An Everyone Thing

This week, two of the NBA's biggest stars came out about issues that they have had with mental health. DeMar DeRozan and Kevin Love each expressed a different mental issue that they had battled with over the course of their lives and careers. For DeRozan, it is depression. For Love, it is panic attacks and anxiety. Two of the league's brightest stars, but both have an inner darkness that they are facing. 

Last night, after I heard about both athletes speaking on these problems, I overheard several students here at my school commenting on these issues. The comments went something like this:

"He's 6'8", 250 and playing in the NBA. There's no way that he has these mental issues." "I don't want to hear about someone who's making millions of dollars every year making comments about depression."

These are Christian college students. Have we come to the place where athletes are no longer people? Do we idolize them so much that they are gods out of the realm of human emotions and problems?

These men are not superheroes. They may have the dream job that many have aspired to reach, but their issues still persist. They may have money, but money cannot solve every problem. They are indeed still men. 

Kevin Love said in his article on March 6, "Everyone is going through something."1 This statement is true no matter where you go. Mental health is a huge issue on every continent, in every country, state, city, town, community-- in every church. Everywhere you go you will find someone who battles these issues.

I have met many people here at Pensacola Christian College who have battled these issues. I guarantee that there are people whom I have met that have never come out with these issues. Mental issues have plagued me at times as well. It's never an easy thing to go through. But the criticism of the fans of these men does not make their struggle any easier. 

To the fan and even those who don't care about sports at all: we must look differently at those who struggle with mental health. Rather than criticizing them for something that is going through something we think that they should control, why don't we take time to pray with them and for them? Instead of talking behind their backs, why don't we engage them in conversation, even if it's just an encouraging note that we send them? As the church--the body of Christ--why don't we send out His arms of love to those who are in need and help carry them through the mental storms that they are facing? 

At the end of the day, if a Christian goes through mental issues, they can still have a peace and a hope in Christ. In the end, Christ has redeemed us and has promised us a place with no more suffering, pain, heartache, and tears.

But the unsaved do not have that hope. 

Those who are unsaved wallow in their struggles and have no final hope of peace, no future rest promised to them in Heaven. Let's take the peace that we ultimately have in Christ to them. Let's bring them the perfect peace we find of Isaiah 26:3--shalom shalom--God's double portion of peace, of perfect rest. 

This is an everyone thing. Not just a Christian thing, not just a human thing, not just a sports thing-- "everyone is going through something."1
1 https://www.theplayerstribune.com/kevin-love-everyone-is-going-through-something/
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