I was sent Troubled Minds: Mental Illness and the Church’s Mission written by Amy Simpson from Inter Varsity Press for review. As always I am not required to give a positive endorsement but an honest review. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

Summary From Inter Varsity Press:
“Mental illness is the sort of thing we don’t like to talk about. It doesn’t reduce nicely to simple solutions and happy outcomes. So instead, too often we reduce people who are mentally ill to caricatures and ghosts, and simply pretend they don’t exist. They do exist, however—statistics suggest that one in four people suffer from some kind of mental illness. And then there’s their friends and family members, who bear their own scars and anxious thoughts, and who see no safe place to talk about the impact of mental illness on their lives and their loved ones. Many of these people are sitting in churches week after week, suffering in stigmatized silence. In Troubled Minds Amy Simpson, whose family knows the trauma and bewilderment of mental illness, reminds us that people with mental illness are our neighbors and our brothers and sisters in Christ, and she shows us the path to loving them well and becoming a church that loves God with whole hearts and whole souls, with the strength we have and with minds that are whole as well as minds that are troubled.”

What I Liked:
I genuinely appreciated Troubled Minds – I’m glad it was sent to me, I’m glad I read it – it’s needed for the church.  I read this book with the emotional backdrop of just losing a life-long friend to suicide who was suffering from a form of mental illness and of course, remembering the tragic death of Matthew Warren.  So this book is needed for a number of us on a number of [Read more…]

I’ve been following the Aaron Hernandez alleged murder case pretty closely and since I’m living in the Boston area I imagine I’ll be hearing and talking quite a bit about it throughout the next year as the criminal trial date could be set in 2014. Being an NFL fan, and with ESPN working the way it does, and CNN, FOX and other major networks covering the story and by simply being shocked by the craziness of this situation, well I admit, I’m captivated. Even though I wish I was reluctantly captivated, I must admit this week I am.

Here we have an extremely talented 23 year old football player who last summer signed a $40 million extension (with another $12.5million in signing bonus) who plays for one of the best NFL Teams/organizations in all of sports, who had a legitimate chance to play in another Super Bowl and enjoy a Pro-Bowl career who was instantly fired by the Patriots an hour of his arrest. Further, the lives of his fiancé, 8 month old daughter and the family and friends who loved him have radically been changed. I heard someone on the radio say, “All he had to do to insure his family’s prosperity for his children and grandchildren was not kill someone.” Wow.

(Photo from AP from Video)

It’s at this point, we typically say, “This is a tragedy.” But it isn’t.

The Aaron Hernandez story is not a tragedy. Now, the story of the victim, Odin Lloyd, is tragic. The story of Aaron Hernandez is a cautionary tale. And we’ve heard this one a number of times, a talented athlete/celebrity/influencer who uses his/her wealth/fame/power to steal/cheat/ or get away with something. Perhaps this individual is delusional, perhaps desperate but regardless of motivation, this person gets caught and squanders all the status and benefits of being him/her. Typically the general public turns on this person and hold him/her up as a cautionary tale for all to see. It’s the closest thing modern society has to a public crucifixion.

We’ve seen countless stories like this play out and we will certainly be talking more about similar ones. Most similarly will be the OJ Simpson saga who though was acquitted in 1997 has been back in jail since 2007. Among OJ’s cautionary tales is [Read more…]

Yesterday’s post focused on seeking renewal this summer, and not merely rest. Which promptly lead someone to message me asking, “Great post, but what does renewal mean?”

My first thought was to reply sarcastically, but my friend is an intelligent fella so I took a moment to consider his question.  I like being pushed a little so it looks like I have a follow up post inniated by a reader – I’ll take it and know that I appreciate you engaging with me.

So what do I mean when I say spiritual renewal aside from the terse obvious answers of “to be made new again but you know, like, spiritually ” “to be reinvigorated spiritually of course” and “to feel fresh … ?” If I was selling a moisturizing body wash, this would suffice but in terms of spiritual renewal, these words only scratch the surface.  Now if I was selling a Christian [Read more…]

Just about this time every year, the school and church year come to an end and we breath a sigh of some relief and trade this question to one another, “So, what are you doing this summer?”

We say all sorts of things here, “We’re just hoping to get some rest but we are traveling a little. Later we are flying down to Florida” or “Headed up to Maine” or “We’re taking it easy this summer but we are remodeling the kitchen and my extended family is coming in July, then we are …” Slowly we realize, we’re not really going to find much rest and relaxation in these coming months.

As Susan and I survey our summer calendar, prepare for our vacation and day trips, talk about home projects and try to keep up with our 3 little ones, we already know there will not be much “rest” to be had here. And while running yourself ragged is certainly no virtue, I’m not sure rest is what we really want.

That’s why this summer we are seeking renewal. For most of us, summer is not really a slow time – it may offer a break [Read more…]