You Good? When Mental Health Meets Faith.
If you’ve ever been asked, “You good?” or “How are you doing?” you probably know how automatic our answers can be.
“Fine.”
“Good.”
“Can’t complain.”
We say it hundreds of times a week without thinking. But if we’re honest, those words are often some of the biggest lies we tell. Because the truth is — we’re not always good.
Life can be heavy. Situations shift, relationships break, health fails, and mental health struggles creep in. Yet we’ve learned to hide behind polite answers, especially in church. That’s why we’re launching a new series called You Good, where we’ll explore how faith and mental health intersect — and how God invites us to stop hiding and start healing.
When We Stop Hiding, God Starts Healing
Six years ago, we launched a series called Not Okay, where we learned it’s okay not to be okay. We had no idea that just months later, a global pandemic would trigger an epidemic of anxiety, depression, loneliness, and addiction.
Today, the numbers still tell a sobering story: according to the National Institute of Mental Health, one in five Americans struggles with a diagnosable mental health disorder. And that’s just the ones officially diagnosed. Truth is, nearly all of us carry something — grief, guilt, stress, addiction, anxiety, or the ache of loneliness.
And yet, the church often doesn’t talk about it. For a long time, I didn’t either — until God impressed something on my heart a few years ago:
“Educate yourself.”
That call led me back to school after 35 years — to Colorado Christian University, where I’m now finishing a master’s degree in counseling. Through this journey, I’ve learned two crucial things:
- Most of us live unexamined lives.
We treat symptoms today without understanding the roots of our pain — many of which reach back to childhood wounds or past trauma. - People are desperate to be heard.
When someone finally feels safe enough to share, it’s often the first time they’ve spoken those words aloud. People in the faith community, especially, need spaces where it’s safe to say, “I’m not okay.”
That’s why this series exists — to bring what’s hidden into the light so that God can heal it.
The Bible Is Full of People Who Struggled
Sometimes we think mental health struggles mean we lack faith. But Scripture tells a different story.
- David battled deep depression and anxiety. In Psalm 42 he cries, “Why am I so discouraged? Why is my heart so sad?”
- Elijah prayed that he might die after his greatest victory, saying, “I’ve had enough, Lord.”
- Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet, mourning his own existence and saying, “I curse the day I was born.”
These weren’t faithless people. They were faithful people who struggled. You can be a follower of Jesus and still wrestle with depression, anxiety, addiction, or suicidal thoughts. It doesn’t make you less spiritual — it makes you human.
When the Church Gets It Wrong
Sadly, the church hasn’t always known how to respond. Throughout history, we’ve sometimes offered religious platitudes instead of presence — a phenomenon known as spiritual bypassing. That’s when we use spiritual language to avoid emotional pain.
We’ve all heard it:
- “If you just had more faith, you wouldn’t feel this way.”
- “You just need to pray more.”
- “Remember, everything works together for good!”
While these words may come from good intentions, they often make people feel unseen and unheard. What people in pain need most isn’t a verse or a lecture — it’s presence.
It’s someone willing to say, “I see you. This must be hard. You’re not alone.”
Even Job, one of the oldest stories in Scripture, shows us how easily people can get this wrong. When Job lost everything, his friends tried to “fix” him with religious reasoning — implying his suffering must be his fault. God rebuked them for it. Pain doesn’t always have a cause we can explain, and not every struggle is the result of sin.
Jesus Met People at Their Worst
When we look at Jesus, we see a different model entirely. Jesus met people in their pain — not with judgment, but with compassion.
He sat with the woman at the well, defended the woman caught in adultery, and wept with friends when Lazarus died. Even knowing he would raise Lazarus from the dead, Jesus still chose to weep. He entered into human sorrow.
And on the night before his crucifixion, Jesus himself said, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death.” (Mark 14:34)
Even the Son of God didn’t hide his anguish.
If Jesus can be honest about his pain, so can we.
Bringing the Hidden Into the Light
Psalm 139 reminds us:
“Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts.”
David knew that when we invite God to search our hearts, He reveals what’s hidden — not to shame us, but to heal us.
At our church, we want to create that kind of culture — where it’s safe to say, “I’m not okay.”
Because what’s hidden in the dark grows in the dark. But when we bring our struggles into the light, God begins to heal us — through His Spirit and through His people.
A Simple Assignment
This week, try this:
- Take a few quiet minutes. Write down the areas of your life where you’ve been saying, “I’m good,” but you’re really not.
- Name it. Whether it’s anxiety, sadness, grief, or exhaustion — get it out of your head and onto paper.
- Share it. Talk to someone safe — a trusted friend, a counselor, or God himself. You don’t have to fix it; just let it be known.
When we stop pretending and start being real, healing begins.