Welcome to Issue #67 of Biblia Luna, the weekly newsletter about the intersection of mental illness and faith, written by a pastor who lives with depression. I put the holy back in melancholy!
Hopefully Tomorrow: Controlling Myself
I was looking at the Bible readings assigned for worship next week, the Third Sunday after Epiphany. Something struck me about two of them, which might strike you as interesting as well.
First, a reading from the third chapter of Jonah. In this passage, Jonah has arrived at Nineveh, the wicked foreign city of the wicked foreign Ninevites. He walks into the city, and proclaims God’s message to them: “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the city of Nineveh believed Jonah. The entire city of Nineveh believed this foreign Jewish prophet. They all repented, proclaimed a fast, and wore sackcloth. And God forgave them and spared them.
Second, a reading from the first chapter of Mark. In this passage, Jesus has just arrived at Galilee, and sees some fishermen he’s apparently never met before. All he says to them is “follow me.” And they do it. Simon, Andrew, James, and John just drop their nets and follow him.
In both of these passages, Jonah and Jesus just say a few words, and everyone around them does what they say. Amazing. They just do it. I was thinking about this from the standpoint of mental health, as I do. And I realized that for many of us it’s almost impossible to get ourselves to do what we want, let alone anyone else! I want so much to change some of my habits…I want so much to act and feel differently in certain situations…I want so much to be able to control my mind better…I want so much to be able to know which voice in my head is the “real” me…and so on. Can you relate to that?
I mean, I get it. Jonah is a prophet speaking the word of God to these people. And Jesus, well, Jesus is himself the Word of God. So I can understand how they have more influence over those around them than I do. But sometimes I just wish I had more influence over myself.
I suppose the hope here is the belief that God lives within me, and within each of us. And the belief that God loves us, and has blessings for us. And if that’s true, then hopefully tomorrow God will call to me in such a way that I just follow. In such a way that I just do it. Hopefully tomorrow.
A Brief Review of Mental Health and Your Church
I recently finished reading Mental Health and Your Church: A Handbook for Biblical Care by Steve Midgley and Helen Thorne. The book does pretty much what it says on the tin. It’s a handbook for church members, from pastors and other leaders to the average person in the pew. The authors own that they are not trained clinicians, but do a pretty good job of describing the experience of people living with various mental illnesses. What the book does best is provide a wide range of options for how people in churches can better minister to, and with, people with mental illness, practical options from Bible study to prayer to driving someone to appointments to just recognizing that they’re there. I give a lot of credit to the authors for really focusing on that – acknowledging people’s existence, and their illness.
The authors are coming from a much more evangelical background than I do, which gave me some pause. I was uncomfortable with how often they talked about “when Jesus returns,” as though it’s probably sometime soon, and I was uncomfortable with how rigidly male their view of God was. For instance, they recognized that for people who have a traumatic history with their own fathers, thinking of God as “Father” can be problematic. But they just kind of left that comment there. For me, one obvious solution at that point is to talk about other images of God, perhaps feminine images, and definitely the many images of God that are beyond gender. And while they wrote about the benefits and importance of both psychiatric medicines and talk therapy, there was a clear hesitation there – they seemed concerned that there was some aspect of both that might be “un-Christian.”
All in all, I think the good in this book far outweighs the bad, and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a resource for how to help grow a caring ministry in their congregation.
Over on the Blog
I wrote a piece on the blog about the way that God’s closeness causes silence, the way that God’s closeness can make it difficult to find words. This is the first of what may be a series of blog posts about insights I’m finding through my studies of Christian mysticism.
Take Off Your Vocabulary, for This is Sacred Ground
Mental Health in the News
Intervention at an Early Age May Hold Off the Onset of Depression (Scientific American)
After decades of advocacy, suicide deterrent finally comes to the Golden Gate Bridge (NPR)
Biblia Blessing
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.
(Psalm 34:18, New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)