All of you who are interested in issues of faith and mental health would find this article by Peter Andres of Mennonite Central Committee Supportive Care Services in BC a worthwhile read...and it's not only because he quotes me.
What deeply impassioned me once again was the comment by a person named Daniel from South Africa. Is there ever a lot of work to do to educate the Christian church! I pray that God will help us do that. I pray that God will help Christians listen.
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3 comments:
Hi Maria. Thank you for the invitation to visit your blog. I agree with you in this post that the church needs education. But I pray that that education comes from God, and God alone. I believe with all my heart that God has been weeded out in many churches. Otherwise, we would be accepted AS WE ARE in the church and, then, we would be healed. In a sense, you could say the church would become a hospital!
I say this with all faith in Jesus, and little faith in many churches and "christians".
Thank you for your comment, Denise.Welcome to my blog.
You're right, I too think many Christians have lost their way. They've forgotten what it means to follow Christ: to humbly accept each other, to love unconditionally, to be nonjudgmental, to let God be the judge.
Through time I've spent with God in prayer, through reading his word, through doing the work he has given me to do, through some good Christ-like support from church friends, and through effective medication, God has given me a great measure of healing.
Yet I will probably never be completely cured. I know I will need medications for the rest of my life, in the same way that diabetics need their insulin. I thank God for this medication.
This is the way it is with most people who suffer from mental illness. I know there are some forms of depression that do not require medication, but there are many that are clinical in nature and require medical help. Yet always, we need to trust that God will help us through it and we need to see that God can work through medication. He helped the scientists develop them.
I have never been so rejected as by my church. Thankfully God has been much more understanding and open minded!
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