'depression' Tagged Posts
Advent Hope for the Valley (Christmas Devotional)
We find ourselves now in the season of Advent. It’s fitting, really, that we end our Through the Valley series during this season, for I believe it’s in the promise of Advent that we find hope as we walk through whatever valleys life may bring our way. Some, I suppose, may deem the topics we’ve covered over the last several weeks to be “depressing” or too heavy to dwell on for too long. We’ve waded into some deep waters: racism…
Encountering God in Loneliness (Jason Gaboury Book)
Jason Gaboury says he’s wrestled with loneliness his whole life. He felt this sense of disconnection in a particularly powerful way when he was in his mid-thirties, with two young kids at home, doing campus ministry. His home was in a “constant state of relational connection,” but he still felt lonely. “My assumption was that if I was lonely, there was something wrong with me,” he says. “A lot of people assume that. They assume that if I’m lonely, I’m…
Through the Valley: Whole-Life Discipleship in Suffering and Hardship
I whispered the words to myself in the dark: “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.” They came easy and familiar to my mind, and I could feel my heart and breathing still as I repeated them. They were the reminder I needed. They were a prayer anchored in God’s character: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.” What a promise—God’s abiding presence…
Rachel Goclawski: You Turned My Wailing Into Dancing
I’m Rachel Goclawski, I live in Maynard with my husband, Ted and little girls, Lily and Krista. I’ve been an IT Specialist with the US Army for 15 years, and grew up on Long Island. I lost my father to cancer when I was young and my mother turned to the Roman Catholic Church for comfort, but it didn’t seem to help. Growing up I learned to rely on myself to be there for my mom in her anger and…
Ann Ralls: From goddess Worship to Worshipping Christ
My mother would prepare food for them, said prayers while burning incense sticks, and burn ritual paper money to appease gods and ancestors for health and prosperity. We occasionally visited temples of different gods to pray and burn more incense and ritual paper money. My impression of the religion at that time was that we’d better do all the necessary rituals or they would come after us. I once asked my mother why we were doing all this;…