Anxiety. Insecure thoughts. Panic attacks. Self-doubt.

When we hear people talk about these situations and feelings without having experienced them ourselves, we can often put them into a box or label them as things that only happen to unbelievers or weak Christians. If we hear the phrase “mental health” or “emotional well-being”, we scoff and consider ourselves stronger than the people who deal with these seemingly trivial problems. We think things along the lines of:

They wouldn’t have those problems if they read their Bible more. If she just prayed harder she wouldn’t be so weak and discouraged. If only he would’ve married that perfect girl in our church — then his life would’ve turned out better.

I hope those sentences rubbed you the wrong way, because thoughts like those are judgmental and wrong. But if they felt familiar and natural, I’m not condemning you — I probably had a time in my life when I used to hear people talk about anxiety or insecurity and look down on them too. I thought that was a problem only faced by people who had gone through severe trauma or emotional pain, not something that everyone struggles with. Not something that I would ever have to face.

But I was wrong, and now I can better sympathize with the men and women who go through these things regularly. And what caused that perspective change was all the times God’s let me go through the same struggles I might’ve rolled my eyes at just a few years ago.

I can remember having a panic attack when I was 11-13 years old and being scared that my childhood heart palpitations meant I was going to die. In the past I’ve spent months staying up till early in the morning and ignoring my need for sleep because I was convinced I hadn’t prayed enough yet. The night after I sang on my youth group worship team for the first time, I got hives for an entire day from the performance anxiety.

Were any of those experiences particularly enjoyable? No. They weren’t. The girl who struggles with body image isn’t going to rant and rave about why she never wears shorts in the summer. I don’t think anyone who has ever had a panic attack would ask you, “Why don’t you try it sometime?”

These mental and emotional hardships are hiding in plain sight; most – if not all of us – have
gone through seasons of darkness, loneliness, anxiety, stress, or intense worry for one reason or another. If you haven’t experienced this yet, I promise you that at some point in your life it will be a struggle.

I don’t say that to scare you, but to prepare you for the trials that will come in your life.
Christians are not exempt from mental and emotional pain, and struggling with things like
insecurity or panic does NOT mean you aren’t a child of God. I love reading about the lives of great Christian men and women, because they show you the raw reality of what it means to be human.

Charles Spurgeon, also known as the Prince of Preachers, struggled with depression
throughout his time as a minister. Similarly, the famous Reformer Martin Luther battled
depression during his life, and John Bunyan fought against mental and spiritual attack for years before and after he wrote Pilgrim’s Progress.

If you asked me if I would like to go back and relive any of my experiences of intense doubt, worry and fear, I would answer in the negative. But at the same time, I’m not angry or bitter that I went through those times. I love the compassion, sympathy and grace those experiences have added to my character, and they’ve brought me to a much healthier and loving understanding of the struggles many people deal with.

We all face lots of trials and temptations in this broken world, but we have not been left without a strong, loving Savior who will fight for us. And whenever He allows us to go through hard, painful things, we can trust that they’re for our good — which includes being able to sympathize with and encourage those around us more than we otherwise would have.