We need to shine a light . We need to help to make it okay that if you ’ re struggling there is help . There is hope . There is someone you can talk to .
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struggling with .
I want to say it ’ s not okay if that ’ s the culture they have to exist within . If we knew that about them we would certainly try with all of our might to help them . And the hard thing is we don ’ t always know . But we need to shine a light . We need to help to make it okay that if you ’ re struggling there is help . There is hope . There is someone you can talk to .
We can ’ t always prevent it . If
We need to shine a light . We need to help to make it okay that if you ’ re struggling there is help . There is hope . There is someone you can talk to .
someone is determined , they might just do it . They will find a way . I think what we can do is to create community and connection and reach out to people and try to normalize this the best that we can . Because most often people who are struggling feel isolated .
Think of the story of the little lost lamb from Luke 15 . I usually think about that story from the perspective of the man who had lost his sheep instead of thinking from the perspective of the lamb who is lost . Being that little lost lamb must be really hard . You ’ re lost , you ’ re scared , you ’ re worried .
What can we do if that is a picture of how we feel ? We can cry out . Can I say something ? Can I speak out ? It is hard to do that . I think we live in a culture where we ’ re supposed to feel tough enough . That we can handle it . That we should be able to suck it up , right ? This is not a healthy culture for us to live in . We need to check in with each other and have the courage to show up for one another . I think a lot of us don ’ t do that because we are afraid we don ’ t have the right thing to say .
There isn ’ t a right thing to say . Just say , “ I ’ m thinking about you .” Or , “ Hi .” Or , “ I ’ m here for you .” It doesn ’ t matter what you say ; just let them know you ’ re there and are thinking about them .
So why does this happen ? Why is there mental illness ? I don ’ t know how to answer that question but I do know that there are spiritual influences . And with some people , whether it ’ s chemical or physiological , there seems to be a problem with the filter – with the ability to get rid of what ’ s flowing into them from hell . They can ’ t stop it , or they can ’ t see it . They can ’ t recognize where the influences are coming from and be able to say , “ Oh that , that ’ s not me . That ’ s hell flowing in .” And they can ’ t differentiate between what ’ s coming in and who they are .
So it seems like there ’ s a crack in that wall where under normal circumstances we can say , “ Oh , that ’ s hell flowing in and I don ’ t want that .” Then it can go away . But for them it just keeps coming . There is a crack there .
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