The darkest valley can become a suffocating tomb, a hole that feels impossible to dig oneself out of, but with the help of others, a step can be made, and light can shine again. Recently I went to see ‘Tolkien,’ a movie about the author J.R.R. Tolkien who wrote classics […]
hope
55 posts
The life of a person with a mental illness is often accompanied by the necessity of taking prescription medications. My name is Matthew McAllum, I am 50 years old. I have been on mental health medication since 1991. I was raised in a Christian family in Dunedin, New Zealand until I […]
Comparisonitis kills joy. Comparing yourself to others robs you. Instead, explore who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. I’m just recovering from a severe case of comparisonitis. I think I caught the most recent dose from the Internet, but this disease has […]
Mental health is discovering what you were born to create, building a supportive nest around it and protecting it like a Viking shield maiden. It was the scary wild eyes that made me take a step back. Recently I have been doing some gardening at a retirement village. This isn’t just […]
You just keep going back to something that actually repulses you. It maybe sniffing the vomit or wallowing in the mud, but you keep returning to foolishness. Perhaps it’s a change of heart that’s needed. They kept on repeatedly going back to experience the same abuse. They could see that […]
When we pray for the healing of mental illness for ourselves or someone else, there is a divine invitation to join with God in an unfolding story. We pray for something wonderfully life-transforming. That is of course if you dare to pray that little bit deeper. You listen to someone tell […]
There is a party going on, all around us, where God is inviting us to stumble on in and enjoy. When we are attentive to the music, it grows depth in our mental health. So I am just back from a holiday in Italy and Spain for a holiday. My […]
They were so caught up in themselves and their selfish desires that they got lost to the concerns of others. Without recognising the wealth of love around them, they were the prodigal, a child of abundance squandering it away. What drew them back was a memory of love, faint and small, […]
‘Am I doing ok?’ was the question I was most frequently asked when I was a pastor/chaplain. ‘Is this Church safe?’ was another. Keeping pace were other limping souls … ‘Am I welcome here?’ ‘Does God really love me?’ ‘I can’t seem to get it right.’ ‘… keeps telling me […]
Just outside my window, I can see a beautiful yellow rose. It wasn’t there last week, well actually it was, but it was just tightly bound up under its green calyx. A lot can happen in a week, in a day, in a moment. I can see the beauty but to deeply […]