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Archive for the ‘Mental Health’ Category

A Time for Everything

Posted in Development, Endurance, Faith, Happiness, Mental Health, Personal Development, Positive Thinking, tagged , , , , on December 29, 2023| 1 Comment »

“A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without Him, who can eat or find enjoyment?” – Ecclesiastes 2:24-25 (NIV)

As I write this I’m very aware that we are coming to the end of another year, a very eventful year, as  every year usually is. However, this year was unique for me personally in that most of it was spent in “retirement” from paid employment. I served with the same mission organization (and a great one at that) for over 40 years! Needless to say, it was a shock to the system taking such a giant step.  

Before 2023 arrived I knew that my “retirement” years were imminent and that I had better have plans to keep myself occupied and still doing productive things. I had envisioned before the year began that I would be doing a lot more of this – writing posts on my blog. To my embarrassment this is my first (and will be my last) post of 2023! The good news is that 2024 is before us and I can resolve to do better in the next year! We’ll see!

Over the last eleven months since leaving formal employment I have  been able to reflect on what the author to the book of Ecclesiastes (quoted above) had to say about life and what, in the end is truly important. Time has flown and no doubt it won’t slow down for me or anyone else. So it’s a good time to reflect on what I did and did not accomplish in 2023 and what I hope to correct in 2024.

Some things are clearly emerging –

Efficiency can be an issue. Since leaving paid employment its very tempting to waste more time in meaningless activity than necessary. I think that I used my time more effectively when there were deadlines to meet, although some still exist and are self-imposed. I was sharper when knew I had to answer to another human being for my work. I’m finding ways to be accountable even though it may not matter to anyone but myself.

Other people always have plans for how I spend my time – if I don’t! The need to still be pro-active with my time is very important. If I don’t have a plan others can come in and make my plans for me. Other people have come up with many good “suggestions” about how I spend my time and some of them have a good deal of legitimacy. My need to be prayerful and purposeful didn’t change with employment ending. I continually need to re-focus on what is most important.  

Good health takes time. I have been blessed with the gift of good health most of my life. I had a childhood illness that set me back briefly years ago but outside of that my health has been good, and I’m exceedingly grateful. However, I’m learning that I can’t take my health for granted and if I want to make the most of the years ahead I have to invest in activity, exercise and the occasional visits to health professionals who can foresee problems coming down the line.

Awareness is important but worldly concerns can consume. I spend less time most of the time getting consumed with news and world affairs. I question how much of the daily news I really need to know. Some I’m sure, but without letting it control me. I find my attentiveness to others and my overall attitude is much better if my time is invested elsewhere than a steady diet of world affairs.

As I come near to my 70th birthday and the completion of my first full year self-employed I believe that there are productive days and hopefully years yet to come. I’m grateful to God for continued life, health, for family, friends and many good things yet to come.

In the end, God my LORD and Maker, has the final say in the results of whatever I do. May I continue to live for His glory and the priorities He has for my life, and yes, my time.

My prayer is that whatever your situation may be as you read this, you will look to Him for true life, meaning and purpose.  

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Calm in the Storm

Posted in Adversity, Authority, Connection, Disciple Making, Endurance, Faith, Grace, Mental Health, Personal Development, Positive Thinking, Spirituality, Trust, Worry, tagged , , , , , on May 9, 2022| 2 Comments »

“A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?’ He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’” – Mark 4:37-40 (NIV)

Some years ago I recall watching an old western film or television show. It featured a dastardly gunslinger who was terrorizing a small town with his gang of nasty marauders. Out in the dusty main street of the town was an old gentleman, a hard working cowhand who had lived an honest and hardworking life on the range. The gunslinger, singling him out, said something to the effect, “Hey old man, dance!” and began to shoot very close to his feet, forcing him to “dance” around in panic or have his feet injured, even permanently maimed.

Personally speaking, during the past year the term “calm” hasn’t been one that’s described my life most of the time. It also hasn’t been the term I would use to evaluate most of the information hear shared on any news channel or social media platform with which I’m familiar. If anything, news and social media startles and shakes us out of any peace and serenity we might enjoy, even for a few minutes of the day.   

I so often resonate with that poor old cowhand in the western. The gunslingers around me shoot at my feet on a regular basis and I start dancing to react or avoid whatever bullet they shoot my way.  

I could list any one of a number of troublesome current issues which plague our world on a daily basis and to be honest, it’s almost impossible for any sincere person to avoid thinking about these issues some or all of their waking hours. Even when we are awake in the middle of the night our minds often drift back to some pressing issue which directly or indirectly affects us or those we know and love.

How can any one of us remain calm when faced with these constant pressing issues?  

An entire range of self-help books, articles, blogs and advisors abound seeking to help us break free of the constant barrage of unsettling information and stressors we all face.

When feeling overwhelmed, I much prefer to go back to the foundations of my faith and recognize that as a follower of Jesus Christ, I have a much greater resources than anything else that’s out there these days.  

One of my favourite stories in the New Testament comes in Mark chapter four, quoted above. It’s the end of a long day and Jesus wants to escape the crowds He’s been ministering to all day. He instructs His twelve disciples, many of them fishermen, to get into a boat and to cross the Sea of Galilee with Him. The trip starts out in perfect serenity but along comes a furious squall and the disciples are beside themselves. They go into an absolute panic, trying to rid the boat of water before it capsizes and they are all washed away. They well knew the risks of their trade.

Jesus, in the meantime, is asleep! What’s the Son of God doing sleeping at a time like this?

Often like the disciples when I’m roused out of my calm and serene state I don’t really think about the grounding that I have in Jesus, the one who created the world and placed me into it personally. I forget my connection with Him which I need moment by moment, regardless of what’s happening around me.

As I read the text closely, I think Jesus very much reveals His authority over the natural world and displays to His disciples the truth of His word to them. Before they got into the boat He says, “We are going to the other side.” He never said anything about drowning in the middle of the lake!

Jesus is teaching them the lesson of just exactly Who is running their world and challenging them to trust Him completely. I’ve read the rest of the story. Not only did He care for them in the midst of the storm, but they went to follow Him, almost to a man, and be part of His Kingdom program here on earth. My relationship with the same Lord is a legacy of their faith and confidence in Him.

During the past few months I’ve not been very calm or patient, waiting for a surgical procedure which was coming up for me at the end of April. As a result of my surgery I was told to be still and quiet for one to two weeks and expect very little of myself during the recovery time.

One thing I’m starting to realize as I stepped back for a week was that I was returning to a sense of calm in my life. Oddly enough, we can fear something like surgery yet, it may be the storm that we need to quiet us down and get us back to trusting the One who created and loves us.

Whenever we feel like that poor old cowhand in the old west, we might just want to step back and ask some key questions. Who is doing the shooting? What do I have to fear? Is there Someone greater to protect me from harm? What might He be trying to teach me? Am I giving away the calmness I need for living to someone else who I feel is demanding it from me?

When the storms of life rage around us we can have a calmness that is beyond our understanding. There is One whom we can trust completely but our complete trust in Him is never finished.

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Will I Ever Catch Up?

Posted in Comparison, Competition, Happiness, Mental Health, Perfectionism, Personal Development, Uncategorized, tagged , , , on January 7, 2022| 1 Comment »

“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” – Matthew 6:33-34 (NIV)

As my 68th birthday rapidly approaches, tomorrow in fact, I’ve been feeling like I will never get caught up. Caught up on the books I didn’t read last year, but wanted to. Caught up on the things I have left undone (I haven’t written on this blog in all too long). Caught up on the people I need to talk to, but haven’t! The list is endless!

When I started feeling that way I began to think, “why is the temptation so great for me to feel that I’m somehow ‘behind’?”

Here were some of the random thoughts that came from me asking myself this question –

I have to catch up to “others” I feel are “ahead” of me.

I have to catch up on all the good things I need to do to consider myself “worthy” of the rewards and benefits I reap.  

I have to catch up on my devotional life, my work, my reading, my writing . . . .

It then dawned on me that I may somehow have this perspective on life that I’m in some sort of competitive race. It’s perhaps my pride that shows up to suggest that there are people in my life I’m magically “ahead” of and others I know and admire who are actually “ahead” of me.

I’m not really aware of anyone in my life who would consider being in a “race” with me or against me.

This is a very uncomfortable and desperate way to live life. It was only when I stopped and asked myself this question that began to realize the insanity that was gripping me.

Do I have something to prove to others? Do I have something to prove to myself?

Why the need to feel “caught up”? Will I ever really be “caught up” in any sense of the word?

The answer is “probably not.”

Then the comment Jesus Christ made, recorded in Matthew 6 came to mind. He said, “Don’t worry about tomorrow (catching up, perhaps?), for tomorrow will worry about itself.”

Someone recently commented to me that we really only live in the present. We can’t “fix” or alter the past, we can only learn from it. We actually can’t know or live in the future which hasn’t arrived. We can only live in the present – often where we find the greatest challenge.

I know that I can be much more disciplined in my use of time and in organizing my life around the things which are most important. However, when I feel the stress of trying to “catch up” I’m really oblivious to all the wonderful opportunities for life and growth my Lord and maker has put right around me each day. As a follower of Jesus, life in His eternal Kingdom has already begin and I’ll never be behind or have to “catch up” only to live moment by moment in His Divine Presence.

Perhaps you can relate.

So when you and I feel the urge to “get caught up” maybe its time to take a step back and do a reality check. Is there anyone that really cares but us? Is there anyone keeping score?

If not, it might be better to trust the God of all eternity with the present and seek Him and His Kingdom first.

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No Longer on Shaky Ground

Posted in Mental Health, Spirituality, tagged , on June 8, 2021| Leave a Comment »

“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ‘God is a consuming fire.’ – Hebrews 12:28-29 (NIV)

It often happens to me, usually without warning. I’m suddenly and inexplicably beset with my own fragility and weakness. It may be something someone says to me, a reaction to the daily (mostly negative) news or some comment made on Social Media, but it can send me into a state of despair and sometimes depression. Without warning I seem to end up awash with anxiety, fear, anger and a host of other unexplained emotions which evade my personal space and then don’t leave at my request.

In a complex world of competing world views, one thing is fairly certain – human beings are both thinking and feeling beings. Hopefully most people reading this would agree on that point. But the relationship between our thoughts and our feelings pose a very complex question. How often are our “feelings” a true reflection of reality?

Quite often what we may “feel” isn’t necessarily real. An often quoted illustration of this is the pilot flying the airplane and feeling that they are traveling right side up when in fact they are upside down. What the pilot “feels” isn’t exactly “real.” He has to look at the instruments on the plane to assess objective reality.

I have known of several people who struggle with eating disorders. Some of them are quite thin and frail and yet “feel” fat. I know of others who are quite wealthy and successful by most human measurements, and yet “feel” inferior and worthless. Most of us can come up with our own list.

As I have conversed with several individuals lately, I’ve come across a similar story. During the strange time of lockdowns due to Covid-19 and a world that seems to sink deeper into turmoil, many of our emotions have been strong and persistent these days. Some of us have been subject to panic attacks and shortness of breath who have actually never experienced these things before. It’s been a strange and unusual time to say the least. Why the strong feelings? Do they point to something that’s real or only the way we perceive and process it?

Personally, I have to come back to objective reality and start looking at the instruments on the plane, to continue the illustration above. I think the key is to stay grounded in a reality that we can have some degree of certainty about, even if it does require faith. Faith and reason both have a place in determining what is “real” regardless of what our emotions may tell us.

Recently I’ve been doing more thinking about what Jesus Christ said about “the Kingdom of God” recorded in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) of the New Testament. Although this major subject cannot be fully discussed or described in one short essay such as this, it is clear that Jesus was all about leading people into a new reality that centered on Him. He referred to it as “the Kingdom of God,” or “The Kingdom of Heaven” or “the Heavens.”

I have to admit, that even though I’ve been a follower of Jesus for just over fifty years, I still have much to learn about the mystery of the Kingdom that King Jesus spoke about so often. However, one thing I do know is that the writer to the Hebrews said that this Kingdom was indeed unshakable. Perhaps that is because it is based on an unshakable Person who points to a reality greater than the deteriorating world we see around us.

The gospel writers recorded the words of Jesus in terms that everyday people of that era would understand. The good news is that the Kingdom of God is now available to everyone who will put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. The reality of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus is an indisputable fact regardless of how anyone may “feel” about it. This unshakable Kingdom is grounded in an indestructible Person.

A friend of mine spent many years in recovery from alcoholism attending AA meetings. She shared with me many important lessons which have even helped and stuck with me to this day. One thing she learned during her years of recovery was, “feelings are not facts, they are just feelings.” Even though feelings can tell us there is a problem they often don’t give us the solution to the problem.

When my emotions are strong and confusing in times like these I’m thankful that as a follower of Jesus Christ I can rest secure in a risen and living Savior who gently guides me into a Kingdom that cannot and will not be shaken. He won my heart with a love that is sacrificial and a life that is indestructible. I’m grateful for many others who join me on this journey as well as many others who have gone before and testify to the Kingdom’s reality and eternality – regardless of how I may feel. Will you join us in the journey? I hope so, but the choice is up to you.

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