Military Wellness Collective

EP 26: Mental Health; Commitment to Reality and Truth that Heals

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What if mental health isn’t about chasing a feeling but aligning your mind with reality? We unpack a surprisingly simple definition—dedication to reality at all costs—and show how Scripture, community, and honest self-assessment bring your thoughts back to center. From Colossians 3’s call to set our minds on things above to Philippians 4’s charge to think on what is true and lovely, we get practical about replacing intrusive lies with durable truth. You’ll hear why “don’t think about the pink elephant” always fails, and how Luke 11 warns against an empty, swept house that’s never filled with the Word.

We also dive into life after high-alert seasons. A combat veteran explains the shift from necessary vigilance to unnecessary paranoia, and how learning to calibrate risk with reality protects marriages, parenting, and personal peace. We tackle fear of man, overcorrecting from painful upbringings, and the trap of isolation. Along the way, we draw a bright line between solitude that leads to Jesus and isolation that feeds despair. If you’ve wondered when struggle tips into sin or how to know it’s time to invite professional help, we lay out clear markers: when the basics aren’t moving the needle, when small triggers spark outsized reactions, and when helpers hit their limits and need to add specialists.

To ground all of this, we share resources we trust: Bible reading helps that keep you in the Word, digital minimalism to reclaim attention, and programs like Mighty Oaks that meet people in dark places with hope and structure. Our aim isn’t quick fixes but faithful practices—read the Bible, pray, gather with a church, walk with trusted friends, and ask for help before the spiral deepens. The cost of truth can feel steep in the moment, but the cost of lies is always higher. Listen, take one concrete step today, and share this with someone who needs a nudge toward reality and hope. If the conversation helped, subscribe, leave a review, and tell us: what truth are you choosing to practice this week?

SHOW NOTES:

Connect with us and send us your questions at hello@militarywellnesscollective.com

The Bible, read it and understand it for yourself with The Bible Recap: The Bible Recap | Read, Understand & Love the Bible in 365 Days

Mighty Oaks: Mighty Oaks | Veteran & First Responder Recovery Programs

Are your devices part of the problem? Check out the book Digital Minimalism:  Amazon.com : digital minimalism book

Biblical Counseling resource for those who are searching for a Biblical Counselor near you: Find a Biblical Counselor Near You - CCEF

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SPEAKER_04

And welcome back, everybody. We are here diving into another wonderful topic today. I am joined by my awesome wife, Brittany. Who are you? I think we're listening to this podcast for a while, you are we do these introductions each time. There might be a little bit of I am they're giving me a hard time because I'm like I'm Joshua. And this is my wife, Brittany.

SPEAKER_01

Hi.

SPEAKER_04

And we're joined with Brian and Kelly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Hey.

SPEAKER_04

Our best good friends. And so by the way, I say some random stuff. I usually sometimes I'll say words improperly in jest. I am kidding. Like, please don't look at the case.

SPEAKER_02

So you're saying if somebody else thought they were your best friends? They shouldn't be offended by you calling us your best friend.

SPEAKER_04

Well, especially if I say like best good friends.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Mental Health Through A Christian Lens

SPEAKER_04

Right. Yeah. Anyway, we're moving on. So today we're talking about I really need this episode. I'll tell you what. Today we're talking about a key to your mental health. And really, it's fighting for truth. And there's a lot of different aspects of that. But no, we're going to be diving into mental health today and fighting for truth. So let's let's dive in with a little bit of scripture first, and we're going to talk about those, and then we'll get into the meat and potatoes of it. But Brian, you have Colossians open. Would you mind reading a couple verses from there?

Colossians 3 And Setting The Mind

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, Colossians chapter three. Colossians is just a great little letter. I recommend the whole book, honestly, the whole letter. This is from the English Standard Version, Colossians three. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. And so what he's he's encouraging us to set our minds, think about the things of Christ, where Christ is, the things that are above. We get so caught up in the in the stuff down here, and so often the stuff down here is very temporary, and or we're seeing it not in the right light. So we need to set our minds, think about good, right, true things, eternal things.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, we keep thinking about how we're clowns in this rodeo instead of thinking about well, well, wait a minute. There's there's a bigger purpose here of what's going on and setting our minds for how God sees the world. Man, that's good. That is so good.

Philippians 4 And Thinking On Truth

SPEAKER_00

That reminds me of like what we fix our minds on. We become, right? Like if I focus on not being something, I'm gonna end up being what I don't want to be. I need to focus on Christ who I want to be. I have to set my mind. It's intentional, we participate, not it doesn't just happen. Strong wording. Yeah, it's good.

SPEAKER_02

So similar, I think Britney's going somewhere else, but Philippians 4.

SPEAKER_00

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02

I just finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, do what? Think about these things. Set your mind, think about true, godly, eternal things, not the lies that we so often tell ourselves. Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_01

And that's mental. Yeah. You know, it's just that's our mind.

SPEAKER_00

That yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, we're getting to mental health.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, that's really good. That's good. Brittany, do you have a passage you wanted to?

SPEAKER_00

Yes, something it's in Luke. We are gonna be in Luke 11. I'm gonna start in 24, and I'm reading from the ESV as well. Uh, when the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places, seeking rest and finding none. It says, I will return to my house from which I came. And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first. I know that probably sound seems like a weird passage, but to me, this is really personal. I used to not I used to be good at putting off, but I didn't replace it with anything. And I was reading in this passage one day when I was struggling mentally with anxiety and just thoughts, and I realized like I'm sweeping this house clean and I'm trying to do this in my own power, but I'm not replacing it with the word of God or something that's good. And every time that anxiety and negative thinking would return, it was stronger than it was before. And it just reminded me of this passage, like and what Brian just read like you have to set your mind on something. You can't just put it off. There is another action that is required, and it is putting something there in its place. And so I know we're gonna get into that too.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, a really basic example of that is if if you are to not think of a pink elephant, don't think of the pink elephant. You just walk around all day going, I'm not gonna think of the pink elephant. What are you gonna end up thinking of?

SPEAKER_00

Well, you've already found it.

SPEAKER_04

You crept in because you've tried to put off and put off and put off instead of, okay, I'm not gonna think about the pink elephant. I'm gonna go and do this good and right thing instead. Right. And then you'll forget about the pink elephant in doing so. And so that can be applied to so many different things.

SPEAKER_00

But what were you I just this makes me think of when I was a young believer and a young mom, I was so bent on not becoming a certain way because of my childhood and what I saw. And I was hyper focused on that. And I had a wiser older woman say to me, You've got to stop focusing on that and you need to focus on Jesus so you can become like him. What you orient your mind towards is what you'll become. And I often think of it as like when I'm driving a car. If I look to the right, the car starts to drift to the right, and I need to stay on the road. And just what we're setting our minds on is good.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I actually think there's two dangers. That's really good. So, like if I'm setting my mind on, I don't want to be like this person, I don't want to be like this person, I want to be like this person, there's actually two dangers. One is you'll become that because that's what you're focused on, or you're you're come you become so focused on not becoming that that you actually overcorrect and go in the other ditch. Right. So you're like, so if if your family of origin was neglectful and basically paid no attention to you and right, and it was just maybe even criminal neglect, then you may go so far the other way that you become a hover parent. Or just a hover parent or a just overly legalistic type of parent.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And so the truth helps us to stay on the road to carry the analogy, not in either one of the ditches. So let's focus on truth, let's focus on the road, not in the ditches.

Defining Mental Health: Dedication To Reality

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, that's good. So today we're we're hearing a lot about mental health these days. It's a pretty common thing to do. Like years ago, it was kind of forbidden. Like you didn't talk about it unless it was a very taboo, yeah. But how can we look at mental health from a Christian perspective?

SPEAKER_02

I think we've kind of touched on it already, but yeah, we've bounced around this because we're all looking at a quote that we wrote down. And we've we've honestly been talking about this as friends for a little while. A definition of mental health that we've talked about is this. Let's bless you, Brittany.

SPEAKER_03

We all heard it, so let's make sure we bless you, Brittany. We're not even gonna believe it.

SPEAKER_00

All right. Sorry, what is the definition of mental health, Brittany? Thank you.

SPEAKER_02

That was Satan trying to keep us from this definition. This is such a good definition. Mental health is a dedication to reality at all costs. And I know this isn't scripture, but I think it's so helpful. So mental health, to be a mentally healthy person, I need to have a dedication or a commitment to reality, the truth. For us, we're rip, you know, it's interchangeable. The truth, the word of God, a right understanding of the word of God, the truth, right understanding of the word of God, truth, Jesus, a right understanding of who Jesus is and how that applies in our life. So a dedication, a commitment to reality, the truth, God's truth, at all costs. So often we get into mental health predicaments when we maybe glance at the truth and we don't want to go through the cost of living in light of that truth. And so we insert other things. And so we either ignore the truth or we replace the truth with subtle lies, or we do all sorts, or we numb it with substance or distraction or whatever the case is. So we do lots of things instead of this, but to be a mentally healthy person, you need to have a dedication or a commitment to reality, to truth at all costs. Because actually, the cost of lies is way higher than the cost of the truth.

SPEAKER_00

It's good.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, absolutely. So what what are some scenarios that we've been in that we've walked through this very clear, just trying to get to get people to see the truth, or even yourselves? Have we walked through some scenarios and some times when mentally we're not really just dedicated to reality at all costs? And what did that look like? How did it come about?

SPEAKER_02

One that I've had to wrestle through as I've been out of the military is so you know, I I went to combat three times. Really, the first one was pretty benign. The second one was pretty kinetic, relatively dangerous for me. The third one, relatively dangerous for me. And so when you're in that situation, when you're in those environments for months on end, you have this like this ever-present feeling of I'm not safe, I'm physically not safe. And and you know, there's aspects of that that's true right now. So, right now, you know, I could have a brain aneurysm, I could have a widow maker, heart attack, I could literally die any second right now. That's true, but it's way less true. But I don't need to have like ever present on my mind that I'm not safe. I'm sitting at y'all's house in Seeds Ferry, North Carolina. I'm relatively safe. The most likely scenario is that I don't die in the next five minutes. But just like that's true. And and honestly, what I did in the moments of I could die in the next five minutes. I could die on this patrol. I could lose my legs stepping on an IED in this patrol. And I needed to live in the light of that, to be alert, to be aware of my surroundings, to do my job really, really well. It would be unhealthy to say, well, I'm probably fine. Everything's fine. You know, the the old Lego movie, everything is awesome, right? So just like realizing in both of those circumstances, like, no, this really is a dangerous place. You need to be on high alert, do that. And then now you're actually in a relatively safe place, so you don't need to be on high alert at all times. And so for me, like both of those is how do I stay in reality? How do I stay in this moment?

SPEAKER_00

It's good at all costs.

SPEAKER_02

At all costs. At all costs. Right. Because then it was, you know, the cost of staying hyper alert, staying vigilant, stay doing my job real well. And then here, the cost of not doing it is the cost on my family and those around me if I don't, if I don't deal with the reality that that was a thing and that's not a thing anymore.

SPEAKER_00

That's good. Yeah, that's really good.

SPEAKER_02

Paranoia is probably the the biggest thing that we see in guys is they are like a lot of veterans really struggle with paranoia of like everyone is out to get me. Literally everyone is out to get me. And that's probably not true.

SPEAKER_00

Right. Right.

SPEAKER_02

Like it's not true. Like you're not the center of the universe. Everybody's not out to get you.

SPEAKER_04

Let me ask this, because that made me think of of some interesting ways this conversation could go.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

When Struggle Becomes Sin

SPEAKER_04

At what point, this is probably a lot harder to answer than um than I think it might be. But at what time at what point is this mental struggle that you've described a couple at what point does that fall into sin? And what point is it just a struggle they're dealing with?

SPEAKER_02

So I think I think we want to think about sin appropriately. The most I I'm pretty sure go ask your resident theologian, but I'm pretty sure the most common Greek word for sin in the New Testament that we get translated sin in our English Bibles is this Greek word that's really like a marksmanship word, and sin means to miss the mark. Right. So there's a bullseye and sin is to miss the mark. And so if we think about sin in that way, then anytime we miss perfection, we have sinned, we have erred. E R R E D. As into error. As into error, right. We have done that. So So honestly, any anytime I am not thinking with perfect truth in that sense of the word, I am sinning. And and the response to that is to turn from that and seek truth. Right. And so I think a lot of times when we think of sin, we think I have broken a commandment and I have which that's a version of sin as well. I've broken this commandment, I've done this evil thing. But I think sometimes on that question, Joshua, I I think it's better even to think like, okay, what's perfection and what's truth? And how can I constantly be marching towards that?

SPEAKER_00

And that's what you're setting your mind on, right? Like that's where Colossians three, what you're doing with your mind. Your mind is active. What are you doing with it?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. So to change the metaphor a little bit, like I cannot hit a target that I'm not looking at and aiming at, right? Like if I'm looking at don't miss, don't miss, don't miss, I'm not gonna hit it.

Practical Aims: Hitting The Target

Anxiety, Catastrophizing, And Scripture

SPEAKER_04

So say we're we're hitting around the target and we we just keep hitting the edges to keep that analogy going. What are some things we can do to, in a in a normal sense, just an average person listening to this that's struggling with whatever? What are some things that they can do to try to get back on target?

SPEAKER_00

One of the things that I think of for women, maybe it this guy's probably deal with this too, obviously anxiety. But I know Kelly and I have touched it on this a little bit in other episodes, the struggle with anxiety. When I struggled with anxiety one time, you were gone. It was right before you were about to leave. And this is when I had like real deep struggles with it. And it wasn't even about Joshua leaving. I I watched my grandma die from cancer. She was in our home on hospice for a while. And so I had this weird fear, like you're saying, like we must think on reality, that I had cancer. So I struggle with chronic illness, autoimmune disease. So it it was always like, well, it could be worse. What if I die while Josh is gone? What if I have cancer and you're not here? And it was consuming my thoughts. I was researching what diet I should be eating. I convinced myself I had cancer. Just this like craziness. I was not thinking on truth in the moment. I did not have a diagnosis of cancer. Never have I even been close.

SPEAKER_04

Dr. Google does not help with looking up.

Fear Of Man And The Psalms

SPEAKER_00

With your anxiety, right? Like it wasn't helping me. So practically, I needed to practice what the Bible teaches. And I would consistently say, the truth is right now, Britney. You do not have cancer. You have been tested for cancer. You do not have cancer. Like and thinking on that truth and then thinking on what the Lord tells me to think on. Is this honoring him that I'm obsessed with this? Even if I did have cancer, would I be fine? Like, do I trust the Lord enough that he is sovereign in this? Do is this good for me to obsess over? No, it's not. Thinking on those things that are true. And I know that sounds like a superficial answer, but it's not. We have to do what the word of God tells us to do. The only truth we hold is the word of God, and we must return to it. And it is our refuge, our strength. It's our fortress. So practically, my advice is run to the word of God and memorize scripture. The scripture does not even have to go. My scripture that I memorized during that season was not about cancer. It was the word of God, and I needed to put off the thoughts that were wrong and put on the truth. Whether that revolved around that or not. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I think one example that kind of goes in that was for me just like fear of man. I think that has a lot to do with like your mental health because I think that can make you feel crazy and not unlike not just go to crazy places in your mind, you know. And I mean, I'm just gonna say the same thing. Like the way that I battle fear of man is just digging into the word, and God is the one that I should fear. I think of like David in Psalms, you know, just people were seeking to end his life, you know. But like God had him, and he he called out to the Lord, and the Lord is the only one that could really protect him.

SPEAKER_02

Yes. So the story of David's kind of interesting, right? He is constantly crying out to the Lord. So the book of Psalms is just him taking all these things to the Lord and wrestling through them. But David dealt in reality. Saul was trying to kill him. Yes. Saul threw his spear at him multiple times and was like angrily, viciously trying to kill David. And there were people in David's life trying to say, No, man, he's not trying to kill you. Like it's fine. You don't need to run and hide in caves. What are you doing? And it was probably hard to say.

SPEAKER_04

There were also people in his corner saying, Hey, he's right there now in the cave. Kill him. Right. Get rid of this. Right. Like, who are we gonna listen to? Physical affliction.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

One thing that helps me too is to look at God.

Christ Has Sat Down: Rest And Trust

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I when I read the book of Hebrews, I I am struck on a regular basis at how often it talks about Christ completing his work and then sitting down. It talks about it a couple times. That his work is completed and then he sat down. And so, like, there's this temptation to freak out. I don't maybe that's just in the military culture, our culture. I don't know. My own, my own.

SPEAKER_01

I don't know what you're talking about. I never do that.

SPEAKER_02

We could uh we could share some recent story. No, um, we'll not do that here. Yeah, but like Jesus isn't freaking out. Whatever you're going through, Jesus is sitting down and he is he's he's not freaking out. He's not running around like, oh no, what are we gonna do? Oh man, I never saw this coming. Like that's not happening. Yeah, for sure.

Isolation Versus Solitude

SPEAKER_00

Another practical thing too is not to isolate. Like isolation is from the enemy, solitude is from God. Like solitude brings us to the feet of Jesus, isolation pulls us out of community. And when we're struggling mentally in our minds, we tend to isolate. And that is the enemy putting you in places. That's what leads to deep dark depressions, to suicide. All the things that we want to avoid with mental health, especially in military culture, because it's it's propagated amongst us, like it amongst the wife community. It's like put your big girl panties on, you're fine, you gotta do this amongst the men, you can't be weak ever. Right. Um, right. Fight against that.

Church And Small Group Rhythms

SPEAKER_02

That's not true. And so the rhythm of gathering with a local church is weekly. Like that is the weekly rhythm that God has given to us and exampled for us for generations of Christians. And I get it's really hard to be in that discipline in the active duty life, but we need to be in that rhythm of regularly, weekly gathering with the church. And then hopefully the church that you're part of has small group ministry, like where you gather with a smaller group of people on a regular basis. Generally, that's you know, a few times a month where you're gathering together with other people. Don't don't isolate, like press into those rhythms.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

I cannot count the amount of times that we have talked to people and worked through some things with them. First thing we ask them is how's your prayer life and your Bible reading going? Right. And they're at a point where they're struggling because that struggles years ago or months ago or whatever. And typically one of the symptoms is they've neglected their small group, they've neglected reaching out to their fellow believers, they've neglected the gathering even on Sundays, or they've kind of showed up, but they were distant. They weren't there in their minds. So, yeah, those those things are definitely correlated, and we see that time and time again.

SPEAKER_02

So our friends at Mighty Oaks. Mighty Oaks is a transitional program for the warrior. And so they actually have men's legacy programs and women's legacy programs. Mighty Oaks. Pretty sure we're allowed to share this aspect of what they do, but for the men's legacy program, people are coming in at like really dark places mental health-wise. A lot of guys are. And they they literally have four things four B's. Be in the Word, be in prayer, be in church, be in fellowship with your brothers, right? Or corner men, however, they always word the fourth one differently. But anyway, like that's those are like the most basic things that a Christian should be doing. Like read the Bible, pray, go to church, and be in fellowship with other believers, specifically like other good, same-gendered believers. And it's so interesting, like our mental health when we get when we get in these bad spots, usually one, if not all of those are are really struggling, and we're struggling in those disciplines to to be after those things.

A Daughter’s Story Of Loss

SPEAKER_00

Can I share an example that isn't so pretty of me watching what this looks like played out? Um so my dad is was a Marine Corps veteran, and he took his life a couple years ago, a couple summers ago. I think it's three years this summer. And just hearing you talk about Mighty Oaks and the legacy program and the four things that you know they focus on, I can see those aspects looking back, were not present and where he began to pull away and didn't discuss or talk about things. And it was probably years in the making. And so if you you're listening to this, obviously you're affiliated with the military. You've got to take it seriously when you're in those dark places and put in the work. Like it's it's not the Mighty Oaks is a free program. If you're struggling with things that you've seen or you're in a dark place, like we're gonna drop the link below. Reach out to those people, plug into your local community, tell somebody you're struggling. You you're not alone. And when you think you are, it's it's a lie. There were many people around my dad that would have loved to help him if he just said, but he did buy into the Marine Corps myth of you know, weaknesses, pain leaving the body. Like all of those things. Yeah, pain is weak. Like I remember that as a kid, like that was just how we were raised. You don't feel emotion, you don't those things. And I can see that. And so I don't say this lightly to put that out there, but as we're talking about mental health, I have seen both sides of people come out of dark places, but then people not leave by choice. Yeah. Yeah.

Suicide, Community, And Honesty

SPEAKER_02

So I think it's good that you're going to the most extreme mentally unhealthy place is homicide and suicide. Right. Right. Like that is the most unhealthy, mentally unhealthy place you can go. And I just want to highlight what you said that there were many people around your father who would have loved to help. Yeah. And that's true of every circumstance. Anything close to similar to that is like, but there's this, there's this lack of realizing that truth that God has placed people around me who are desperately desiring to help.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_02

And and honestly, I can be helpful to them as well, as I am honest about my own shortcomings and limitations and everything else. And it could be a really beautiful thing. And and so when we isolate ourselves, we rob ourselves and others of that opportunity.

SPEAKER_00

I think the definition that Brian gave at the beginning, like we have to commit to reality.

SPEAKER_04

Right. Yeah. Dedication to reality at all costs.

SPEAKER_00

At all costs. Yeah.

When To Seek Professional Help

SPEAKER_04

So that's the majority of it. But at some point, really quickly, what are some quick indicators that maybe somebody should seek professional help? I know you mentioned there's a lot of people around that would that would love to have helped him. But what are some indicators or what are some things that make us go, wow, we you really need to see somebody who's an expert in this field?

SPEAKER_02

So the normal things that we're talking about, Bible study, prayer, church, all those types of things. Right. If you're not doing those, you should do those.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

Helpers Knowing Their Limits

SPEAKER_02

Correct. If you're doing all of that and you're still not seeing growth, change moving towards health, that's when you need to seek more professional help. That's when you should go to a Mighty Oaks program. That's when you should reach out to a good, skilled biblical counselor, Christian counselor, those types of things. So that's kind of like warning light number one. I'm doing the normal things that you guys keep saying, read your Bible, pray, go to church, talk to other human beings. I'm doing all that and it's not helping. Okay, let's get somebody more skilled into the team. We're not saying stop doing all those things. You would still do all those things, but let's add somebody else to the help team to help you. Just like if you, you know, if you did get diagnosed with cancer, Brittany. I would go to a doctor. You would go to a doctor, but like you wouldn't like you wouldn't be removing doctors from your life. You would be adding doctors to your life. So it the same thing's true with mental health. We want to add people to the problem. We're not now some people do need to be subtracted if they're being, you know, against it. Part of the problem. Yeah. Yeah, they may be part of the problem. But the other one is like if if I don't know how else to say this, if a two event is getting a 10 response from you, then you've you need to work through some stuff. Right. So like if somebody if somebody cuts you off in traffic and you're in a murderous rampage against them, that's a you issue. Like they probably didn't notice you. Yeah. They made a human mistake, a dangerous human mistake, sure. Also, where is there some sin because they were also texting and driving and and were looking at their news feed or whatever? Right? Like, so lots of stuff, but but that's a that's a two to three to four thing. And if that's getting a 10 to 12 response from you, right, that should be a big warning light on your dashboard of like, I'm not in a good spot. Right.

SPEAKER_04

Right. Yeah, and the and just to be clear, these professionals that we would say go to at those points in time, people who are dedicated to bringing you to truth.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_04

And the ultimate truth of who the bibliography is.

Recommended Resources And Tools

SPEAKER_02

I w if you're a helper in the situation, so you know, we're all helpers, people come to us with their problems for whatever reason. And if you're the in the helper situation, if you don't know the next question to ask, then you've hit your limitation of as a helper. That's really good. Okay. If you don't know the next question to ask, and and just uh I like the medical analogy here, right? So physically, if you're talking to your doctor and you're like, man, we're getting into we're getting into cancer. I don't do cancer. I do like skin knees and the flu and the like I'm the urgent care, you know, nurse practitioner. That's what I do. You it seems like you probably have cancer. We need to get an oncologist here. We need to get some scans. We need to do some things. The same thing's true mental health-wise. Like, you can be a good friend. That doesn't mean that you're the best person to walk them through their childhood trauma.

SPEAKER_03

That's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Right. You can be a good friend. You can even be a good pastor. That doesn't mean you're the best person to walk through the, you know, this this post-traumatic stress disorder that they're walking through and those types of things. So, like, if you don't know the next question to ask, we need to bring more helpers into the situation. It's really good.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, it's good. Uh, to wrap this up really quickly, do you guys have any resources you'd like to throw out there to anybody who might be struggling with any of this stuff that might be helpful?

Churches, Networks, And Closing CTA

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, we're gonna put a couple Bridgehaven Counseling, Mighty Oaks. We're starting to put Bridge Haven Counseling on a lot of these, I think. Just and there's other good biblical counselors out there that go to those. I'm gonna put from my personal blog, BrianOday.com, read the Bible for yourself. If you're not you, we say read the Bible and you're picking it up and you're like, Leviticus, this is interesting. Like I walk through, I have a whole like a series of articles about reading the Bible for yourself and getting into that activity. I'm gonna recommend we throw a different one down here: Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. A little caveat on this one. Cal is not a Christian, he's a humanist. But one of the biggest problems with our mental health in our current place and time is our doggone smartphones and all the things surrounding that. And there's probably a good, a few good Christian resources on that, but I just really appreciate Cal's digital minimalism book and a process he walks you through for for thinking about technology in a good way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I'll put a Christian one to that social sanity in an Insta world.

SPEAKER_02

Social that's so clever in the so clever.

SPEAKER_00

I think that's what it's called. I'll put it in the show notes.

SPEAKER_04

And if you're struggling with Bible reading, I think we mentioned. I'll put the Bible recap in the Bible reading recap is is really, really good. Man, it was really good. And go to church. Yeah. There you go. Find a church.

SPEAKER_02

And and Joshua, you're at a church? I am at a church. Pillar church of Topsoil. That's right. Spelled Topsail. North Carolina. And you are at Pillar Church of Jacksonville, North Carolina, about 35 minutes from each other.

SPEAKER_04

Part of the Praetorian Project. Planting a Marine Corps based Camp Legion. Yes. So much fun. This has been a difficult topic. Mental health. We've had a couple difficult topics the last couple episodes. But man, I'm glad you guys have were with us through this one. Hopefully it was helpful to you. And we we also covered your questions.

SPEAKER_00

So if you go on on the email that we said, it'll it's hello at the mill hello at military wellness collective.com. Hello at militarywellnesscollective.com.

SPEAKER_04

Shoot us a question if you'd like some answers on those things. And we've been doing that uh multiple times. It's been really good. But we appreciate y'all being with us and we love y'all.