I hate suffering. I hate it when someone – even me – comes down with depression, anxiety, psychosis; with an illness that is stigmatised and life-changing and will never fully go away. I hate all illness, sickness, death. I hate wars and famine and natural disasters. I hate the evil that man does to man, […]
Hope is the Thing with Feathers
April 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment
A poem that I thought you might like: Hope is the Thing with Feathers Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune–without the words, And never stops at all, And sweetest in the gale is heard; And sore must be the storm That could abash the little bird […]
Stigma(ta)
March 8, 2013 by Leave a Comment
I’ve written before that words matter . The names we call one another mean something. As the image says, “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will also hurt me.” There are names people use of us – loony, attention-seeker, nutter, psycho; there are phrases used to hurt us: “snap out of it,” “pull […]
Why, Lord? The Book of Job
November 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment
I have been reading the book of Job, in the Old Testament, today. I must confess that I have found this a difficult book in the past, with its many speeches, and I found it difficult to know whether Job’s comforters were right about him. Now that I have finally got round to reading it […]
I Can’t Help You
November 13, 2012 by 9 Comments
I want to help you in your time of trouble. I really do. My heart burns for people suffering, for all suffering, for myself in times of illness. I long to answer the question “Why?” I wish I knew the words that would make everything all right, that would explain why we suffer for no […]
‘Tis Hard, When We Are Sick and Poor
August 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment
‘Tis Hard, When We Are Sick and Poor And they who lov’d us, love no more; When riches, health, and friends are gone, To say, “O Lord, thy will be done:” Yet Lord, I would to thee resign And say, “My Father’s will be mine.” ‘Tis is hard, when in our souls distress, All, all […]
Hymn Above All Hymns
August 13, 2012 by Leave a Comment
There is one hymn that moves me like no other, one that speaks deeply to me whether I am well or ill, and which provides great comfort to me. That hymn is “Abide With Me” by H F Lyte (1793 – 1847). I love both the words and the music, and I hope you will […]
Holy Suffering?
July 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment
There is a long-running theme in Christianity that suffering – whether mental or physical – is in some way good for us. In a way, we identify more closely with Jesus (the Suffering Servant) when we too suffer, and some people suggest there is a transformative power to our suffering. Martin Luther wrote on the […]
Believing for Comfort?
July 4, 2012 by 1 Comment
I have occasionally been told by others that I only believe in God because of my illness, that I have in effect chosen to believe in order to give myself comfort and a sense of purpose, to make sense of why I have a mental illness and not because God actually exists. I came across a […]
Review: “Does God Want Me Well?”
May 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment
“Does God Want Me Well?” is part of the Discovery Series Bible Study published by Discovery House Publishers in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 2002. I picked it up at a Christian bookshop, and it is now amazingly cheap on Amazon as I suspect it is out of print! Never mind, I’ll review it anyway as […]
Believer's Brain 