In college campus ministry, there will be many reoccurring topics of conversation that will continue to surface: that's just a part of having a community of college-attending Jesus followers. These developing issues and causes and experiences will challenge and strengthen the faith of a young-adult-oriented and discipling community, which is why we (as a campus ministry) need to be in God's Word day and night.

Learning and relearning His character and heart and how He wishes for us to engage in deep and personal conversation with students over these complex areas of life.

One area in particular that I have consistently seen/observed up close and personal with the students I work with and minister to is mental health. Many of the testimonies students share are about God's healing and comfort in the midst of mental illnesses.

At the same time, I have found this conversation to be difficult to navigate within my community, too: the topic of mental illness is multi-faceted, complex, and ever-developing.

That being said, this article cannot obviously go through point by point and define every type and spectrum of mental illness, how to support students, et cetera. I am not here to debate how to classify these illnesses or argue the like.

For me, the bottom line is this: we should respond to illnesses as Jesus did and taught us to do.

But let's back up a second because I think we often times jump to the "let's quote Jesus and badda-bing badda-boom, we have our theological point made." Jesus saw all of the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) as an anchor point that fleshes out His Way of Life and Teachings.

We know from the Scriptures, for example, that our God is One who wishes to heal and restore His people from illness and pain. The prophet Ezekiel wrote of how God would heal His people after they had been sent away and exiled from their own land. Ezekiel wrote of how God would "bind up the injured and strengthen the weak" (Eze. 34:16 NIV).

Another part of the Scriptures was the Psalms, a collection of prayers that God's people would regularly read from to pray to and praise Him. They too give us vital insight into God's desire to heal His people. A key example is in Psalm 103, where the writer exclaims

"Praise the LORD, my soul, / and forget not all His benefits -- / who forgives all your sins / and heals all your diseases / who redeems your life from the pit / and crowns you with love and compassion" — Psalm 103:2-4 NIV

Across the Hebrew Scriptures, we see that God wishes for His people to be healed and comforted, and for Him to be a source of that healing and comfort.

And now we enter the life and teachings of Jesus.

A large portion of Jesus ministry was the healing He brought to people. Jesus Himself even states that in doing this, He fulfills the Scriptures. The story of Jesus (as accounted in the book of Matthew) explains that "many who were demon-possessed were brought to Him, and He drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: 'He took up our infirmities / and bore our diseases'" (Matthew 8:16-17 NIV).

So the Old Testament clearly shows that God's heart is to heal diseases, and Jesus mission clearly included doing such things...so what should we, as His followers do?

Once, a religious scholar asked Jesus what is required to enter into the movement of Jesus followers and inherit Eternal Life. Essentially, the consensus was to follow the two commandments that best summarized all of God's commands from the Old Testament: love God and love your neighbor.

And when the religious scholar asked Jesus who exactly qualifies as his neighbor, Jesus responded with a beautiful parable (the Parable of the Good Samaritan) that pretty much can be summarized as such: anyone and everyone is our neighbor, particularly those that we have the power to serve and help and bring healing too. In the parable, Jesus describes how the Samaritan "went to [the beat up man on the side of the road] and bandaged his wounds" (Luke 10:34 NIV).

But wait: who bound the injured person in this story? The Samaritan, who is Jesus' example of how all of us should help and bring healing to others.

I think the Scriptures make it very clear: God works His healing through other people.

Obviously, prayer for healing is important, but the Bible shows us that God recognizes and works through practical, physical steps towards healing all forms of illness.

We even have the apostle Paul (a Jesus follower from way back in the day) write to a young Christian he was mentoring to "stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses" (1 Tim. 5:23 NIV).

It is important for us to pray for healing from God, as that is what His people are shown to do throughout the entire collection of Scriptures (both old and new testaments). At the same time, the Scriptures also show us that such healing from God doesn't come from Him snapping, His fingers, and poofing illnesses (both physical and mental) away: healing comes from His people.

This is not "humanism" or reducing the role God plays in the process of healing people from, say, a depression or anxiety disorder. But, I think that if Jesus calls us to physically meet and serve people where they are, then we have more work to do than just to pray over people if we claim to follow the life and teachings of Jesus.

Again, this article cannot be a full, holistic discussion of how to address mental illness in a community of Jesus followers, but operating from the ground level of being God's people, through which His spiritual and practical healing is delivered, is a perfect place for us to start.