A few months ago I told my sister-in-law Sara about a taco place I like to go to after church.  She said something like, “You have an after-church taco place everywhere you live.”  It’s funny because she’s right.  I have never thought about it before.  I mean every day is a great day for tacos.  But Sunday is the best day of the week and so it only makes sense that tacos would make a strong Sunday showing.  Honestly, if Sundays are not your very favorite day of the week by a landslide, I think you are doing it wrong.

Yesterday my taco place sign said, “It’s okay to fall apart sometimes – tacos do and we still love them.”  Maybe that doesn’t seem especially thought-provoking, but on Saturday I watched this little clip of John Piper speaking at John MacArthur’s funeral.  In the clip, Piper acknowledges that he is a melancholy type – sometimes not even being able to explain away his blues.  Evidently, this was so far from MacArthur’s own experience that he found it baffling.  One time he said he didn’t have time to get discouraged.  He just moved on to the next thing.

So here’s my question:  Who’s right?  The taco sign?  It’s fine for us to fall apart .  Or is MacArthur right?  We should be too busy to get depressed.   Obviously, God created us all.  Some of us are naturally more Fall-Apart-Pipers, while others are more Press-On-MacArthurs.  But I fear our culture has normalized the falling apart and discounted the wisdom of pressing on.  The mindset of incessantly asking about how one is feeling is not healthy.  Working hard is healthy.  Maybe counselors need to more often trumpet the MacArthur view. 

I’d like to imagine a counselor, at least once, saying, “You know what your problem is?  You have too much time for navel-gazing.  You don’t need an Rx.  You need manual labor.  How about spending Saturday doing yardwork for Gramma?”   

Maybe that sounds a little harsh, but who do you know that has truly benefitted from more introspection? I know for sure that obsessing about my own thoughts and feelings has never proven beneficial for me.  I know for sure doing something for someone else has helped me.  I know for sure that the Bible says give all our worries to Jesus and to turn our eyes to him.  (1 Peter 5:7, Hebrews 12:2).

Obviously we are not aiming to have hard rock shells that never crumble — as believers we have hearts of flesh, not stone (Ezekiel 36:26).  But if we trust God’s plan for our life, maintain an eternal perspective and rest in Jesus’ completed work, falling apart should the exception, just like it is for the best tacos!

With Love,

Kristie