Deus Misereatur

  Instead of allowing clinic diagnoses to dictate the direction of life and become one's destiny, John Swinton, a one-time mental health nurse and now Chair in Religious Studies and Divinity at the University of Aberdeen, encourages a different approach. Swinton's 2020 book, "Finding Jesus in the Storm: The Spiritual Lives of Christians with Mental Health Challenges" is geared toward giving people with serious mental health challenges (notice, not mental illness), and those who care for them, a more respectful and wholesome way of perceiving their situation. It's not an anti-psychiatry diatribe, though he does challenge assumptions. Rather, for example, he shows the pros and cons of allowing DSM V to narrow what we see and how we engage those living with these mental health challenges. Since there are plenty of other reviews, I'll make this simple. Swinton's stated goals for the book are very clear, and run the entire volume. First, "to provide reader...

In what ways can a congregation actually help those with mental health issues? How have churches been harmful and hurtful toward those with mental illness? Are there sensible things pastors and elders can do in this area? Those, and many other questions, get answered by Timothy Mulder, graduate of Reformed Theological Seminary-Houston, who lives with an ongoing bipolar disorder, and his 196-page paperback “Suffering in Silence: Ministering to Those with Mental Illness”. It was written in 2023 “for those in the church who want to serve those with mental illness better” (ix) and, I think, hits its mark. Though the book is primarily dealing with how to help men and women living with depression a bipolar disorder, much of what is between these covers will aid pastors and congregants in serving people with other mental health diagnoses. Mulder addresses commonly held myths about mental illness, and quickly discusses a number of notable people throughout the ages who lived with ongoing menta...

  (This was from my letter to my congregation today - 17 April 2024) The Kaiser Foundation, and several other organizations, are reporting on the rise of men, women, teens and kids who are having an increase in mental health troubles. For example, some 40% of young adults between 18-29 report they have been told by medical professionals they have a mental health condition (usually depression or anxiety issues). Or, half of all adults say they or a family member have experienced a severe mental health crisis. I mention this because in the last two years I have either interacted and walked with more people than I ever have before, who are burdened with serious mental illness or whose loved ones were going through a mental health crisis. In all my years in the Military, and in ministry, these last two years have been the largest numbers I’ve ever been involved with. Some have been Christian ministers. Others have been people who have drifted into my orbit and sought my help. Most have...

 In the past two weeks I have sat down with, and listened to, three young men who are completely different. They have told me tales of how their inner voices have accused them, how their world has been consumed by feelings of doubt, dismay, and dread. Two have clinical diagnoses and the third doesn’t. But their internal stories that they have related to me have all voiced their obsession for vindicating themselves, fixing themselves, grasping for certitude, and more. They are haunted men, in some significant ways. “A Quiet Mind to Suffer With: Mental Illness, Trauma, and the Death of Christ” is the story of John Andrew Bryant, a caregiver, writer, and part-time street pastor in a small steel town outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who has chronicled his plunge into mental illness and his gut-wrenching trek through the dark night of the soul in this 312-page paperback. As I read his tale, it struck me how similar – in all of the dissimilarities – these lives were. And I found that th...

  When it comes to family members or friends going through a significant mental crisis, or suffering, we often can feel like we’re fumbling about to help them. Sometimes, we can become like Job’s friends, whom he had to call “miserable comforters” (Job 16:2). But very recently Alan Noble, assistant professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee Oklahoma, and cofounder and editor-in-chief of “Christ and Pop Culture” penned a deeply beautiful 120-page hardback that addresses mental affliction. “On Getting Out of Bed: The Burden and Gift of Living” is written for those who struggle with mental affliction, but also pastors, teachers, parents, and loved ones, to “help them understand their loved one’s suffering. It is for anyone who ever struggles to get out of bed” (3). I finished this book earlier this week, and kept finding myself saying, “Finally! Someone gets it!” Eight chapters fill up this handy manual. They run through several subjects, like not sounding like Job...

  (Anxiety and Mental Illness) : LORD God of Sabaoth, you have recorded for us these words of deep comfort: “ Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you ” (Isaiah 35:3-4). We pray for the anxious and the forlorn, those troubled with mental illness, and those with long histories of distress, especially these we know (…). Break through the dark walls that have been set up around their assessments; pull back the thick curtains they have around the eyes of their hearts; and bring the light of your face to shine on their lives that their weak hands may be strengthened and their feeble knees made firm. O Lord, hear our prayer.   (Rest) : With your servant, Augustine, we pray: “You awake us to delight in your praise; for you made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you” (...