Several years ago I asked my friend Neil an important question. He counseled Lynsey and me before we were married and has a good relationship with God and an understanding of secular psychiatry. A friend was resisting my encouragement to turn from some obvious sin on the basis of things that had happened to her. I forget the details of the situation, but I was stumped. That day, Neil gave me some wise counsel that I want to pass along to all of you today. Neil said something like, “What she’s experiencing may be an explanation, but it isn’t an excuse.”
The world has explanations for why we are the way we are—trauma, abuse, mental health disorder, poverty, poor childhood, etc. These situations are serious, no doubt, and challenging. But they are explanations, not excuses. They explain (partly) why we are the way we are, but they are not an excuse for letting those things become our identity. And they are not an excuse for staying that way.
Anxiety and depression run in my family, but they are not who I am. I am chosen by God. My life is hidden with Christ in God. Christ is my life. I am a new creation in Him. Who I am and how I am apart from Christ is not my true identity. My family’s history of mental health may explain why I’ve had panic attacks and depression in the past, but they are not an excuse for me to be okay with having them now.
How does this apply to you? Have you let an explanation of why you are the way you are become an excuse for staying that way? Christ isn’t okay with that, and He will remake you and renew you. He doesn’t take our explanations as excuses. He is able and ready to change us. But the first step is to turn our excuses over to Him—indeed, to turn our whole selves over to Him.
Explanation. Not excuse. Christ is able.
