The Elephant In the Room (Church)

What are little girls made of?

Sugar and spice ,and everything nice

Robert Southey.

As a little girl and later having a daughter of my own. Those were my thoughts. Little girl dreams , big girl possibilities. But what happens when mental illness joins this picture? My childhood was full of big elephants in our home. Sugar and spice was over shadowed with sickness and unpredictability.

So while the world we live in is very beautiful-it is often overshadowed by mental illness. The white elephant in the room,  Mental Illness ,last Sundays church topic.

Our guest speaker Rod Wilson. President and professor of counselling and psychology at Regent College in Vancouver. He not only had some very good advice for the Church but shared from life experience.

2 Corinthians 1:6-9 . Summarised- when I am in pain and go through painful situations it allows me to help others. Pain is a reminder that I cannot rely on myself. I am overwhelmed can't do it on my own. I need God , I need others to help me through life.

Mental illness is a very big part of my life. A very painful part.My mother went through severe mental illness, I too struggle and have had deep bouts of depression and I'm dealing with depression with my daughter.

And one thing I'm learning in my journey is it's a long dark road. And too often I've been guilty of this too -I just want to fix things and make it go away. Nobody likes dealing with mental illness, and just about everybody has a solution for it. One thing that really spoke to me Sunday morning was-the best and proper way to help someone with mental illness -is to acknowledge  their pain . Not offer your answers to their questions, not fix it with theories . But offer comfort-plain and simple. And Rod Wilson offered a very simple illustration to remember this. Think back to when your child was young  and had an extremely bad fall on hard pavement, and they were crying at the top of their lungs and bleeding from their knees. What would be the right response to have to this situation? Get down on your knees, offer comfort and a hug. That simple. Get down on your knees ,offer comfort and a hug. That's how we as Christians and a Church should handle mental illness. A tough topic. Check it out at NLCC .