OCD

I like things a certain way. I guess all of us do to some degree.

But at times I can become obsessive.

I can straighten chairs to the smallest degree to make sure they are straight. Get upset over a bent corner on my books. Perfect a written paper to the point that every page ends at the same spot.

Maybe I am just weird.

I click my nails between my teeth (to the annoyance of my wife).

I stratch the same spot on my back.

I over-analyze my food. I have "texture issues" which means that I don't want pulp in my orange juice, lumps in my potatoes, or chunks in my tomato sauce. As I've told a friend, "When it comes to food, I want my liquids to be liquids and my solids to be solids. I don't want a drink or a sauce to have a chunk in it and I don't want my solid food to squirt in my mouth."

Since I don't eat any fruit (see above), I have come to depend on smoothies for my fruit intake. I have had the same smoothie (with the same basic recipe) practically every morning (unless I am on vacation) for the past 10 years of my life. And in some sense, I wouldn't mind eating the same food for every meal for just about every day of my life.

Wow, now that I think about it, that is weird.

At times, people have joked with me about being OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder).

I never gave it much thought.

Until I struggled with panic attacks.

And then I realized that one aspect of OCD is what is called "brain lock." Getting stuck on a thought, almost like a scratch on a record, and thinking about it over and over again.

I read Can Christianity Cure Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder? by Dr. Ian Osborn (a great book, by the way) and realized that people like Martin Luther and John Bunyan probably suffered from what psychologists would call "OCD." Luther was so focused on his sin in the monastery that he confessed over and over and over again. The joke among the monks was that "Luther feels the need to confess every time he breaks wind." Meanwhile, Bunyan was so obsessed with the idea that he committed the unpardonable sin that he entered long periods of extreme depression and doubt, convinced he was eternally damned.

My struggles are nowhere near Luther's or Bunyan's or many others I have known who have suffered with OCD.

But I know what it is like to feel trapped…stuck…plagued with thoughts that are hard to escape…to have panic attacks when the ongoing oncoming waves of anxiety overwhelmed my ability to swim above them.

So what does OCD have to do with Christmas?

I read an interesting article by Jeff Peabody in which he compared Jesus being swaddled as a baby to the limitations He faced as the eternal God in human flesh.

This historical detail from Christ's birth suddenly transformed into a personal sign for me. Because I no longer saw just a baby in a blanket, but a God who entered into my boundedness, who shared inside knowledge of all I was feeling.

…The conditions of his advent were a small metaphor for his entire life. As the Son of God became flesh and bones, he experienced an unfathomable limitation of himself. The universe closed in around him, restricting him with time and space. Having a human body was like being swaddled, as it contained Almighty God in unnaturally small dimensions.

…The simple image of Jesus, God's gift to us, being wrapped up in cloths comforts me with the powerful truth: He understands the bindings on my mind and soul as only someone who has a shared experience can. The concept of Immanuel, God with us, takes on a new and profound clarity. ("The Gift of Wrapping," Christianity Today, December 2018)

To be our sympathetic High Priest, Jesus had to be made like His brethren (Hebrews 2:17). He had to take on flesh. He had to suffer. He had to experience our weaknesses. He had to deal with thirst, hunger, tiredness, sorrow, physical pain, emotional pain, mental pain, thoughts so overwhelming that He sweated blood.

He had to become a man.

More than that…He had to become a baby.

Helpless.

Limited.

Dependent.

Confined.

Swaddled in tight cloths.

To understand.

To empathize.

To comfort.

To save.

The same tight cloths that wrapped Him as a baby wrapped His dead body after His crucifixion.

But His restricting cloths were set aside in the freedom of the resurrection.

And so will ours.

In this tent [our present body] we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven [our new glorified body] (2 Corinthians 5:2).

If you are groaning today…in your body…in your mind…in your soul.

Look to Jesus.

Immanuel.

God with us.

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