Dad Mental Health

This morning I did an ad for a whole being health and wellness seminar my church is hosting. It caused me to reflect a bit more on my mental health the last little while. Change has been the centre of my family’s year. We moved, I changed jobs and therefore churches as well. Going from small town to city and from a larger to smaller house had our family buzzing.

Our four year old will still mention our old house and old church to declare how much she misses it and the moving process was incredibly emotional. Nothing like packing your entire life up to cause a crying breakdown. The needle that broke our four year old’s back, or heart I guess, was deflating my wife’s medicine ball. Did you know? Those darn things are the slowest to deflate? Well, we isolated the two children in a room with pizza and paw patrol, the two “p’s” of good parenting, and kept working.

Then, a newborn came. I thought I was doing alright with everything. Our newborn is healthy and doing super well. Our two other girls were loving her to bits. We had people helping us out. Everything was going fine. Except. . . Except I didn’t feel like it was going well.

I had taken things one step at a time but it all finally hit me. I couldn’t shake my negative thoughts and mental health was poor. I needed something.

I have a new support group through my district of churches and through that I sensed God was calling me his child who was loved and from that I knew I was even spiritually okay. God extended grace to me in my quiet times with him when there was no room, it seemed, for quiet time.

So what to do? Well, I’m not sure I know fully, but a couple things changed and helped my outlook. Routine and doing the things I love.

I would NEVER have proclaimed the benefits of routine in my early 20’s but man alive, getting back to work, getting a bit active, getting the girls into their programs, all helped brighten my day. Not only that, but it’s mostly things I love. I collaborated with a few people for various ministries in the church and have several speaking engagements lined up right away. And next I’ll be spending time with some great leaders who invest into each other’s lives.

I know I don’t have the keys to battling mental health issues every time, but these two things, routine and doing what I love, really helped. That and starring at my newborn. She’s amazing.

In the end, it makes me wonder about God’s kingdom that’s breaking into our world. I can’t help but think that in some way routine and passions were and are the in-breaking of his kingdom into my life. They helped me get out of my funk and bring happiness. And of course… we all know that holding, smelling and talking to a newborn is definitely God’s kingdom breaking into our world.

 

Heavenly Perfection and Earthly Brokenness

I find this ridiculous.

I get full of compassion yet anger, joy yet sorrow. I get a feeling of “How can this work?” and “Wow the love!” Our world is so full of the tension between heavenly perfection and earthly brokenness. The Kingdom certainly is and needs to break in. This is why scripture says that all creation groans and that we groan in suffering and in knowledge and hope that Jesus is bringing his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven (Rom 8; Matt 6).

 

Spiritual Gifts and Our Weekly Gathering

What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. (1 Corinthians 14:26 ESV)

As I read Corinthians, I believe it is the furthest off from describing where church is at. We often read 1 Corinthians and apply it to us by putting great restrictions on the gift of tongues and women and whatever else we pull out of it. But, the reality is that we don’t have the same problems as the Corinthians. They were wild in the Spirit and eager for the Spirit’s manifestations and with that here was a little chaos that ensued.

This is not the case for every church. In fact, I have been at churches and services where the manifestation of the Spirit is wild. But it is as though we hit extreme while missing the mark. We either seek the manifestations of the Spirit a little too eagerly or not enough. But the question is not, Who has the Spirit more? But, are we building people up?

We are not good at building people up. We are hardly active citizens for the kingdom of God, but most of the time, spectators. We sit at church and look forward at the stage (we make churches like an in adequate theatre after all), hardly getting out of our seat and barely getting passed the weather and “God bless you.”

But if we take this verse from 1 Corinthians, the principle and heart of Paul’s message become obvious and addresses the purpose of our church gatherings, namely this: “Let all things be done for building up.” O that we would each take up a hymn, psalm, lesson, revelation, tongue, or interpretation before we arrived at church to build each other up. Maybe it looks like spending time in prayer during the week to which we hear from god and he gives us a scripture or word for someone, or the church and Sunday was spent hearing those revelations from God. That would be a church service. Instead the encouragement is left up to the worship leader choosing the right music and video. It is up to the pastor to build a great message everything week. How draining are we to those people?

How can we be active participants for God’s kingdom at our gatherings?

 

Longing for the End

As a follower of Jesus I always want to get know him better. One of the best ways is scripture. As I began the book of revelation I was fearful of the amount of suffering that it talks about. But for some reason, as I got to chapters 14 and 15, I got excited. The suffering got more intense but I got excited. The question is why? One word. Hope.

When we read the book of revelation we know we are coming to the end. The pages are running out and the story is surging to a riveting end. Seniors understand this well. They get so excited about the idea that they’ll finally die and go to their true home, with Jesus in eternity. It is there where there is no more pain, nor death. I guess my excitement may come from knowing chapters 20 and on. The passage I was reading today was about bowls of suffering, but the comment is made, these are the last of the wrath of God.

This aspect that the end comes on a day where I’m tired and sore and in a little bit of a grumpy mood. To read of this suffering of the world that signifies the end gets me excited, because I know the Kingdom of God is nearer then ever and one day I will feel no pain, sadness, grumpiness, but live in eternal joy with The Lord.

This thought helps me live joyfully and thankfully in today. Hope. Hope builds courage to continue on with everyday, no matter what today brings. So everyday I pray I find hope.

 

A Youth Pastor’s Reflection

I had lost this post a few months ago after a youth leaders meeting, after which I was pumped for life. I was disappointed I could not find it. But bam. Now it’s back, so I wanted to publish it. Though it is a couple months old the idea and thought is still current for me.

Mid June 2013
Tonight the faithful youth leaders gathered to envision what The Lord has done this past year and where we are heading for the upcoming year. Reflection and refocusing. These are some of my favourite times of the year. This is especially true of this year as a purpose and a plan has been formed in years gone by and watching it evolve and develop into effective discipleship is joyful.

Here’s where we landed: action with teaching. Youth need to experience to learn and grow. The classroom is only good for so long. How can we do as Jesus did and walk and teach. Feed the masses and teach a lesson or heal the lame on the sabbath and teach about The Lord of the sabbath. How can we experience the gospel and embody biblical truths as a youth group? That is our upcoming struggle and I am excited for it. Here we come 2013-14! Lord, your kingdom come!”

 

To Winnipeg and Back Again

Who knew we could serve God’s Kingdom right here in Canada? (The secret is I did). Last year we took a team to Winnipeg to serve the downtown with OM and City Church. Both of these are doing great work For God’s Kingdom. Feel free to click on their links. This year we took some youth again and again God woke us up to the world and His work in it. God gave us confidence in His Kingdom as he showed us how he works. We learned from different religions first hand and in their temples or places of worship. We were taught about sharing Jesus with the world in both the why and the how. We were given a chance to serve the community in events and prayer walks. We learned about cultures we never knew existed!

Now what? Did it really change us? Time will tell. Will be grab onto what we experienced and learned or will it be just a good memory. Does God’s Kingdom really matter to us?

One thing I learned: We have to be careful how internally focused we are as a church body. We need to be healthy Spiritual, but part of that comes when we stop looking internally and look to the world and the community around us. It’s ironic that to be selfless we normally look more to the self. The antidote to selfishness is to look outwards to others. Internal and external need to be help is sweet tension.

After this we realize that we do care for God’s Kingdom, we are just too internally focused to see His Kingdom at work. Here’s the Challenge: To not forget this. To take it up and to serve Vegreville. To share the amazing grace God gives. So this post is a reminder for me. It is a reminder to remember to serve and to help others serve God in whatever way. To share the good news Jesus has with whoever is in my life. Let’s do it. Let’s make disciples who reach out and are not intimidated by this luxurious world but saturated with God’s love for his creation!

 

For His Kingdom

Frequent Thoughts has changed it’s name to “For His Kingdom.” I realized my thoughts weren’t so frequent at this point. But still feel pressed to write. So. Here it is. For His Kingdom! May this blog cause thought and conviction For Christ and His Kingdom.