recovery Archives

Lines

We all have lines around us. Mostly invisible. People cross the lines, and we are hurt, but we also cross the lines of others. The line had been crossed so many times that they were losing their own personal identity. Bullies, thugs, robbers, and thieves had crossed over into their […]

Getting Well Staying Well Helping Others

You’re not a Problem to be Fixed

Sometimes you can feel like you are a problem to be fixed, but you’re not that. You may have problems, but not a problem. You’re not a problem to be fixed. Neither are you a personality to be probed. You’re not a diagnosis, a number, or a category. You may […]

Getting Well Staying Well Spiritual Practices

Before you Start the Year you Need to Stop

We can easily go from one year to the next, but before you start the year, you need to stop the year. Stop it well. As I write this, it’s the middle of the most interesting week of the year. It’s the week between Christmas and New Year. Here in […]

Helping Others Mental health

The Call to Endure

You wake up and see a new day, but you didn’t want to wake up. So it’s a call to endure and go deep with God. They want the pain to end. The struggle of the journey has become too much. That’s the underlying theme of many of the emails […]

Getting Well Staying Well Mental health

Two Things Needed after a Mental Health Breakdown

It’s a breakdown, a mental health breakdown, and it’s happened again, but there is a way to recover, and it’s something you can achieve. The end result was exhaustion. They were empty of life and totally drained. So it was no wonder they were depressed and simply wanted to die. […]

making-peace-with-your-self-blessed-are-peacemakers

Mental health Relationships Spiritual Formation

Blessed are the Peacemakers … with Themselves

They were always wrestling with comparisonitis, but that changed when they accepted themselves and became a peacemaker to their parts. It seemed they were always striving. I was wanting this and wanting that. They couldn’t make peace with the fact they weren’t meant to be superman or wonder woman. They […]

Getting Well Staying Well Mental health

The Soliloquy of Words you Meditate on Day and Night

Words tumble through our thinking to be a soliloquy, but you can change what you meditate on Day and Night when you change the song. You probably won’t hear this word spoken today, this week, or even this month. Soliloquy. But you will hear a soliloquy today, and you will […]

Relationships Spiritual Formation

A Change In Behavior, A Change In the Mind

We want a behavior change, but it doesn’t seem to happen. However, it will happen with many changes in the mind (repentance). We always notice significant behavior change, don’t we? Yet, people who change dramatically are often given the stage and a microphone to trumpet the difference. I remember as […]

Embracing The Pain And Finding The Christ Light

Getting Well Staying Well Helping Others Mental health

Embracing the Pain Finding the Christ light

Emotional pain can lead us to some very dark places, but embracing the pain may open doors for the Christ light to come and eat with us. It was another email of pain. I looked at my inbox, and someone had sent me an email in response to my ‘God, […]

Relationships Spiritual Formation

Accepting Consequences and Finding Paradise

Accepting the consequences is a repentant heart saying ‘Yes’ to what has been done, praying for mercy, and possibly discovering grace. A few years ago I was caught speeding. I was going too fast. The police officer pulled me over and asked if I knew what speed I was traveling. […]