Supporting Mental Health with Dignity and Grace

"Part of the promise of the new heaven and new earth is that you are going to have a new mind." – Soojin Park

In this episode of Glo, Blair Linne, Aixa de López, Sharon Dickens, and Soojin Park discuss the importance of creating a safe space within the local church for Christians to share their emotional and mental health struggles and receive encouragement without shame. They vulnerably share their own stories of struggling with mental health and describe how the hope of eternity, when we will be fully restored in body and mind, gives us the endurance to persevere.

The struggle with anxiety and depression is one that might require medical help, professional counseling, and tools of God's common grace in order to find healing, and we serve a God who meets us in our weakness and lovingly bears our burdens. By fostering open and compassionate conversations about mental health within the body of Christ, may we create an atmosphere where those silently suffering can find hope.

Episode time stamps:

• Episode and topic introduction (0:00)
• The stigma of mental health in the church (5:13)
• Mental health as a Christian woman (7:36)
• Postpartum depression and anxiety (10:57)
• Biblical joy and the range of human emotion (14:42)
• We don't have to edit our prayers when we are struggling (17:21)
• Pray without ceasing and cast your cares on the Lord (20:30)
• Depression and a future renewal of our minds (22:19)
• How to walk with someone who is struggling with mental health (25:03)
• Recommended resources (28:40)

Recommended resources: 

• Rhythms of Renewal by Rebekah Lyons
• The Wounded Heart by Dan Allender
• A Small Book for the Anxious Heart by Edward T. Welch
• Depression: Looking up from the Stubborn Darkness by Edward T. Welch
• Blame it on the Brain by Edward T. Welch
• Spiritual Depression by D. Martyn Lloyd Jones
• The Emotional Life of Our Lord by B. B. Warfield
• The Allender Center