This week I have been teaching my students about the life of Elijah. The story that comes to most of our minds is his showdown with the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18. Elijah has a mountaintop experience after God demonstrates his power to all the idolaters in Israel. Elijah is elated — for awhile. You see, Queen Jezebel worshiped Baal, and she was…
Did you know research suggests that 25% of the population will seek medical help for mental illness in their lifetime? That is a quarter of the population. Think about your closest friends; if this is true, 1 in 4 will experience mental illness at some point in life. Why then, so we still suffer in silence? Why are we afraid to ask others to pray…
Have you ever seen the movie, Tangled? It’s a modern-telling of the fairytale, Rapunzel. This movie is a favorite in my house, and recently it has helped to teach me an important lesson. In the movie, the mother hides her beautiful daughter away in a tower in an effort to protect her from harm; in doing so, the mother has prevented her child from…
Today I will be teaching law enforcement about suicide prevention and postvention. The irony is that eight years ago today I was sitting in my living room waiting to hear from the police as they searched for Michael. I’ll never forget seeing the priest standing in my doorway. Just seeing his collar told me that what I’d feared the most had come true. Michael was…
In the past two weeks, I’ve received texts about one attempted and one completed suicide. My heart aches for the families of both of these individuals. I recently found out that Michael’s death began a string of suicide attempts in our community. This absolutely breaks my heart. When we lose someone to suicide, we are often so overcome by our own grief that we fail…
This is going to sound utterly selfish, but the number one thing you can do to help someone you care about who has bipolar disorder is to make sure that you are healthy yourself. Loving someone with bipolar often comes with extreme highs and lows, and their roller coaster of emotions often carry you along for the ride whether you want to go or not….