The Problem of Drama

My talk today is part of a series. The series is called: Quit Telling Yourself I Can't

And if you want to know what I'm going to talk about today, you've just seen a major hint. The title of my talk today is: Quit Letting Drama Run Your Life

Let me get right into the Bible today, and it's going to sound weird.

"I implore Euodia and I implore Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life." (Philippians 4:2-3)

These are two people in a church who are fighting.

You need to understand who these women are. These aren't spectators. These aren't people sitting in the cheap seats complaining about the music.

Paul says in verse 3 that they "labored with me in the gospel."

These are MVPs.
These are the star players.
They have been in the trenches.
They have taken hits for the team.
They helped build the ministry.
These are key women and key leaders in the church.

But right now, they are going at it in needless drama.

Saved, yes.
Loved by God, yes.
Going to heaven, yes.

He even says, "their names are in the Book of Life..." which is the heavenly roster of saved people, all of whom have a home in heaven.

But when St. Paul talks about 2 people by name who are fighting (and this one must have been pretty serious), he does this with a deeper understanding of what's going on.

Everybody has conflict. Conflict is a normal part of a healthy life.
But conflict that spreads is not healthy.
Being a conflictual person is not healthy.

And having enough conflict to get called out on it in the Bible, I don't think that's gonna be very healthy.

So it's not just a well-reasoned fight, this is a breakdown in human psychology. It's a breakdown in love, and therefore in peace and in joy.

Their fight is so bad that it reaches St Paul.

These people live in a town called Philippi, a Roman colony. Paul is a prisoner in Rome.

That's a thousand miles by road and would take a month and a half of travel.

That is one nasty fight going on.

So Paul writes a letter and sends one of his assistant coaches (he calls him true companion) to help get these players on the same page.

Which brings me to a bold claim today.

The Foundational Claim: The Bible is a Handbook for Wholeness

I want to argue that:
The single most successful handbook on human dignity and mental health in history is the Bible.

It's not the DSM5. It's not a textbook. It's the Bible.

The idea that you matter—that you have dignity, worth, and rights—didn't come from science. It didn't come from government or philosophy. That idea came from the Bible.

Here is my point:
Because the Bible is the only reason we understand human dignity, it is therefore the only guide that understands human sanity.

If it provided the foundation for our rights, the case is really strong that it therefore provides the foundation for our peace.

God didn't just give you a rulebook. He gave you a roadmap for the human soul. And when you look at the design specs, we see three highly desirable qualities that define mental health: Love, Joy, Peace.

They are interconnected, really they are aspects of the same thing: wholeness and health in every category. If you give a human being those three things, that person becomes unbreakable. If you take them away, then no amount of medication can fill the hole that is left.

The Core Conflict: The Battle for Dominion

But there is a deeper quality here that we need to understand.

Dominion/Agency

If I ask you the question, who runs your life, you would probably say, "I do."

That's great. But think harder. If people were being honest, there are a whole lot who would say: My mountain of debt runs my life. My fears run my life. My whole life has been me trying to prove my father wrong, so my father runs my life, and he's been dead for years. My depression, my anxiety, my ex-, my anger, my addictions, my sex drive, my jealousy... did I miss anybody?

All those forces and so many more are trying to take over. They are little usurpers of the throne of your life.

This is not God's plan for you. God's plan for you is love, joy, and peace.

To establish and maintain that love, joy, and peace, God gave you certain powers.

When God created Adam and Eve, he made them in his image. As part of being in his image, God made them the rulers of their dominion, the rulers of earth.

That means free-will agency. Adam and Eve could stand tall and proud and say, I run my life under the mighty Lordship of my God.

Then something really bad happened.

Sin came in and wrecked their dominion. Then death came in and made it worse. That's why the Bible uses words like bondage and slavery to indicate that you're not really running your life, your dark side is.

You've become a slave to:
Sin, Romans 6:17
The Flesh, Romans 5:17
The Devil, 2 Timothy 2:26
Death, Hebrews 2:15
Deception, John 8:44
Lust, Titus 3:3

And the expression of all of that is basic: you don't run your life... Addiction, dysfunction, fear, anxiety, all of that runs your life. Your dominion is broken.

The minute they sinned, Adam and Eve lost their love, their joy, and their peace.
And they stepped into a lifelong tug of war over the question of who's going to run my life.