Mental health issues in the workplace are such an important concern nowadays. Whether it is open articulation or implicit concurrence, when one talks about the workplace and mental health, the word “stress” comes to mind.
One of the reasons why we are placing more emphasis on mental health issues in the workplace is that the stresses there have increased exponentially over the years. We are doing things faster with emails and chat group platforms. Gone are the days when it takes a few days to receive a reply via mail or fax, and that was considered a quick response to an enquiry in those earlier times. The runway to meet work deliverables keeps getting shorter and shorter as we strive to achieve more within a given time. These are but some of the stresses in the workplace.
Going out into the mission fields is also highly stressful, and serving as God’s missionaries in a cross-cultural setting can be immensely challenging. Missionaries deal with manifold stresses. You have to enter into a foreign culture and learn a foreign language to identify with the people that God has called you to love. There are uncertain environments where you are required to move from place to place to bring the gospel to unreached people. For others ministering in creative access nations, you need sensitivity and wisdom to navigate tense political climates. Missionaries have to learn to operate within all these stresses and serve God’s call with oftentimes limited resources at their disposal. The elements causing stress may be different in the mission fields from that of the workplace, but it is stress nonetheless and it has an impact on mental health.
When missionaries encounter mental health issues, their stress levels are compounded as it could be a stigma to share such challenges with their supporters. Concerned over possible repercussions, they may choose instead to keep such mental health issues to themselves. For those serving in remote places, there may not be easy access to counselling and treatment.
The apostle Paul, the missionary par excellence, embraced his fair share of stresses while responding to God’s call to bring the gospel to the Gentile nations. In 2 Corinthians 11:23â28 (NIV), Paul recounted what he had been through:
“⊠been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again ⊠beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea ⊠in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have laboured and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked ⊠I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.”
If this is not intense stress, I do not know what is. Yet, this same Paul offers us guidance to deal with stress. From Paul’s teachings, we can gain three important postures about managing stress with God’s help.
The first posture is to “Take it to God”. When we are overwhelmed, we need to remember that we have our Abba Father who is with us and can help us. We can take our stresses to God in our supplications and prayers. Paul, in Philippians 4:6â7, tells us that we can always take all our pressing situations to God and present our needy requests to him. Our Heavenly Father hears our prayers and gives us peace, a peace that goes beyond all understanding.
Prayer and supplications are closely related to the second posture, which is to “Turn to God”. When we are inundated with a sense of helplessness, we need to know that we are carried by a pair of very big and loving hands. Paul, in 2 Corinthians 12:7â9 (NIV), alluded to a matter that he could not solve, not even with constant supplications and earnest prayers. Three times he asked the Lord to remove the “thorn in [his] flesh”. But the Lord said to Paul that his grace is sufficient. God carries us in our helpless state as he empowers us through his grace. God wanted Paul to rely on him, and God wants us to do the same, especially in our stressful circumstances. As Paul had experienced God’s grace, we too will find our strength in Christ to help us overcome.
Every stressful moment we encounter is an opportunity to learn to trust God. “Trust God” is a recognition that God is sovereign over all circumstances, over all people, and over us and our stressful situations. This is the third posture that Paul taught the early church as he demonstrated this spiritual reality in his life and ministry. In Romans 8:28 (NIV), Paul encouraged the Roman church: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Before I responded to God’s call to serve in the missions field, I was working in a statutory board where many demands were made of its officers. As with the government service stint, and then on the missions field, and now with a missions agency, I have found these three postures helpful to mental health and the workplace. We do not need to be intimidated by the stresses in our workplace. As God is our help, the stresses at the workplace are the refiner’s fire that purifies our faith and draws us closer to God.
Chern Siang Ling is the Regional Director for Cambodia, Nepal and Vietnam at Methodist Missions Society. She is a member of Kampong Kapor Methodist Church and previously served as a Lay Executive Staff there after a season as a missionary.