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“How are you?”
“Fine. Busy, but fine.”
You have said it at the door of the church, in the queue at the shop, and to your own mother on the phone. Most days it is close enough to true. Some days it is the biggest lie you tell.
World Mental Health Day is on October 10. It is the one day a year the whole world is asked to stop saying “fine” and say the real thing instead.
For a lot of people of faith, that is harder than it sounds. Somewhere along the way we picked up the idea that a person who really trusted God would not feel this low. So we smile, and we keep it to ourselves.
There is a night in the Bible that takes that idea apart. On it, Jesus said he was not okay. He said it out loud, and he said it to his friends.
What Is World Mental Health Day?
World Mental Health Day is held every year on October 10. It was first marked on October 10, 1992. It was started by the World Federation for Mental Health, and the man who got it going was the group’s deputy secretary-general at the time, Richard Hunter.
For the first two years it had no theme at all. The first one came in 1994. Since then, each year has had its own.
The theme for 2026 is “Lived Experiences Heard: Real Voices, Real Change.” In plain words: the people who have lived through mental pain are the ones who most need to be listened to.
The need is not small. In September 2025 the World Health Organization reported that more than 1 billion people are living with a mental health disorder. In low-income countries, fewer than 1 in 10 of them get any care. In higher-income countries it is more than half, which still leaves a great many people out.
So most people who are struggling today are doing it without a doctor and without a counselor. Many are doing it without telling a single soul. That last part is the one thing a day like this can change. It is also the part a very old story speaks to.
The Night Jesus Said It Out Loud
It was the night before the cross. Supper was over. Jesus walked with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, on the Mount of Olives just outside Jerusalem.
He told most of them to sit and wait. Then he took three of them further in: Peter, James and John. Matthew says that as they went, he “began to be sorrowful and very heavy” (Matthew 26:37).
Then he turned to those three friends and said this:
“My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.”
— Matthew 26:38 (KJV)
In today’s words: I am so sad it feels like it could kill me. Stay here. Stay awake with me.
Mark adds that he was “sore amazed” (Mark 14:33). That is old English for deeply shaken. This was not a calm, tidy sadness. It was the kind that sits on your chest.
Notice the order. In Matthew’s telling, Jesus says it to his friends before he kneels to pray. Only after that does he go “a little further,” fall on his face, and talk to God (Matthew 26:39). We are often told to “just pray about it,” as if telling a person were the weaker choice. For Jesus, telling a friend and telling God were never rivals. He did both, a few steps apart.
Notice the number too. He did not tell the crowds. He did not even tell all the disciples. He told three. You do not owe everyone your story. But even Jesus did not want to go through that night with no one beside him.
He Used the Words of an Old Song
Here is something you cannot see in English. Matthew wrote in Greek, and “exceeding sorrowful” is one Greek word: perilypos. It is built from two smaller words. Peri means “around.” Lype means “grief.” Grief all around. Sorrow on every side.
That word shows up in a much older place. Long before Jesus was born, the Psalms had been put into Greek, and that Greek version was widely read in his day. In it, Psalm 42 asks the same question twice. Our English Bibles, working from the Hebrew, give it like this:
“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me?”
— Psalm 42:5 (KJV)
In the old Greek version, “cast down” is perilypos. The same word. And “my soul” is right there beside it, just as it is in the garden.
We should be careful here. Jesus most likely spoke Aramaic that night, not Greek, so nobody can prove he was quoting the psalm. But when Matthew and Mark wrote his words down, they both reached for the psalm’s word. Readers of the Greek have noticed the echo for a very long time.
If the echo is real, it means something lovely. On the worst night of his life, Jesus did not invent new words for his pain. He used a song his people had been singing for centuries, first sung by someone whose soul was also cast down.
You can do the same. If you cannot find words for how you feel, you are allowed to borrow some. Our free Bible Verse for How I Feel tool can help you find a few.
The other man with the same word
That Greek word appears only a handful of times in the Gospels. One of them is about King Herod.
At his own birthday dinner, Herod made a foolish promise in front of his guests. Then he was asked for the head of John the Baptist. Mark says, “the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his oath’s sake, and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her” (Mark 6:26).
“Exceeding sorry” is perilypos again. Herod felt grief on every side, and he swallowed it. Why? Because of who was watching. He kept a straight face for the room, and it cost a good man his life.
Same word. Two men. One hid it to look strong in front of his guests. One said it out loud to his friends. Only one of them is worth copying.
What Jesus Asked For, and What He Got
Look at what Jesus asked for. Not advice. Not a fix. “Tarry ye here, and watch with me.” Stay near. Stay awake.
Now the honest part. They fell asleep.
He came back, found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What, could ye not watch with me one hour?” (Matthew 26:40). Then it happened again. Mark adds a small, painful detail about the second time: “neither wist they what to answer him” (Mark 14:40). They did not know what to say.
Maybe you have told someone how bad it is and watched them go quiet, change the subject, or get it wrong. If so, you are standing where Jesus stood. His friends loved him. They were also worn out and out of words.
And still he kept coming back to them. Three times he walked back to where they were. At the very end he did not say, “I am done with you.” He said, “Rise, let us be going” (Matthew 26:46). Us. The friends who let him down were still his friends.
We wrote more about what that night says to someone who cannot face the day in Prayer for Depression: When You Can’t Get Out of Bed.
“Jesus said it out loud. You are allowed to say it too.”
Not Okay Is Not a Faith Problem
So here is the turn.
If saying “my soul is overwhelmed” were a failure of faith, then Jesus failed in Gethsemane. No Christian believes that. So the idea has to go.
We need to be careful again. The Gospels do not give Jesus a diagnosis, and we should not either. His sorrow had a cause anyone could name: he knew what the morning would bring. Your low place may have a clear cause, or none you can find. That is not the point.
The point is what he did with it. He named it. He said it to people. He asked them to stay. Then he prayed, and he prayed honestly, asking for the cup to pass. None of it was hidden. None of it was sin.
Now think about how we even know this. The only people the Bible says heard that sentence were three men who then fell asleep. Yet here it is, in two Gospels, still read aloud around the world. The first Christians could have left it out. A Lord crushed with sorrow, and friends who could not stay awake, did not make anyone look impressive. They kept it in anyway.
This year’s World Mental Health Day asks that lived experience be heard. The church has been reading one out loud for about two thousand years. Somehow many of us heard the story and missed the permission inside it.
Faith talk can even become a way to skip the pain. We looked at that in What Is Spiritual Bypassing? Gethsemane goes the other way. The Bible puts our part simply: “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). Nobody can help you carry what they have never been told about.
So this October 10, when someone you trust asks, “How are you?”, you have another answer ready. It is very old, and it has been used by better people than any of us.
A good place to start: The Beginner’s Guide to Feeling God’s Presence Every Day. A simple 3-step rhythm for noticing that God is near in ordinary moments, even on the days that feel like too much. Get the free guide. Free.
Actions to Take on World Mental Health Day
- Finish one sentence. Open the notes app on your phone, or find any scrap of paper. Write: “My soul is ____.” One true word is enough. Nobody has to see it.
- Pick your three. Jesus took three. Write down the names of up to three people who feel safe to you. If you can only think of one, one is enough.
- Send the Gethsemane ask. Message one of them today: “I’m not doing great. You don’t need to fix it. Can you just stay with me for a bit?” If they go quiet or get it wrong, remember the garden. Then try again, or try the next name.
One more thing, and it matters. If the heaviness has lasted for weeks, or you are having thoughts of ending your life, please tell a doctor, a nurse or a health worker as well as a friend. If you are in danger right now, call a crisis line. In the US and Canada, call or text 988. In other countries, findahelpline.com lists free lines near you. Asking for that kind of help is not a lack of faith. It is the same thing Jesus did. He asked.
Journaling Prompts
- When someone asks how you are, what is the true answer you leave out most often?
- Who taught you, by words or by example, that strong believers do not struggle? What would you want to say to them now?
- If one person stayed awake with you this week, what would you want them to simply know?
A Prayer for the Day You Are Not Fine
God, I have been saying “fine” for a long time, and it is not true. My soul is heavy, and I am tired of holding it by myself. Thank you that Jesus said it out loud, so I can too. Give me the courage to tell one person the truth today, and send me someone who will stay. And when they do not know what to say, stay with me yourself. Amen.
Discussion Question
Why do you think so many people find it harder to say “I’m not okay” at church than almost anywhere else? Tell us what you think in the comments.
Share This
- The night before he died, Jesus told three friends, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” Then he asked them to stay awake with him. If he could say it out loud, so can I. #WorldMentalHealthDay
- World Mental Health Day is October 10, and this year’s theme is about lived experience being heard. Turns out the Bible has been reading one out loud for 2,000 years. It happened in a garden called Gethsemane.
- Not okay is not a faith problem. Jesus named his sorrow, told his friends, and asked them to stay. That is not weak faith. That is the pattern.
Questions and Answers
When is World Mental Health Day?
World Mental Health Day is held every year on October 10. It was first observed on October 10, 1992, as a project of the World Federation for Mental Health. In 2026, World Mental Health Day falls on a Saturday, and the theme is “Lived Experiences Heard: Real Voices, Real Change.”
What is the theme of World Mental Health Day 2026?
The theme of World Mental Health Day 2026 is “Lived Experiences Heard: Real Voices, Real Change.” It was announced by the World Federation for Mental Health, the group that started the day in 1992. The theme calls for people who have lived through mental health struggles to be listened to.
What does the Bible say about mental health?
The Bible does not use the phrase “mental health,” but it speaks honestly about deep distress. Psalm 42:5 asks, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” In Matthew 26:38, Jesus tells his friends, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” Scripture treats heavy sorrow as something to say out loud to God and to trusted people, not as a failure of faith.
Did Jesus struggle with his mental health?
The Gospels never give Jesus a diagnosis, so no one can claim that. They do say that in Gethsemane Jesus “began to be sorrowful and very heavy” (Matthew 26:37) and was “sore amazed” (Mark 14:33). Jesus told Peter, James and John how he felt and asked them to “tarry ye here, and watch with me” before he went to pray.
Is it a lack of faith for a Christian to say “I’m not okay”?
No. Saying “I’m not okay” is not a lack of faith. On the night before the cross, Jesus told three friends, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death” (Matthew 26:38), and asked them to stay awake with him. Anyone whose heaviness lasts for weeks, or who has thoughts of self-harm, should also speak to a doctor or call a crisis line, such as 988 in the US and Canada.
