Under the thin veneer of supposed ‘ordinary’ is a power of creativity and life. There are no ordinary people. If you saw her in the mall you wouldn’t take a second look. This was probably intentional on her part. Average height, weight, with modest clothes she would slip into the […]
recovery
143 posts
‘I’m such a failure’ If you’ve never quietly said it about yourself, then you will most likely have heard it from someone else. This post is to help you help others you have problems with a failure mindset. For myself, I can so easily personalise my failures into ‘I’m a failure’.
When going through Mental Health struggles, you have to give yourself permission to receive, especially from God. Every Tuesday morning, I travel to a garden in a small rural area called Clevedon. I leave early to beat rush hour traffic but also to get a few moments on the top […]
The grind is real. Life for many can be just one continual experience of being ground out by the daily grind. Every now and then, someone sends me an email. I read them all, and always my heart is touched. I send some prayers and ask God to help me write […]
To heal, we need to humbly accept the truth of our human fragility. Medication can help us heal. There is a soap opera here in New Zealand called Shortland Street. In the very first episode, a nurse tells a doctor a simple sentence that has become, believe it or not, part […]
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 […]
It always happened. After a relapse, he would always say ‘I’ll never do that again, I’m trusting in Jesus to help me’. Charged up by some sort of white-knuckled determination and singing a few Jesus songs off he would go. Sure enough, though his grit would grind out and he […]
‘If it wasn’t for sin I would be out of a job’. This was a little quip I came up with when I was a pastor. The life of sinfulness and helping people through the mess kept me employed, gave me a living. It does for many of us, especially those in […]
I didn’t realise life would be such a fight. I thought life was meant to be like a gentle stroll along a flower strewn pathway, chatting with best friends. Well that’s what I was designed for wasn’t I? In reality though I am in a fight, and you are too. […]
Fatigue seems to sap out any reserve you might have to go on. I remember visiting him in the Intensive Care Unit in our local hospital. After a huge overdose of pills he had woken up to discover he was still alive. His attempt at suicide had not succeeded. His […]