OCD and Christianity
Take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. (Eph 6:16 NIV) Ephesians 6 describes the spiritual battle, and how it should be fought. The metaphors chosen by Paul seem to be especially appropriate for the battle that is called OCD–the flaming arrows being the […]
When an obsession strikes, a short time is available for straight thinking before it overwhelms us and we start doing compulsions. Maybe, there are a couple of seconds in which to do something really good and worthwhile. What we must do is put the obsession in a different perspective so that its fear is lessened […]
LET JESUS DO WHAT HE WANTS All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me Matt 28:18 A thought-out, committed, and unswerving belief in God’s providence is absolutely necessary for the Christian who suffers from OCD. This bible-based and universally accepted part of our creed is, strangely, often deemphasized nowadays. The OCDer, […]
“A Daring Confidence in the Mercy of God” These are the words used by Celine, sister of the Catholic saint Therese of Lisieux, to describe Therese’s spirituality. I deal with the life of Therese in my book on OCD and Christianity. She had a severe case of OCD, and overcame it through developing an unusual […]
A young mother came to me thinking that she ought to be put in a psychiatry ward and locked up. She suffered from a gut-wrenching: that she would initiate a sexual relationship with her two month old son. We worked for a little while on this, and I explained to her the nature of OCD […]
Story of the sinful woman who bathed Jesus with her tears. This is one of the most moving stories in the New Testament. A sinful woman suddenly comes to Jesus while he is a guest at a dinner party, and proceeds to wash his feet with her tears. Jesus forgives her sins, and tells her […]
“What pleases God is the blind hope that I have in his mercy.” –St. Therese of Lisieux Greatest single statement ever made by an OCDer? I vote for this powerful profession of faith by my favorite Catholic saint, Therese of Lisieux. She suffered from severe OCD that began in childhood, and eventually overcame her OCD […]
I have fought the good fight—2Tim 4:7 Are you fighting the good fight? For the OCD sufferer, there are frequent calls to battle. The word “obsession,” after all, comes from the Latin root, obsidere, meaning to besiege, as an army would attack a city. That’s certainly what it feels like when these tormenting thoughts crash […]
“I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” — Jer 29:11
“We should see how deeply God hides his face, and how we must not go by our feeling but only by his word.” — Martin Luther