Category: Blog

Last week, I blogged about how the loss of love in a society always brings a subsequent rise in fear and selfishness, resulting in all kinds of destructive behaviors, including violence.

This week, I want to follow up and describe how applying biblical principles can create an atmosphere in which love can grow and society can heal.

The biblical principles are design laws — the laws upon which reality is built and constructed to operate. Some of these laws have already been realized by many people who have applied them in limited ways. For example, the law of love, being the principle of giving upon which life is based, says that all living things must give in order to live. Some ecologists have recognized this truth and advocate for the preservation of species and habitats in order for the health and benefit of the planet’s environment as a whole. For instance, if we destroy enough plants and trees (such as the great rainforests), the planet’s ability to recycle carbon dioxide into oxygen is diminished, leading to additional ecological problems. Thus, understanding design law can lead to practices in which life and health are sustained.

In a similar way, a healthy government would be one that applied God’s design principles in order to enhance the opportunity for love among its citizens to grow and, thus, for life and its society to flourish. Enabling selfishness, on the other hand, which takes from others without regard for their well-being — exploitation of the environment, etc. — would destroy not only love, but also gravely impair the systems of giving upon which life is built.

I want to emphasize here that no legislation can change hearts, create good character, instill consideration for others into hearts and minds, nor make immature people into mature ones. However, a healthy government can create an atmosphere in which love, health, and happiness are not artificially hindered and in which people are free to pursue these things.

The United States articulated these principles in its Declaration of Independence: a human right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

We must “pursue” happiness, because having happiness itself is not a right; however, the pursuit of happiness is our right. This is because happiness is the byproduct of healthiness in all domains — physical, mental, relational, and spiritual. Thus, one of the problems with people’s pursuit of happiness is that not many have understood that happiness is the outgrowth of healthiness. To the degree a person is unhealthy in any domain, their ultimate happiness is undermined. If one chooses to use their freedom to break the laws of health — eat nothing but potato chips, for instance — it is not possible to experience lasting happiness.

Failing to realize this, many people, instead of making choices that harmonize with what is actually healthy, violate the laws of health, substituting pleasure-seeking for happiness, typically leading to further violations of the laws of health. This, in turn, unavoidably results in greater loss of health, and they become less happy.

That’s why it is important for a government to teach its citizens the truth about what is healthy and to create an atmosphere of opportunity for individuals to maximize their autonomy in the pursuit of healthiness in all domains and, thereby, experience happiness. Each of the suggestions below are the applications of godly principles to create opportunity for people to become healthy, including relationally healthy — that is, in how we treat each other. In so doing, society becomes healthier, because the individuals who make up that society become healthier.

Two Principles

John F. Kennedy famously said, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

This simple but profound statement advances two principles of God’s kingdom:

• The principle of truth — healthy relationships and societies require healthy people, and healthy people are able to govern themselves. That means we must start with ourselves first! Jesus said, “First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will be able to see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:3 GNB). We must apply God’s principles in our own lives first, before we can make effective changes in the world around us.
• The principle of the law of love — seek to give of yourself to better society, to uplift others, to improve your neighborhood, community, and nation. This isn’t a call for advancing legislation, but for loving your fellow citizens. Jesus said, “Give to others, and God will give to you. Indeed, you will receive a full measure, a generous helping, poured into your hands — all that you can hold. The measure you use for others is the one that God will use for you” (Luke 6:38 GNB). This is the joy of the law of love! The more you give, the more you receive. We are transformed by our beliefs, actions, and conduct: If we love more, we become more loving people; conversely, if we hate more, we become more hateful people.

President Kennedy was advancing the principles of truth and love: Be truthful with oneself, dealing with oneself first, and love something greater than the self. These principles are dying in societies today. Truth is being replaced with opinion: “That is his truth or her truth” (rather than the truth) or with hyperbole or outright lies. We are being told to accept these falsehoods as if they were the reality. People are being conditioned to value deceit and distortion in the pursuit of advancing their interests over the interest of others. As a result, love is dying in our societies.

So, the first change that could be made to create a healing atmosphere is for the message of truth and love to be promoted by our leaders. But, this requires that the people actually want to hear the truth! The apostle Paul warned that many would not want leaders to speak the truth: “A time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths” (2 Timothy 4:3, 4 NLT). Myths are fantasies, falsehoods, lies — people will want to be told lies and will therefore elect people to tell them what they want to hear.

If we want a healthy society, we must become lovers of truth and be willing to deal with the truth, even if it is an inconvenient truth that gets in the way of our desires. Why? Because we can never avoid the truth; we can only delay the day we deal with it. And the longer we delay dealing with the truth, the worse it will be when we are finally confronted with the reality of it.

Sadly, though, many prefer leaders who will tell them what they want to hear. We will never heal our hearts with lies, and healthy societies require healthy people. The reason we have so many leaders who struggle to speak truth is that the people don’t want to hear the honest truth — they prefer lies and fantasy. Only when we become honest with ourselves and hunger for the truth as a people will we begin electing leaders who speak truthfully to us.

The second principle that could bring health to our country is for leaders to promote, and the people to embrace, an attitude of service — of altruism, of giving to better the nation — promoting the principles of each person giving of themselves for the betterment of their community and nation as a whole.

This was the attitude of the “Greatest Generation” — the generation that endured World War II. With a high value placed on service to the greater good, that generation pulled together in ways we don’t often see today. Those who didn’t serve in the military still embraced the mission by collecting materials for the war effort, buying war bonds, or taking up new jobs to help the cause. The value of service to a greater good was so important to that generation that many young men, who were found physically unfit to join the armed services, often became depressed and suicidal.

Today’s leaders, likewise, need to advance the value of service and stop promoting an entitlement mentality, which teaches that each person is owed something by their government, They need to teach, rather, that each person is valuable to the nation and has abilities to contribute to the greater good. The people must be taught that the nation will invest in you because you are valuable to the health of the nation as you give back to the nation (the law of love in action — and of course we compassionately care for those incapable of contributing or caring for themselves).

Practical Steps

Policies could be implemented that would reward such service, while not compelling it through legislation. I was the recipient of a U.S. Army scholarship; they paid my way to medical school and, in return, I proudly served in the Army for a number of years. Likeminded programs could be developed to link scholarships, or student loan repayment, with service to the country — not just military service, but any service that helps the nation, such as working in clinics in underserved areas, environmental clean-up, infrastructure improvement, or a multiplicity of other activities.

Educational scholarships tied to national service build character, values, and solidify emotional ties to the nation. Moreover, a person’s sense of accomplishment is enhanced, their integrity improves, and as they exercise their abilities, those abilities grow stronger (this is the law of exertion, another design law: If you want something to get stronger, you must exercise it — if you don’t use it, you lose it). So, as people care for others, giving to help promote a larger goal, they exercise their altruistic abilities, which also calms fear emotions. They become better citizens, and society gets healthier as a result.

The application of the principle of truth in our society would require that we also be honest in science and education, which would lead us to teach truthfully the scientific evidence of Creation and the design laws of God that were built into nature.

The perpetual and zealous fraud that is pervasive in scientific circles today promotes the practice of deceit and denies reality. Professors who bring forth scientific evidence that refutes the godless theory of origins are punished by losing grants and research funds, termination from their positions, and basically blackballed in the scientific community. This is wrong.

True science doesn’t live in fear of evidence. Truth has nothing to fear by close investigation; it can stand up to scrutiny. Only lies and falsehood fear close inspection and examination of divergent points of view. This is why the Christianity of the Dark Ages feared science so much, because many of the teachings of the persecuting church of that time were false. It couldn’t stand up to the evidence and, thus, the church used imperial power to punish dissenters.

Yet today, the scientific community is doing the exact same thing. They have a belief system that is being overthrown by the evidence, and instead of embracing the evidence, they use imperial power to punish, ostracize, and silence their critics.

Our educational system is infected with the practice of distorting facts, denying evidence, and teaching people to accept lies as if they were true. Thus, critical reasoning is undermined in generation after generation, which impairs the ability to differentiate between actual evidence and opinion. People tend to rely on some expert to tell them what to think, rather than learning to think for themselves.

But a healthy society doesn’t tell people what to think; it teaches it citizens how to think. We cannot teach critical reasoning if we practice the denial of evidence and punish those who bring forth evidence that contradicts the politically correct view.

To that end, another action that could be taken to improve society is to start teaching an evidence-based understanding of reality. Thus, in schools, evidence would be presented as it is, and different theories would be freely discussed, leading people to form their own conclusions based on that which is most consistent with the evidence. As the Bible teaches, we should allow “every person… to be fully persuaded in their own mind” (Romans 14:5).

This would not be teaching a religion; rather, it would be teaching the science of reality and allowing the evidence to speak for itself. And the evidence is unequivocal in terms of a higher intelligence. Such evidence includes the coded information found in the DNA of all living organisms. No logical explanation exists for how such information came about without an intelligence behind it (in fact, it would be a violation of the second law of thermodynamics for complex information coding to organize itself randomly. And all life requires this coded information). We will not have a healthy society until people are willing to be truthful, and at the very bedrock of our educational system is a deeply rooted lie that corrupts our children, distorting their ability to think critically and accurately.

The Critical Reality of Reasoning

Our goal in education should not be indoctrination into politically correct ideologies, but to teach critical reasoning and let each person be fully persuaded in their own minds. This means we show respect for others who have a different opinion — we leave them free and don’t retaliate against them or seek to silence them.

Foundational to critical reasoning are trustworthy standards to test our ideas and perspectives against. These standards are the eternal, unchanging design laws of God built right into nature. These design laws should be taught to our children, including:

• Laws of physics
• Laws of mathematics
• Laws of health
• Law of love (the circle of giving upon which all life is built)
• Law of liberty (love only grows in the atmosphere of freedom, and violating liberty damages love, incites rebellion, and destroys individuality)
• Law of worship (a.k.a. modeling; we become like what we admire and worship)
• Law of exertion (strength comes from exercise; if you don’t use it, you lose it)
• Law of restoration (after expending a resource, one must rest and recover to have more to expend)
• Law of sowing and reaping
• Law of love overcoming fear
• Law of fear (fear destroys love and incites selfishness)
• Law of truth

Yes, sick societies can become healthy, but only if the people embrace and apply the laws upon which life is built to operate. One cannot have health while in violation of the laws of health; thus, only as we move into harmony as a people, with God’s design laws, will society ever heal.

This means we present truth, in love, and leave others free. We teach reality — truth — because life actually works that way; we promote the values of equality, altruism, service, and the greater good, teaching that each person has the responsibility to govern themselves, to develop their own character, and to practice the principles of health in all they do — because life works that way.

So to this generation, for your health, for life, for love, and for your happiness I resound: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

In the aftermath of the recent mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, President Trump and other leaders have expressed concerns that these acts are linked to mental illness. Some mental health professionals have been quick to point out that the data does not support such an assertion as more than 75 percent of mass shootings are committed by people without a history of mental illness.

If one allows the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-5 (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition) to be the measure of mental illness and disease, then these mental health professionals are correct: Most mass shootings are not committed by those with diagnosable mental illnesses.

If, however, we use a different standard of health, a different lens to measure mental illness, then the president is correct. And what is that standard? Love — the selfless, compassionate regard for the welfare of others. If our standard of health is God’s design for life, the principle of love upon which the Creator built life to operate, then selfishness is seen as sickness and exploitation and injury to others is seen as pathology.

Desperate for Answers

It’s understandable that frightened people want an explanation for why violence and mass shootings are increasing. Some argue that these violent occurrences are mostly due to easy access to guns. However, guns have been easily accessible in America since its independence, yet the frequency of such violence is increasing; mass shootings are a problem of the past few decades.

Others argue that the problem is racism, but racism and class discrimination were much more pervasive and openly oppressive in America 75 to 100 years ago than today, and such mass violence was not occurring in our society then. I am not suggesting that racism doesn’t exist, but the data does not support the claim that it is the cause of this increase in violence. According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, during 2012–15, the rate of white-on-white violent crime (12.0 per 1,000 white persons) was about four times higher than black-on-white violent crime (3.1 per 1,000). The rate of black-on-black violent crime (16.5 per 1,000 black persons) was more than five times higher than white-on-black violent crime (2.8 per 1,000).[1]

No — racism is just another manifestation of the root problem causing the increase in violence: the lack of love and the rise in selfishness.

Something has changed in America; an insidious attack on the bedrock principles woven into the fabric of this society has occurred — and it is the true reason for the rise in mass shootings. There are ideas, practices, and policies that have taken root in America that undermine love, increase selfishness, degrade concern for others, and are thereby the actual cause of the increase in violence we are experiencing.

All Symptoms Point to One Disease

I propose that the rise in mass shootings is a symptom of a movement advancing in America that undermines integrity, personal responsibility, moral decency, basic civic responsibility, and, ultimately, love for others.

This rise in selfishness, a lack of regard for others, is evidenced not only in these mass shootings, but also in recent online video postings. For instance, take Cori Ward, a 30-year-old mother who was arrested in Florida after she posted a video of her daughter licking a tongue depressor in a doctor’s office and then putting it back in the container with unused depressors; she posted the video with the title: “Don’t tell me how to live my life.”[2]

Or the viral video seen by more than 11 million people of a 17-year-old girl opening a container of Blue Bell ice cream, licking the ice cream, putting the lid back on, and then placing the container back on the shelf. [3]

Yes — love is decreasing and selfishness is on the rise!

Jesus, speaking about this time in human history, said:

Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold (Matthew 24:12 NLT).

The apostle Paul said:

There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God (2 Timothy 3:1–4 NIV84).

The real reason violence is on the rise is because love is on the decline. People are becoming more self-centered and are losing concern for anything other than self.

Recent studies have demonstrated that narcissism has steadily increased in the United States since the 1970s, with each subsequent class of college freshmen scoring higher on narcissism rating scales than the class before.[4] This rise in selfishness, this “me-first” mentality, is rife in society today and heralds the death of love for our fellow human beings — and all types of violence are on the rise.

So what is destroying love and increasing selfishness?

The Bible teaches that:

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love (1 John 4:18 NIV84).

Love and fear are inversely proportional; as love increases, fear decreases — and as fear increases, love decreases. The more fear we experience, the more quickly we see threats, real or imagined, and take actions designed to make us feel safe. Rather than searching ourselves to identify and overcome our deficiencies in character, fear focuses our minds on self-protection, making us look outward to identify potential threats. This can lead to the projection of one’s own shortcomings onto others and can cause greater division and loss of love for our fellow human beings.

Trigger Point

Why is fear and selfishness rising and love declining, with its subsequent increase in violence? I would like to suggest several factors.

Historically, in America, the national consciousness focused on three other-than-self objects; these virtues were considered so vital that it was worth sacrificing self to defend. These big three were love for God, love for family, and love for country. These three objects — God, family, country — were promoted as being greater than self and worthy of our sacrifice to support.

But in society today, it is taught that there is no God, all families are dysfunctional, and our country, being an evil exploiter of minorities and the poor, is one that cannot be trusted. Thus, a mindset of altruism, of love, of higher purpose is replaced with a sense of fear and isolation; when there is nothing greater than the self, and no higher power or institution can be trusted, fear increases and each person becomes an island to themselves, frantically struggling to survive.

One can even see this rise of self-centeredness evidenced by the change in U.S. Army recruitment slogans over the past century. One hundred years ago, during World War I, the Army’s recruitment slogan was the picture of Uncle Sam pointing his finger and saying, “I want you for U.S. Army.” The nation wanted you, emphasizing the value of the country and how your service would benefit the nation.

From 1950 to 1971, the slogan “Modern Army Green” was used, emphasizing the value of the Army and how your service could benefit the military and, thus, the nation.

Then a very subtle elevation of the self and diminishment of the Army occurred from 1971 to 1980 with the slogan, “Today’s Army Wants to Join You.” Notice here that it isn’t about you joining the Army, an institution larger than you; rather, you are so important that the army wants to join you.

And from 1980 to 2001, it got even more narcissistic with the slogan, “Be all that you can be.” It’s really all about you advancing you, not sacrificing for the greater good. And this narcissistic corruption became pathologic with the 2001 to 2006 slogan, “An army of one.” Could any other slogan be so contrary to reality yet stand as clear evidence of the collapse of love?

The problem of violence in our society is a result of increased selfishness in the hearts of people, regardless of skin color or class. When selfishness reigns and love dies, people exploit those in their world. Thus, we readily abuse others for gain, even those closest to us (domestic violence and child abuse are also on the rise) — exactly what the Bible predicted would happen when love breaks down.

There are several other factors, in addition to the attack on the three big institutions (God, family, country), that are working together to destroy love, to increase fear and selfishness, and to cause more deadly violence.

The constant bombardment of society with fear-inducing messages: global warming, unsafe foods, terrorism, economic collapse, illegal immigrant invasion, drug crises, failing schools, increasing debt, healthcare crisis, economic warfare and tariffs, nuclear threats, war with North Korea or Iran, unstable political climate, destruction of the family — and on and on these fear-inducing messages go.

This fear leads to threat assessment, causing people to identify perceived enemies of the state that need to be removed. This leads to the next problem: trying to fix a heart problem (lack of love) with legislative solutions: gun control, border wall, free health care for all, protection of the sanctity of marriage, minimum wage increases, overturning Roe vs. Wade — and on and on the proposed legislative solutions go.

But these attempts at changing how we value each other with law will all fail!

Love only exists in an atmosphere of freedom. Love cannot be commanded, legislated, or coercively enforced; attempts to fix character problems with legislative or policy solutions always fail and, instead, contribute to further divisions in society with increased fear, selfishness, and protectionism.

Such legal solutions fail because the problem of violence in society is not due to having the wrong laws, but no longer having love in the hearts of people. We cannot increase love for each other by passing laws!

Fear leads to more fear as people seek to pass laws to fix the problem. Why? Because this process ends up only reinforcing the problem of ever-increasing selfishness as the other side responds with its own self-interested legislation.

What happens? A person or group experiences a real or imagined wrong perpetrated against them; being conditioned by society to be motived by fear — by survival, by threat assessment — and no longer having God, family, or a country we can trust, we don’t respond in love; instead, we proclaim how our rights have been violated and demand that the violators, or their proxies, be punished or be made to pay. This is the eye-for-an-eye mentality, one that leads only to ever-increasing cycles of hate and violence.

Martin Luther King Jr. knew such behavior would never work:

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that (as quoted in Strength to Love, 1963).

Gandhi has been credited with the saying, “An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.”

Jesus taught that love doesn’t seek to retaliate, doesn’t seek to get for self; rather, it seeks to save the abuser, to heal the oppressor, all to turn enemies into friends. Thus, Jesus taught that we should love our enemies and do good to those who persecute us. But this requires that we stop living in fear, stop living for self, and begin to live to love others!

This love is not natural to the human heart and can be experienced only in a trust relationship with our God of love. This means we must present the truth about God as Creator, the builder of reality, whose laws are the protocols upon which reality works, all based in His character of love — the principles of giving and beneficence. We must love others like Jesus loves us.

But when we present God as functioning no differently than a human dictator, passing laws that require Him to inflict punishment, then we become like that false god; we become fear-driven, lose love, and become ever more willing to try to use government to mandate that others live by our standards — and inflict punishment when they violate our morals.

I invite you to embrace the God of love and practice the methods of love in how you live. Don’t get caught up in the world’s system of fear and selfishness, but instead seek to reveal Jesus in all that you do.

[1] https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/rhovo1215_sum.pdf

[2] https://www.local10.com/news/florida/florida-mom-arrested-after-daughter-licks-tongue-depressor-puts-it-back-at-doctors-office

[3] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/woman-seen-licking-ice-cream-viral-video-faces-20-years-n1026556

[4] Twenge, JM, et al, Egos inflating over time: a cross-temporal meta-analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. J Pers. 2008 Jul;76(4):875-902; discussion 903-28. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6494.2008.00507.x. Epub 2008 May 23.

Keep your brain healthy and your mind sharp! Americans are living longer than ever before, but with longer life comes concerns about maintaining vitality, and retaining one’s mental fitness. The good news is that we can make choices to slow the decline in vitality and keep our brains healthy and minds sharp.  Below are seven simple steps you can take to maintain your health and prevent late onset Alzheimer’s dementia:

1. Regular physical exercise (check with your doctor before starting an exercise regimen): Regular exercise causes the body to produce a variety of factors that reduce inflammation, improve insulin sensitivity, turn on proteins in the brain that cause the brain to make new neurons and new neuron-to-neuron connections. Older persons who began walking daily experienced a 2% growth in the memory circuits of their brain, which effectively reversed two years of aging.
2. Anti-Inflammatory diet: Dietary patterns, which are rich in fruits, nuts, vegetables, and oily fish, have been shown to decrease inflammation, improve clearance of by-products of metabolism from the brain, and not only improve overall health, but reduce dementia risk. Avoiding highly processed foods that have trans-fats, high sugar, and high fructose corn syrup reduces inflammation and thereby reduces risk of dementia.
3. Avoid artificial sweeteners and sugary drinks: All artificial sweeteners studied increased the risk of Alzheimer’s dementia. Drink 100% natural juices or water, which flush the system of by-products of metabolism. Juices provide polyphenols that reduce inflammation and protect the brain.
4. Sleep 7-8 hours each night: The brain comprises approximately 2% of the body’s mass, yet uses 20% of the body’s energy. This means it is highly metabolic, with many waste products that need to be cleared. It is during sleep that the neurons contract to expel these waste products into the cerebrospinal fluid for clearance from the brain. It is also during sleep that memories consolidate. Thus, sleep deprivation increases oxidative damage to the brain and impairs memory formation.
5. Walk in the grass or touch the earth regularly: The human body is not only physical, with fats, proteins, DNA, and various chemical reactions, but it is also electrical. And just like the body needs balanced nutrition for its physical components, so too the body needs balanced electrical processing. The earth is a giant electron donor that provides electrons to our bodies when we touch it. These electrons activate the body’s anti-inflammatory enzymes, lower blood pressure, and reduce inflammation. Since the 1960’s, with modern plastics and other man-made building and paving materials and modern shoes, we have disconnected from the earth, with subsequent increased inflammation. So, walk in the grass, wade in the ocean, “hug a tree,” and touch the earth regularly!
6. Get out into nature: Studies show that people who regularly visit natural settings, walk in the forest, camp in the woods, or spend time in nature have less stress, less stress hormones, lower heart rate, lower blood pressures, and overall improved health. These actions reduce the activation of the body’s stress circuitry and have long term health benefits that include reducing your risk of dementia.
7. Meditate daily for 15 minutes on a God of love: Brain science shows that quieting the mind for 15 minutes each day, with relaxed posture, slow breathing, and focusing on some aspect of altruism, benevolence, or love, calms the brain’s stress circuits. Those who meditate regularly have lower heart rates, blood pressure, need less pain medicine after surgery, recover more quickly after surgery, and have better concentration, attention, memory, and lower rates of dementia.

While aging is inevitable, disability and dementia are not! Make choices today to maintain your health, vitality, and abilities as you age. For more helpful actions to protect your brain and keep your mind sharp, get a copy of The Aging Brain: Proven Steps to Prevent Dementia and Sharpen Your Mind. It is filled with many more science-based actions you can take to stay sharp while you age and each point above is expanded with more evidence, explanation, and references.

Twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia have legalized “medical marijuana” and 8 states have legalized recreational cannabis use. Does this mean that marijuana is harmless? That it is safe? That it is not addictive? What does the science actually reveal?

• Cannabis is the most commonly used illicit substance in the United States and worldwide.
• Cannabis is addictive and the younger one starts using it, the greater the likelihood of addiction.
o One out of eleven (9%) adults who try cannabis become addicted.
o One out of six (17%) adolescents who try cannabis become addicted (Hall, 2009; Volkowet al., 2014).

Cannabis has changed over the years and is much more potent today than just a few decades ago, thus increasing the risk of addiction, as well as mental health problems. In 1992, the average potency of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in seized cannabis was 3% but by 2019 the potency had increased to 11%–an almost fourfold increase! And this increase in potency correlates with increased number of hospital admissions for cannabis use disorders.

Cannabis contains more than 460 active chemicals and more than 100 unique cannabinoids. These are the compounds that interact with the brain’s cannabinoid receptors.

Cannabis (including “medical marijuana” in dispensaries) is not standardized in dose, potency, or chemical constituency, which means you don’t know what you’re getting from one marijuana sample to the next.

So, what does the published research demonstrate?

• Most studies (70%) done on cannabis are deemed to have “high-risk of bias” due to methodological flaws and author biases.
• Only 57% had appropriate participant blinding and only 24% with appropriate blinding of outcome assessors. (This means preventing the participants and assessors from knowing who was getting real cannabis and who was getting placebo.)
• Most research was done on oral cannabinoids, which contained only one or two of the more than 100 active compounds; only two studies involved actual cannabis (smoked in one study, vaporized in another.)
• Thus, all the hype suggesting safety of cannabis is just that, hype and not science.

Of the studies that were well done, the researchers concluded that there was moderate evidence of medical benefit from cannabis for chronic pain and muscle spasticity. There was poor-quality evidence for the treatment of nausea/vomiting due to chemotherapy, weight gain in HIV, sleep disorders, and Tourette syndrome.

This means that the medical benefits are narrow and much more evidence is needed. However, since many states have legalized medical marijuana, it has led to the perception amongst young people that marijuana is not harmful.

The graphic below demonstrates how attitudes among high school students have changed from 1975 to 2013:

Another issue that perpetuates the false idea that marijuana is harmless is that it is “natural.” But natural doesn’t always mean harmless! Consider tobacco, poison ivy, poison mushrooms or foxglove (a plant from which the cardiac medicine digoxin is derived, and small overdose of it will stop the heart). All of these are natural products but are poisonous or toxic. No, natural doesn’t always mean harmless.

Perception about marijuana is critically important and we must educate young people about the health damaging effects of it, just as we have done regarding tobacco.

Surveys show that 45% of U.S. high school seniors have used marijuana, 23% use currently, and 6% use daily (Johnston et al., 2016). The more marijuana is used the more damage it does to the brain. In a dose-dependent manner, adolescent cannabis use is associated with worse performance in school, work, thinking, increased psychiatric disorders, and worsened substance use outcomes (Pope et al., 2003; Fergusson et al., 2015, Jager& Ramsey, 2008; Meier et al., 2012; Randolph et al., 2013; Camchonget al., 2016, Fergusson et al., 2002; Patton et al., 2002; Moore et al., 2007, Patton et al., 2007.Volkowet al., 2014, 2016; Levine et al., 2017).

Cannabis use in adolescence is associated with increased incidence and worsened course of psychotic, mood, and anxiety disorders (Hayatbakhshet al., 2007; Moore et al., 2007; Gage 2016).

Several studies have documented that adolescents who smoke marijuana have a loss of IQ points, more than a standard deviation, that is never fully recovered after stopping the marijuana (Pope 2003, Gruber 2011, Meier 2012).

The bottom line is that marijuana is a neuro-active substance that has multiple damaging effects on the brain. It reduces IQ, increases mental illness and increases the risk of multiple health problems. Furthermore, there is essentially no research on the more than 400 chemical compounds contained within cannabis.

We must move away from myth to truth and educate our young people on the dangers of this substance.

Remember, humans can pass laws to make marijuana legal—but we can never pass laws to make it healthy! Mature people are those who choose to operate in harmony with design law—the laws upon which life and health are built—so even when society makes something legal, if it is unhealthy, the mature wont damage their bodies with it.

• Improved self-esteem, from actual accomplishment and achievement

• Better physical health, from increased physical activity and the reduced firing stress pathways as we experience satisfaction with completing tasks, or fulfilling our life goals, aspirations, and dreams. Additionally, physical activity produces factors in the brain that causes the neurons to stay healthy, improves the ability of neurons to make new connections, thus improving learning and reducing the risk of dementia as we age.

• Development of our brain circuits that control physical movement, which in turn improves our thinking and reasoning. When we engage in physical activity, the striatal pathways in our brain, that initiate motor movement, develop, but these pathways not only initiate physical movement, they also initiate thinking, so as we develop and use these pathways, we improve our ability to initiate thoughts. The cerebellum, which is involved in making our physical movements smooth and coordinated, also helps smooth and coordinate our thoughts. Thus, when we stay physically active, we ultimately improve our thinking processes.

• Blesses and benefits those around us. As we engage in useful activity, it results in blessings in our environment, whether we are creating works of art or music to brighten the heart, or are mopping, vacuuming, and picking up trash to create clean environments, or growing food, all useful activity blesses those around us.

• Reduces burdens on others. By staying active, we reduce the likelihood of our own disability and the need for others to care for us.

• Harmonizes with the law of love, which is the principle of giving. The more we give, the more we receive. In every living system, the various parts are active in giving support to the other parts. The lungs actively work to give oxygen to the blood, which the heart sends through the body, but the heart benefits from the oxygen provided by the lungs. The digestive organs fill the blood with nutrients, but receive oxygen from the lungs and circulation sent by the heart. In a community, active people are constantly blessing those around them, while simultaneously being blessed from others. We receive benefits of electricity, clean air, water, emergency services, road crews that keep the roads clear, and so much more from people we will most likely never meet.

• Reduces the opportunity for temptation. This is perhaps one of the greatest benefits of useful work. Any time spent in usefulness not only produces all the blessings above, but is time unavailable for engagement in destructive and harmful activities. You’ve heard the old saying, “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” When we are not engaged in useful activities, we are more vulnerable to temptations that result in harm to ourselves and others.

This week, I received an email with this question: “How can I find a counselor in my area that reasons and believes as I do?”

I am often asked to recommend a counselor, therapist, or psychiatrist for people living in various locations throughout the country. I have made it a policy not to recommend a specific provider unless I know him or her personally. However, the following are some guidelines you can use to find a mental health provider in your area best suited to your needs.
1. Determine what level of provider you need:

• For instance, do you need medication for mental health issues? Then you should be looking for a psychiatrist, not a psychologist, counselor, or life coach.
• Do you need someone to treat an adult, child, or adolescent? Many providers treat only adults or only children and adolescents; knowing this can narrow your search.
• Are you seeking individual or marriage counseling?
• Are you seeking a specific type of treatment, such as cognitive therapy, group therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy?
• Are you seeking treatment for a specific problem, such as PTSD or bipolar disorder? Then seek a provider with experience in the area you need.
• Are you seeking care for an aging family member? Then inquire if the provider is experienced with the problems of aging and dementia.

2. Identify other factors in your decision-making:

• How far can you travel to see the provider?
• Can you afford out-of-network care, or must you stay within your insurance panel?
• What level of confidentiality do you desire, and what level will you receive at each facility?

3. Determine any other variables important to you:

• Do you want a male or female provider—or does it not matter?
• Do you want a provider who holds similar values (e.g., shares your religious beliefs)?
• Do you want a provider who is capable of integrating holistic and alternative medicine elements into their practice?
• Do you want a psychiatrist who will not only prescribe meds, but if needed will also do therapy, or do you prefer therapy by a psychologist, social worker, or another counselor?
• Do you want a provider with a certain racial, cultural, or political background?
• Does the provider speak your native language or not.

4. Get input from trusted sources:

• Ask your pastor, friends, and co-workers if they know of providers they could personally recommend?
• Ask your primary care provider who they would recommend and with whom their other patients have had good outcomes.
• Don’t trust online reviews of mental health providers! Online reviews are typically skewed to the negative because angry patients will vent while satisfied patients either don’t think about going online to rate the provider or fear loss of confidentiality and don’t make online reviews. And those disgruntled with mental health services are often unhappy when they are faced with issues they would prefer to avoid. Meaning, the therapist was likely doing exactly what the patient needed, but the patient didn’t want to deal with it. Also, there are many people struggling with addictions who will be angry when they don’t get the prescription they are seeking. Realize mental health providers are prohibited from responding to public criticism and providing evidence that would put the negative feedback in a different light.
• A better source to check than patient feedback forums is the state licensing boards and the professional associations to see if any actions have been taken to restrict, redirect, or discipline a potential provider.
• Ensure the provider is licensed by the state and is in good standing.
• Check to see if the provider is board certified in his or her field.
• Inquire if the provider served in any leadership capacity in his or her field and is respected by their peers.
• Has he or she published articles, books, or other research?
• Realize advertisements are advertisements—paid for by the provider, and just because someone advertises they are a Christian provider, doesn’t mean they are the best provider for you. Consider the other elements and get input from trusted sources.

5. Once you have the answers to the above, it’s time to make a decision:

• If you must stay within your insurance panel, then get a list of providers on your panel and only evaluate those providers.
• If you must stay within a certain distance from your home, then only evaluate those within that radius.
• If you know you want a provider of a certain gender only, then eliminate from consideration the other providers.
• Once you have gone through these easily identifiable factors, with the remaining list get the input from friends, doctors, pastor; then check their credentials and select a provider and make an appointment.

Finally, in your initial appointment, not only is the provider evaluating you, but you are also to be evaluating them. Ask any questions you have about their methods, beliefs, values, policies, etc. Assess your comfort with them, then decide whether this provider is a good fit for you or not. If not, then go to another until you find one with whom you are comfortable working.

If you end up with a therapist that suggests an activity, intervention, or “therapy” that makes you uncomfortable, ask the provider to explain the rationale behind the recommendation, any evidence to its benefit, and the potential risks. If you are still unsure, tell the provider you will have to think about it. Then go home, do some research, get input from others, and then decide whether that therapy and therapist are right for you.

And don’t forget to pray for wisdom and God’s guidance in this selection process!

Have you ever struggled with loneliness? Have you ever been in a room full of people but felt isolated, disconnected, alone? Have you been tormented by an uneasiness within, a feeling that something isn’t right, a restless longing to fill some emptiness deep inside? And have you tried to fill this void, to find relief in television, video games, shopping, alcohol, drugs, sex, or allowing others to take advantage of you, just so they will like you—so you won’t be alone—yet the emptiness, loneliness, and uneasiness never go away?

If this describes your experience, don’t be discouraged; don’t accept the feelings as facts; don’t believe the lies that pound away inside your head. There is freedom; there is a healing solution. The truth will heal. The truth will set you free. And what is the truth?

YOU are loved! You are loved for who you are, because you are a child of God!

• It doesn’t matter whether you were abused, abandoned, or mistreated by people—God loves you and will heal your broken heart, if you let Him!
• It doesn’t matter whether you have made bad choices—God loves you and will teach you how to make healthier choices, if you let Him!
• It doesn’t matter whether you have been a prostitute—publicly thrown down on the street—Jesus said to just such a woman, “I don’t condemn you. I love you and want you to be whole. Go and live—live in harmony with how I have designed life to operate.”

Our worth, our value, is not determined by what we have done or what we will do, but by who we are—we are children of God, created by him to love and to be loved.

If you have struggled in your life to experience this love, if you have tried to read the Bible but found it hard to understand, filled with terms that seem legal or even harsh, then I invite you to explore God’s love in The Remedy New Testament an Expanded Paraphrase, which you can read for free here on our website (click here)—or you can get The Remedy app (click here) in your app store or as a printed softcover book on Amazon (click here).

In The Remedy, you will discover God’s remedy for your soul—His infinite, constant, never-ending love. God’s love is real; it is powerful and life-changing, and God’s love is poured out for you! Drink it in and you will never be lonely again!

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 13 out of every 100,000 people will die by suicide. Most people have been impacted by this tragedy in one way or another, including me. Several years ago, after the death of his wife of fifty years, my great uncle ended his own life; he was simply unable to cope with the heartache, pain, and loneliness.

As a psychiatrist, I know all too well how the severely depressed can be overwhelmed by thoughts of suicide. I also know that in the aftermath of a suicide, those who loved the victims struggle with their own faith and worry that they will not see their loved ones in heaven.

This subject recently roared back into my mind when I received an email from a concerned parent who listens to our program online. He wrote to tell me that his daughter attends a Christian high school where another student had committed suicide. I can’t imagine the heartache that young man’s family is now going through, and my prayers and thoughts go out to them.

However, adding to this heartache, the daughter of our listener—along with other students and even some of the faculty—was struggling because she’d been told that the young man had committed an act of sin in the taking of his own life. He was even compared to Judas, and the students were told that because he, like Judas, committed suicide, he would be eternally lost.

I don’t condemn those who said these things, but it’s important to set the record straight about this unfortunate falsehood—a lie that misrepresents a loving God, one that likely injured vulnerable young people who are searching for meaningful answers in their grief. Because I fear such a misrepresentation will turn some of these students away from God, I believe it’s vital to address this subject.

The Real Reason Judas Was Lost
Judas is not eternally lost because he committed suicide; he is eternally lost because he rejected Jesus. Without Jesus, he became overwhelmed by guilt and committed suicide to escape this unbearable burden. Judas is not an example of what happens to those who commit suicide—he is an example of what happens to those who reject Jesus.

If we use the logic of those who hold Judas up as evidence that those who commit suicide are lost, we must then conclude, that, if like Samson, a person commits mass murder while committing suicide—they will be saved. After all, Sampson was reconciled to God and received supernatural strength to end his own life and the thousands in the temple with him. It’s clear that suicide bombers today don’t go to heaven because they killed others while killing themselves, even in the name of religion.

Death by suicide does not determine one’s eternal destiny. Why? Because suicide is almost always a symptom of an illness, a problem, or overwhelming distress—and not an act of sin, not a willful rebellion against God. Instead, suicide almost always happens when a person is in some type of horrible pain in which they lose all hope of escape. In that mindset, suicide becomes their only perceived avenue of escape from the pain. We help those who are struggling with thoughts of suicide by offering hope—the hope of escape from their pain. We help identify the source of the pain and provide real interventions that restore them to wellness. Sadly, though, not everyone realizes these other options of escape are available—and some, like my great uncle, succumb to suicide.

Many factors contribute to people finding themselves at increased risk of suicide—some of which the individual has no control over. Age, race, birth month, socioeconomic status, marital status, relationship stress, mental illness, physical illness, genetic vulnerabilities, geographic location, lack of sunshine, pollution, infections, trauma, and intoxicating substances—these are all factors that contribute to increased risk for suicide.

In our human experience, almost everyone has times of pain, heartache, discouragement, and hopelessness in which the idea that death might be better than life occurs. Even great heroes of God—remember Elijah?—can struggle with such discouragement. Yet we must remember that with God there is always hope, a hope based on a real God with real resources to heal and restore!

The Source of the Lie
From where does this idea that suicide is an act of sin that results in eternal loss come? It comes from accepting the lie that God’s law functions like human law—a system of rules with no consequence other than the ruling authority keeps track of what laws were broken and then punishes lawbreakers. For those who believe this way about God’s law, sin becomes all about behavior—the acts and deeds. The wrong deed or act, in this way of thinking, requires the direct infliction of punishment. Such thinking promotes this idea that God, rather than being merciful to the teen who lost the struggle against depression, hopelessness, and pain, will then inflict further torture and pain upon him as punishment for having committed suicide.

When we return to the truths that God is our Creator and His laws are the protocols upon which life and health are constructed to operate, we realize that deviations from His designs result in pain, suffering, and death. We understand that all nature groans under the weight of sin (Romans8:22). This means our physical condition can groan under the weight of mental illness, which can express itself as a variety of symptoms—including suicide. We realize that suicide is a symptom of other issues and not an act of deliberate rebelliousness and sin.

We can also know that God is constantly working to heal and restore His children.

So the questions we need to ask are: What is the condition of the heart of those who are suffering suicidal thoughts? Are these people like Elijah, a champion of God, whose heart was right with God, yet who suffered emotional discouragement, depression, and suicidal thinking? Or are their hearts like Judas, consumed with selfishness and who reject Jesus?

Suicide is a tragedy; it is never the best answer to a problem. In my practice, I often treat suicidal patients. My goal is to help them realize that what they almost always truly want is to escape their pain and not to die. Then I offer them other avenues of escape. And when they experience resolution of their pain, the suicidal thoughts resolve.

For those who have found themselves trapped in some situation, spiraling down into a pit of despair and who were unable to see other options of escape, and have died by suicide—what then? We must realize that such an act does not mean eternal loss. In these situations, we need to offer hope to those suffering from such loss; we must promote the truth about our God of love, and realize, that like Sampson, it isn’t how one ends their life on earth that determines their eternal destiny—it is whether or not they loved Jesus that determines their eternal destiny.

If you or someone you know is suffering from suicidal thoughts, please call the national suicide prevention hotline at 1-800-273-8255.