• depression and mental health
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    Ministry and Mission and Mental Illness

    In the United States, May is Mental Health Awareness Month. It's the time when advocacy agencies and support groups draw our attention to the indicators, treatments and challenges for the nearly 20 percent of the population impacted by mental disorders. For one month a year we are exposed to stories, facts, figures and fundraisers with the hope that we will care. However, for many families, the stories don't surface just once a year. They are written every day in desperate hearts coping with the confusion, isolation and stigma of mental illness. And many authors of these stories are sitting in the pews of your church. Did you know that? While…

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    The Crazed Creation is under the Curse

                “Pain is a blessing in disguise.” Really?             Today, many Christian women seek psychotherapy. Surprised? Because Christians shouldn’t feel angry or depressed.                 I have struggled with doubt and loneliness due to infertility. With the Christianese platitudes that ensued, the sense that people in church disapproved of my struggle was hard to miss. As a Bible study leader, I wasn’t supposed to struggle.             Some of us feel uptight about pain. So we rush others through their pain. We try to fix it instead of letting God fix it, all in the name of Fake Happy. But the plastic church smile only perpetuates…

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    The Power of Many

    Our recent trip to the Dallas Arboretum reminded me of a great truth for us as Christians. The DeGolyer house, which sits among the beautiful grounds, was donated along with its accompanying land to the city years ago. For the Christmas season it is decorated and open for tours which highlight a Claus Collection of over 500 Santas. In fact there were so many that it was impossible to notice each one without spending hours there. Although the sheer number of Santas meant that the individual ones might be lost to the eye, the effect of groups of Santas around the entire house was gorgeous! They drew our eyes in every room because of…

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    The Tapeworm Gallery: Empty

           Your Bible is just where I like it—on your nightstand covered in dust. You have power to make me flee. Yet you never do. What I want most of yours He won’t let me have. So I’ll settle for your time and attention.             You make it so easy I can hardly take credit for it, though. By the way, your nail polish is chipping again. And time to redo the extensions on those perfectly normal eyelashes. Because every forty-year-old woman deserves the dark lush lashes of a teenager. Who cares what Mark says? They look natural to me. Besides, letting a non-medically trained kid approach your…

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    The Tapeworm Gallery: The Pregnant Pause

    WOMAN SEEKING WOMEN 44yo freak with no kids seeks intrusive adult females for unsolicited fertility counsel ambush at next baby shower. No experience necessary. Accosts in room corners encouraged. Know-It-Alls welcome for prophecies, judgments, original advice, and magical remedies. Leave your Bible at home and we’ll talk some voodoo. Scab picker, salt, and $0.02 required. Come hungry. Alkaline water and Apricot Oyster Patties will be served. First 100 ladies will receive free PermaBond Lip Adhesive. *** Why does she respond to your opinionated opinions with a blank stare? Why won't she open up? You're just trying to help. Well, don't fret. I have the remedy. Like nails on the chalkboard,…

  • Impact

    The Resurrection of Jesus Christ (Part III)

    “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David; such is my gospel” (2 Timothy 2:8).  And so we arrive at the final installment of a study looking at the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In part I and part II, I gave the following proofs or reasons why Christians believe in the literal and physical resurrection of Jesus Christ: 1. Jesus predicted his own resurrection. 2. The authors of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, as well as the Apostle Paul in his letters, provide at least five different historic sources about the events. 3. The testimony of eyewitnesses. 4. The testimony of the earliest Christian writings. 5. The…

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    How Long, O Church?

    I recently attended a speaking competition in which men and women participated. After greeting the audience, the emcee recited a disclaimer regarding the women’s involvement. (Allow me to paraphrase.) “Attention: this situation involves uncertainty and risk. We deny responsibility for offense.” Did you catch it? Women are the risk. The shrapnel of sexism shot through me like the “Caution: Contents Hot” proviso; it affronts my intelligence. How long will we suffocate women with subtleties of sexism? The Church either stifles or silences women with “problem texts” that do not prohibit their leadership. We label female leaders as unorthodox or their ministries as uncharacteristic of the workings of God. Such disclaimers…

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    Life is Like a Box of Chocolates…

    “…you never know what you’re gonna get.”  Christians expect mistreatment at the hands of unbelievers. But when disappointed by those professing faith and maturity in Christ? When the expectation remains unmet, invitation unaccepted, and longing unfulfilled? When he lashes out—again. When siblings persist in their distractedness rather than seeming to care. When parents criticize and small group members scrutinize. When the heart breaks, along with confidence in the relationship. What then? Often we withdraw, tunneling inward for self-preservation. Peter offers some counsel, nestled like Jordan Almonds amid the rows of crème and crepe-paper of First Peter: “Above all keep your love for one another fervent, because love covers a multitude…

  • Heartprints

    “Christmas…A Time of Adoration”

      The choir begins to sing as the orchestra plays one of the most familiar Christmas carols ever, “O Come All Ye Faithful.”  The congregation stands to their feet as they join in with heartfelt voices, hands lifted in praise, and expressions of adoration to the Lord on their faces.  This was the scene I observed this past Sunday during a Christmas candlelight service at church.  “O come all ye faithful joyful and triumphant Oh come ye O come ye to Bethlehem; Come and behold him born the King of angels; O come let us adore him Christ the Lord.” The lyrics of this classic Christmas carol were originally written…

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    Three Quicksand Dangers in Kid’s Ministry

    Quicksand is weak, unstable, and liquefied soil that traps and submerges people slowly into impending death. Normally, people get trapped into quicksand unknowingly, and are not purposely walking into it. Life turns into immediate panic when someone realizes they are trapped in an almost hopeless situation. Signs are posted to warn people of quicksand areas in order to keep others alive and avoid the horrendous situation. I want to ‘post’ a warning sign regarding three types of kid’s ministry quicksand: (1) Church-ianity; (2) Bible-ianity; and (3) Christianity. Interestingly enough, I think many others have already posted warning signs, and maybe this post is more so regurgitation. Future post will offer…