Right smack in a busy intersection was a mendicant with a difference. For a moment I thought I was in the circus. He was balancing his bicycle on his head and around his neck was a sign: “Just Hungry, Need Help.”
Some vehicles stopped and the passengers handed him some money. Is this America?! I asked myself, The land of milk and honey?!
I was wide awake after that.
In the next few days, during our drive around the city, we’d see the same guy again and again. Able-bodied and relatively young, he could easily look for a job, which are aplenty in the US of A.
Ay, there’s the rub. He is not lazy, he does his difficult stance in the midst of traffic, through the freezing winter air, or under the heat of the summer sun, day in and day out. But he would not be able to hold a job; he’s mentally ill.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), approximately one in five adults in the U.S.—43.8 million, or 18.5%—experiences mental illness in a given year. Approximately one in 25 adults—9.8 million, or 4.0%—experiences a serious mental illness in a given year that substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities.
Why do people have mental illness?
It’s like asking, why do I get backaches and heartburn? Why does Tony have heart and blood pressure problems?
We experience these things because we dwell in bodies which have been marred by sin. Our body parts waste away, some become hubs of dread diseases. In this fallen world, our organs could fall apart and fail us anytime. And the man with his bike on his head happens to have a warped brain.
What can we do?
Paul addresses this in 2 Corinthians 4:16 (ESV), “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.”
That, if we put our trust in the Savior, whose merciful grace renews our inner selves every single day.
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