A man’s heart plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps. Proverbs 16:9
I love Jim’s story. In 2006 Jim met Fred by way of a blog he was writing for a local Christian online newspaper. Jim and Fred traded comments and eventually built a friendship. A year later Fred introduced Jim to social media and Twitter. By way of Twitter Jim befriended April, a fellow Christian author. Like with Fred, Jim and April built an online friendship. Knowing Jim’s passion for writing, April told Jim about an online writers’ group, which he joined. Two months after joining the group Jim met Bob, who quickly recognized Jim’s passion as a writer and offered to pay for him to go to two writers’ conferences.
While at the second conference Jim met Karen, whose husband Bryan had recently lost his job as a pastor, because of an addiction to pornography. Having struggled with pornography, himself, Jim identified with Bryan’s addiction. However, unlike Bryan, Jim never sought help, nor did he think he needed it. The truth, though, was that Jim was fighting the addiction with all his might and will, and losing the battle each day. For this reason Jim and Bryan quickly became friends, and despite Jim’s reluctance to get help accepted the business card to Bryan’s counselor, Greg.
Then, one day in August 2009 Jim woke up crying into his pillow. Hopeless and depressed, Jim wanted to die. Seeing within himself a cold darkness that frightened him, he knew he needed help to put his life back together. With the encouragement of his wife he called Greg, Bryan’s counselor. After six months of counseling, Greg referred Jim to Dr. Collier, a psychiatrist who recognized something within Jim that had gone undiagnosed for more than forty years: Jim was bipolar.
For more than forty years Jim had struggled with wide mood swings and depression that made him feel as if he were riding an emotional roller coaster. And yet, despite sensing something was wrong, Jim never sought help. As Jim will tell you, it took a complete breakdown before he was willing to acknowledge that something was genuinely wrong with him, and the way he was living his life.
I like Jim’s story, because you can see the point at which God began to intervene in his life to bring about healing, and the steps that were taken to accomplish that goal. Some people have asked, “Why didn’t God just reveal to Jim his problems and heal him without having to go through all the pain?” The answer, according to Jim, was that it took God forty years to break his pride before he was willing to seek help. He is quick to add though, that what is most beautiful about his experience is how God ordained the steps of his life. Three years before his breakdown, God began bringing people into his life that would all play a major role in his healing. One person led to another and another until the day when all pride was stripped away and healing began.
