Christianity Archives

Don’t Shoot. I’m Wounded. I’m Different

When we don’t slow down and seek to understand, it’s easy to shoot our wounded. My plea is ‘Don’t Shoot. I’m wounded. I’m different/divergent.’ I recently watched this video of a pair of horses being very frightened by a rabbit. The two horses were walking down a narrow country […]

Spiritual Practices

Church and Mental Health

We need a place. A church, a nest, a fire of warm burning coals. A place for the growth of mental health. Is it possible? Trigger alert: This post contains the word ‘Church’ in it. 😊 Please push through. The story goes that there was once a man who had […]

Spiritual Formation Spiritual Practices

I Don’t Believe in Luck

Some people believe in luck; I don’t. I believe in wisdom and work, empowered with faith to build a boat that catches providential wind. I remember the first time I bought a lottery ticket. I’ve only ever done this twice. I remember all the thoughts that raged around in me. […]

Faith & Mental Health Relationships & Connection

How to Pray for a Narcissist: 10 Ways

I want to pray, but don’t know how. How to Pray for a Narcissist. It begins with honesty. It prays for light. Can a Narcissist change? That’s a question many people ask. But it’s much like that old joke about psychologists changing a lightbulb. How many psychologists does it […]

Getting Well Staying Well Spiritual Practices

An Empty Love Tank

You’ve got nothing left. An empty love tank, weightless and vulnerable. But you want love. Who and what will fill the need? The water tank was empty. I opened up the lid on the tank and immediately I could smell the residue of silt lying on the bottom of the […]

Spiritual Formation

What to do with your Curve – Incurvatus in se

There is a self-centeredness to ourselves, a turned/curved inwardness, incurvatus in se, but there is one that shows how to break the gravity, the pull of the curve. There is a pull on me all the time. It’s in the lyrics of the eighties pop hit. What about me, it […]

Spiritual Formation

When God has left the building

5 comments

When God has left the building, turning up the volume won’t help. At the school where I grow vegetables, it can be very noisy. I have a group of children that love to help and to get my attention they will often speak louder, and wave hands like windmills. It can […]

Mental health

MEDICATION, GOD AND CHRISTIANS. WHAT IS HELPFUL? PART 2

8 comments

It is one of those memories that is special to me. I was very unwell as a child with eczema and asthma. My parents asked if our pastor and a few others could come and pray for me. They were following the advice we find in James 5:14. We had communion […]

What is the Most Important Thing? He Tangata

Relationships

He Tangata: Why People Are the Most Important Thing

I started my career in Mental Health support in a large old boarding that was a kind of halfway house for people needing quite intensive support. Hanging on the wall of the lounge was a wooden plaque with this Maori Proverb on it. He aha te mea nui? He […]