is their nature".

Someone who is born blind could then point to how much sharper their sense of hearing is. And while true - it is also true that you can see a bird in flight from much farther distance than you can hear a bird in flight and "fall colors" have no "color" attribute to someone who cannot see. It has only smell when it comes to the trees near you.