Posted on June 1, 2026 by Rev. Jonathan Conner
Mental Health
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I will spare you the alarming statistics and charts on mental health in America today and cut to the chase: We’re not mentally well. We have alarming rates of fragile workers, failing students, and fractured families.
The causes are many.
And these are only some of the causes.
In a word, we’ve rejected the fear of the Lord, giving the creature primacy of place before the Creator.
My purpose for this article, however, isn’t to explore why we’re not mentally well. My purpose is to tell you what you should be doing if you want to be mentally well.
Before I tell you, though, I don’t want you to think that what I’m going to share is going to make everything in your life peaches and cream.
Jesus disabused us of any notion of a trouble-free life when He told us plainly:
“In this world you will have tribulation…” (John 16:33).
What I’m going to tell you is what we need to be doing precisely because this world is marked by trouble and trials.
If you want to be mentally well, do this:
Before you scoff at so “simple” a prescription, try it.
Start by reading the book of Proverbs.
Ask yourself:
Then put the proverb into action. In other words, do it.
The meditation will ignite the doing, and the doing will drive the meditating.
They will strengthen one another, and they will lead you into healthy thought patterns and life practices.
But here’s the key: You have to do it because mental health isn’t merely mental.
Good mental health involves wise life habits. Part of good mental health involves evicting false thoughts and establishing true ones. The false and misaligned thoughts need to be dragged out of the darkness of the mind’s closets into the light of truth so that the light can expose and diminish the lies and half-truths even as it establishes Truth squarely in the mind’s living room. This is precisely what pastors and the mental health counselors of Lutheran Family Service do and why they are so beneficial and necessary. But mental health is not and cannot be limited to the mind. Mental health needs action. Mental health requires doing wisdom, practicing it.
This is not about being “smart.” Wisdom has nothing to do with algebra equations or the rules of grammar; wisdom is about living in line with reality, about doing truth. Think of it this way: Intelligence is building furniture or a barn out of wood; wisdom is running your hand along the wood’s grain and not against it. Wisdom understands that God has established a moral grain in His world. Running your life against it will give you splinters. Enjoying it requires us to move in line with created reality’s moral grain.
To live well in God’s world requires practicing God’s way. That’s where the book of Proverbs comes in. Proverbs seats us before a brilliant teacher offering insights on relationships, wealth, spirituality, sex, and so much more. We are invited, even exhorted, to learn from this wise teacher, to think deeply on the instruction given and intentionally to apply it. Or, as I said above, read, do, repeat. Proverbs calls this fearing the Lord:
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight (Proverbs 9:10).
This fear is not terror, but a deep reverence for the Lord and a profound appreciation for our place in the universe. We are not God. We do not get to define good and evil, right and wrong. We do not get to define reality or the universe. As creatures — and fallen ones at that — we must have these things defined for us. Proverbs invites us to humble ourselves before God in order to learn His definitions, accept them, and apply them to our lives. I must again make this plain: Fearing the Lord is about doing His wisdom.
That’s what we’re driving at in this article: moving meditation on God’s Word into action, into doing His Word. Let’s consider a few proverbs to get the process started.
The wise teacher says:
Leave your simple ways, and live,
and walk in the way of insight (Proverbs 9:6).
Look at the action involved: leave and walk. Leave the simple, naïve, foolish ways endorsed and celebrated by the world, and walk in the way of insight, understanding, and discernment.
Do this with your finances by making a budget, eliminating the stupid and wasteful purchases that are killing your generosity and financial security (How many fancy coffee drinks from your favorite coffee shop do you need in a week? How many convenience purchases do you need from Casey’s in a week?), and by prioritizing your support of Christ’s church. Do this, and you will experience greater financial stability and peace.
Do this with your thought life too. Leave the shallow, fake, self-promoting, and permanently insecure world of social media, and walk in the way of Bible study. Learn the doctrine of Scripture and the confession of the church. Do this, and you will discover a mental framework to see and understand the world as God sees it. And to say what should be obvious, seeing the world as God sees it is mentally healthy.
The wise teacher says:
A slack hand causes poverty,
but the hand of the diligent makes rich (Proverbs 10:4).
As a door turns on its hinges,
so does a sluggard on his bed (Proverbs 26:14).
The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes
than seven men who can answer sensibly (Proverbs 26:16).
These words assume action — or the lack of it! A slack, lazy, idle hand brings financial distress. A diligent and dedicated hand brings prosperity. Sometimes poverty happens suddenly through calamity or chance, but as this proverb observes, it often happens through one lazy choice at a time: choosing video games over homework, another hour in front of the TV instead of learning a useful life skill, meaningless scrolling instead of beneficial doing.
What makes this poverty worse is the series of lies the sluggard has told himself: The right job hasn’t emerged. The system is rigged. I don’t like the hours. The boss is inflexible. The job is boring, hard, or pointless. He has denied his personal agency and cut himself off from wise counsel (Proverbs is full of wisdom on receiving good counsel). He has filled his life with excuses and justifications to the point that he is incapable of seeing the accumulation of his foolish, lazy — even stupid — choices. One lazy choice after another has led him into poverty and need.[1]
The wise teacher says:
The vexation of a fool is known at once,
but the prudent ignores an insult (Proverbs 12:16).
A hot-tempered man stirs up strife,
but he who is slow to anger quiets contention (Proverbs 15:18).
Whoever restrains his words has knowledge,
and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding (Proverbs 17:27).
Here the proverbs counsel restraint and self-discipline. Giving immediate voice to your anger is foolish. Venting on social media is stupid. The world tells us that “letting your anger out” is therapeutic. It’s not. It trains your soul to be angry. In fact, it wires your brain toward anger.
The world tells us spouting off reduces pressure. It doesn’t. It trains your soul (and brain) to be constantly loaded and ready to explode.
Wisdom requires restraint. Prudence demands overlooking insults. Understanding calls for a cool head. Think about it: Who are you focused on when you’re giving immediate and unrestrained voice to your anger? Yourself. Don’t you think that might train your soul toward a certain inward bent? Honesty requires an affirmative answer.
Does this mean you can never be angry? No. But practicing prudence and restraint will help you become angry less often. What should you do with your anger? It depends. You might need to repent. You can always bring it to Jesus in prayer. You can take it to your pastor to receive counsel, forgiveness, or both. You can take it to a Lutheran Family Service counselor for guidance.
What you can’t do, though, is unleash it on people. That’s foolish and trains your heart and mind in exceedingly unhealthy — even sinful — patterns. And do you expect to discover mental health while pursuing unhealthy and sinful patterns?
Mental health requires action. It requires doing what God teaches. But isn’t it wonderful that God has given us such wisdom to practice? Isn’t it wonderful that God shows us the way to mental well-being?
But here’s the question: Do we believe our Lord? Do we believe, as the proverbs teach, that wisdom is worth more than gold (see Proverbs 16:16)? Are we willing to work harder for wisdom than we do for money?
I’m reminded of what G.K. Chesterton famously observed, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.”
What I’ve shared is difficult. It may prove to be the hardest thing you’ve ever tried. But where did we get the idea that wisdom was easy and mental health was the default? These things take work. Fortunately, God provides help along the way. He baptizes us into His church. He feeds us His grace. He surrounds us with people to labor beside us. God is good to us.
I close by returning to where I began. If you want to be mentally well, do this:
– Pastor Conner
[1] These choices, as you may imagine, don’t merely affect the sluggard, they also affect his family and his community who are either dragged into want with him or must now provide for him from their hard-earned resources or through higher taxes paid to the government who provides government assistance.
Rev. Jonathan Conner is a contributor and speaker for Lutheran Family Service in the areas of mental health, godly living, and parenting. He is a regular guest on the podcast Issues, Etc., and the multi-part series Kids Have Questions. Pastor Conner is a graduate of Concordia Seminary St. Louis and currently serves as the pastor of Zion Lutheran Church in Manning, Iowa.
If you or someone you know would benefit from Christ-centered mental health counseling, refer to or contact us today.
Lutheran Family Service walks with those experiencing difficult times through mental health counseling, marriage counseling, crisis pregnancy counseling, and adoption services.
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