Held captive by a frowning providence

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If you read my article on Saturday about depression, then you will recognise a mash up of two song lyrics one from an old hymn and the other from a contemporary worship song. I really appreciated the follow on conversation on Facebook that resulted from the article.  It seems that a significant amount of what… Continue reading Held captive by a frowning providence

World Suicide Prevention Day

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Today is World Suicide Prevention Day.  Did you know that there are about 7000 suicides in the UK every year? This means 19 people are likely to take their lives every day.  Both suicide and the mental health factors leading to it including anxiety and depression sadly remain taboo subjects, the elephant in the room. … Continue reading World Suicide Prevention Day

Stronger than the storm

This week at our Life Group, we invited everyone to share one of their favourite Psalms, it was a fantastic feast as we read, reflected on and prayed Scripture.  On a side note, I’d encourage you to try doing this in your life/community/home groups sometime.  Anyway, one of the Psalms shared was Psalm 93 which… Continue reading Stronger than the storm

Food from around the worldwide web

Woman – Eleni Brooks says “Reading John’s gospel last week, I noticed that sometimes Jesus calls women “Woman”, like it’s their name and I don’t like it. So I sat with the discomfort and this is what came out…” 2023 Life Audit – we are now a little way into the New Year but it… Continue reading Food from around the worldwide web

Continuing to trace the rainbow

Back a few months back, as the news came in that Queen Elizabeth II  had died, a rainbow appeared over Windsor Castle. It was a beautiful symbol of God’s goodness and promises at a time of grief.  I’ve frequently talked in terms of “tracing the rainbow” based on the lyrics of the hymn “Oh Love… Continue reading Continuing to trace the rainbow

God did not make you a pastor to keep you going to church

I want to pause and think about a type of comment that I’ve heard a few times over the years.  It goes something along the lines of. “Perhaps the reason that God made me a pastor was to keep me in church.” Such comments are perhaps tongue in cheek but personally I’m not convinced they… Continue reading God did not make you a pastor to keep you going to church

Serving with a limp – checking in on your mental health

We’re coming up to the third anniversary of my significant brush with anxiety and depression. It was back in November 2019 that I found myself signed off from work followed by quite a challenging and tumultuous period of time (and all of that before we hit COVID). I’ve told some of my story here and… Continue reading Serving with a limp – checking in on your mental health

Good questions about depression, anxiety and mental health

A few weeks back I had the opportunity to speak to a group of teenagers about mental health and to share my own story about experiencing depression and anxiety. After speaking for a few minutes, I opened the floor to questions. I expected an awkward silence and maybe some prompted questions from the leaders but… Continue reading Good questions about depression, anxiety and mental health