 We are in the midst of a health crisis. But it's not just the one you think. We are in the midst of a mental health crisis. Within the last year, there have been more suicides in Japan than COVID deaths. Globally, close to 800,000 suicides take place. That's one suicide every 40 seconds. Due to the tremendous lockdowns that are happening due to the coronavirus, many are experiencing the most difficult and dark times in their lives. Maybe that's you. Isolation has been tough on all of us. Our routines have been disrupted. Our friendships have been disrupted. The connections and things that we get used to and drive meaning from in just everyday activities, they've all been stripped away. And in a lot of ways for a lot of us, our peace has been stripped away too. And as we think about mental health, I mean, it can be easy sometimes, especially in isolation to get caught up in negative self-talk. I don't matter. I'm useless. I'm a loser. I'm a failure. These are lies. Straight up. And I want you to hear that. If you've convinced yourself that these are somehow true or have some weight to them, they do not. They're lies. You were created in the image of God, number one. But also God did not make a mistake when he made you. Your life has purposed. Your life has meaning. And God displayed his own love for you in sending Jesus to die on the cross for your sins. That's a tremendous act of love that should tell you who you are. You're his child. You are loved. The problem is, is that negative self-talk, those things that we're telling ourselves, maybe things that have been spouted off by friends or family in the past, words and wounds that have led to some sort of hurt. Man, those things tend to be amplified in the midst of isolation. We were not designed to be in isolation. God designed us to be in community. A community that can build us up, encourage us, love us, motivate us and pull the very best that we have to offer the kingdom of God. In a lot of cases, COVID hasn't created our problems but it has merely amplified them. Let me give you an example. I'm a homebody. I like to be at home. I find a lot of peace in being alone, doing things by myself, writing, shooting videos, graphic design, a lot of these things just take place by myself and I enjoy it. But I also enjoy putting effort into other relationships that I have and going places with people and hanging out with them and pouring into their lives. But I also need time to be by myself to recharge. I don't think that's wrong. I think that's just the way I'm wired. Maybe you're wired in a similar way. However, for people like me who have this tendency, we can often feel ourselves leaning into this isolation. This is just dangerous. We can dig ourselves into mental holes which we can't seem to get out of. That negative self-talk, thoughts of worthlessness, those lies that are reverberated in our head, we need help to escape. In times where I felt the absolute worst, one conversation with a loving friend could very well be the turning point. For those of you who are experiencing this struggle, I want you to do this for me. If you felt like you've dug yourself into a mental hole that you can't seem to get out of, I want you to open up to God. Now I know this may seem cheesy, it's like of course he's gonna say this, this is like a Christian YouTube channel, but seriously, I want you to be totally honest with God and what you're going through. See, what I often happens, at least in my own life, is sometimes I'll pray to God, but I will hold things back to kind of preserve this sense that I'm okay, like I'm a good Christian, like I am, that I'm put together. But it's so dumb doing that with God. Just think about that, like God knows you perfectly, he loves you fully, but you're trying to keep things away from God that he already knows. My encouragement to you is to just let that stuff go, all that burden on you, give it to God, be as honest as you can. Now the second thing is reach out to family, friends, your pastor. I know this can seem cliche, but the only reason it's cliche is because it's said so many times, because it's true, because it's important. But even for me, I'm thinking about it and I don't do this as much as I should. When I'm going through something, my tendency, like I was saying earlier, is to lean into isolation as opposed to open up. It's the exact opposite of my nature. But I think that's something that, look, we gotta grow in guys, because when we're going through some of the darkest times in our lives, we need people the most in those moments. We don't need just more of ourself, more of our own thoughts, more of our own, you know, things going on, because that'll get us in a hole. We need to listen to other people. I can just remember so many times where I felt like totally hopeless about life, literally, like just like, especially in regard to, you know, the ministry and stuff like that and just being totally discouraged and stuff. And then having one conversation with a friend or my dad or my mom and just like my perspective being flipped. Like God uses those moments to open our eyes to see, look, we're telling ourselves lies, we're deceiving ourselves, we're in this kind of disoriented state. And if you're there right now, like if you're in this state where you're telling yourself these things, you're saying, I'm a loser, I suck, there's no hope, like those are lies. And I'm hoping that I can help be a voice to tell you, look, those are not true. Like these are distortions and you need to get yourself out of this. But a lot of what God uses to get us out of those things is our community, is our, you know, the people within our church, the people within our friend group, our family. So I want you to reach out to them because they might not know what you're going through. For those of you thinking about how to care for your friends, which should be all of us, we're thinking about how can we make an impact on our friends' lives. I always remember this, be the person you needed in your darkest hour. At that time that you were lowest, that you were most discouraged, that you were most hopeless, who was that person that you truly needed? This idea first came up for me when I was reflecting on a past kind of mentoring friendship that I had with a younger guy. And I was, you know, supposed to be an example for him. I was a teenager and this was somebody that I was, you know, trying to be an example for. But I ended up kind of pulling away because it was too much for me to deal with. I couldn't figure out how to be that influence. I couldn't figure out how to be that mentor at that stage. So I just gave up and looking back, I look back on that with a lot of regret. And I just know that I'm not gonna let that happen again. I'm not gonna let those opportunities pass by again. Because look, man, you could change somebody's life by just being the person you needed in your darkest hour. What did you need to hear from that person? What did you need somebody to tell you that made the difference, right? And if you could share that with somebody else, man, that could change their life. Before you go, if you haven't heard this today, I love you, I'm proud of you, and I'm on your side. I'll see you next week, God bless. Thank you so much to my patrons on Patreon that make this content possible.