Monk: Religious Devotee or Underutilized Abbreviation for Monkey?

Actually, it's a TV Show on USA starring the former cab driver from Wings, my favorite kind-of-funny sitcom from childhood. Surprised you didn't know that. Anyway, in this show, Adrian Monk, the main character, is a detective determined to solve crimes while constantly dealing with the challenges of a mental illness, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or OCD. Having watched only one episode of the show (and thus having no right to review it), I was struck by the fact that Monk's helpless condition consistently elicits both pity and laughter, almost simultaneously. It seemed strange at first and then I realized how true-to-life that is. We joke all the time that "I am" or someone else is "so OCD," meaning that we are obsessive about this or unusually anxious about that. We almost always do not have a diagnosable case, and in fact, we may risk seriously insulting those who do, BUT...


There is a reason we make jokes like that. While laughing at our own unusual behaviors, we're covering up something helpless about ourselves - something pitiable. We can actually relate to Adrian Monk. I'm sure Monk fans, whoever they are, probably don't enjoy the show simply for the laughs, and obviously not simply for the pity they feel. There is something more to it - something very familiar about OCD. Something to which we all can relate: helpless, hopeless anxiety.



Consider this. Which was the harder of Jesus' commands?

"Do not worry about your life."

or

"Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect."

Trick question. They are both completely impossible. Like Adrian Monk, we are continually anxious and often even neurotic about one thing or another, and we just can't help it. For Monk it is perhaps an unusual fear of "germs," but for us it is the very usual fear of failure or of losing wealth or losing love or losing security or losing our reputation. And like Monk we are usually trying to combat our fears with rituals and repetitive behaviors that, at best, bring only temporary relief. None of our habitual treatments, religious or otherwise, can actually make the problem go away.

But thank the Lord that He did not simply give a command. He gave His life.

This is the good news of the Christian message. But perhaps it seems trite or overplayed or even nonsensical to you, so I'll try to clarify...

I was recently reading about a newly developed cognitive treatment for OCD called "responsibility transfer therapy." To quote from the article, "In this model, the OCD sufferer is encouraged to hand responsibility for the problematic behavior over to another person. So, for example, a sufferer may allow someone else to monitor whether the oven is turned off, so they don't have to obsess over whether it is." And apparently this works! Do you see where I'm going with this?

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. - 1 Peter 5:7

This means surrender your "positive thinking" mind-games, and cast your anxiety on Him. Surrender your insurance policies, and cast your anxiety on Him. Surrender your alcoholism, your pornography addiction, your exercise addiction, your eating disorder, your "looking cool," your guilt, your grief, your insecurities, your pietism, and cast your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.

Peter was able to follow up Jesus' impossible command with this comforting promise, because he saw Jesus crucified and risen. Your responsibility has been transferred to Jesus on the cross. It is for freedom that Christ has set you free.