Some days I do hide in a cave. I pray for the fire of God, like Elijah on Mount Carmel. I want God to consume everything from the wickedness of humanity to the tragedies of addiction, cancer and crime in the streets. I want the thunder and power of God to respond to the thunder of an abusive world. But that isn’t the lesson of Elijah.
Having worked with many patients and families with dementia, I knew what lay ahead. As I watched the little boys imaginary city dismantled, I wondered how I would handle a diagnosis of dementia, knowing little by little, my world would be taken apart.
There is something about mental disorders whose stigma holds a more ominous label than physical disorders. If your church announced the need to visit Bill in the psychiatric hospital suffering from a psychotic break, or Mary in an auto accident, with whom would you feel more comfortable visiting?
Christ’s defeat on the cross is the paradox of victory when outnumbered by unbelievers. Christ did not come to earth to create the moral majority, a kingdom on earth, or earthly utopia. His victory was not in the number of believers, but in their zeal and faithfulness to Him.
My work as a psychologist includes the dark tragedy of suicide. Patients who have taken their lives still haunt my thoughts.
"They threw her out the second-story window. She broke her arm and leg." I sat and listened to the Social Worker describe the incident while sitting in my office at the hospital where I worked.
The mental health of America took a beating in the year 2020. A pounding, unlike anything I have seen in my years as a psychologist. The COVID pandemic created a crisis of human identity and self-worth, leaving many to ask the more profound questions of life.
In 4000 B.C., the ancient Babylonians celebrated their new year by making promises to their gods. They believed that if they kept their word, the gods would look favorably on them for the year ahead.
If you want a measurement of stress, it is the distance between your ideals and reality. The greater the distance, the greater your anxiety and depression.
Then came that 8am patient and her husband dying from ALS. “My big question for the day is do I clean the kitchen or go snuggle with my husband on the couch, because the days seem short.” Sharing love with her husband trumped all other concerns.
