Love

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Hope for the desperate

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Hope for the desperate

What happens when depression or anxiety strikes people who love the Lord? 

The body of Christ should be the greatest place to get help, but there’s a problem. To begin with, for anyone, Christian or not, there’s more shame associated with emotional issues than there is with physical sickness, because mental health issues seem to reflect on our worth and value more than physical illness does.

But what makes it really hard for Christians to ask for help is the fear that, in addition to this, people will also question the reality of our faith or our walk with the Lord. And so we hide. And it gets worse.

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The genius of marriage

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The genius of marriage

The Old Testament often pictures the relationship between God and his people as a marriage. God is shown as a husband seeking out a wife who has gone astray, but whom he still loves and seeks: “For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name…. for the Lord has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God. For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer” (Isa. 54:5-8). 

Jesus took over this teaching and with boldness referred to himself as the Bridegroom. Within the context of a wedding he said, “Can the wedding guests fast when the bridegroom is with them?… the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day” (Mk. 2:19-20). 

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Potholes on the road to affirmation

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Potholes on the road to affirmation

They clear the roads to a pretty high standard in southwestern Michigan, which is just as well as it means you can see the devastating potholes the recent polar vortex left behind.

There are a lot of potholes on the road to affirmation. We spend a great deal of time worrying about what others think of us. Most of us want to be well-liked. Nobody likes to be on the outside of the “in” circle. This pushes us to do all sorts of things we don’t want to do in the desperate search for approval. People become depressed and even resort to self-harm when they feel nobody likes them. We tailor our conduct and even our appearance to make ourselves more acceptable to those around us. Our lives become hostage to our perception of what someone else’s opinion may or may not be.

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The valley of tears

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The valley of tears

Philip Logan’s journey led Elaine and I this past week to a hospital room in North Shields, an English town between Newcastle and the North Sea coast.

His story began here:

 “On the morning of the 20th of November 2011, I begrudgingly accepted an invitation to go to church. I was 27 years old, with wild dreadlocked hair and filled with anger. I walked into the meeting, which was held in a dated hotel function room in Newcastle, England. That day, the Holy Spirit took hold of me, and I walked to the altar trembling from the power that seemed to be surging through my body..."

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Abandoned

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Abandoned

What Elaine and I saw the other night was an astonishing and wonderful sight: a roomful of people abandoned in life but now abandoned to God.

For the last few years, we have been in contact with the remarkable ministry of Junction 42 as it reaches out into the prisons of northern England. Our interaction has been with one of the groups established for those released from prison and their friends and partners.

Most of the men and women in the room were known to the police. More importantly, as it turned out, they were known also to God.