Roe V Wade was overturned yesterday and my social media feeds have been permeated with Pro-Choicers spewing arguments that are complete nonsense, whether I was a pro-lifer based in Christianity (or any religion) or a pro-lifer based in atheism. I will present those arguments and provide logical and scientific reasons why they are invalid. You may say “there is no absolute truth, truth is subjective.” If you do, you just contradicted yourself already and made a poor argument. To say definitely that no absolute truth exists, you are defining subjective truth as absolute truth…
There is a trend in psychology going around about understanding and healing your inner child. I have never understood it until today. I think a reason seasonal depression hits me, is it brings back feelings and memories that were uncomfortable or negative for younger me. I sat on social media and observed the “memories” that it had for me for today. That only exacerbated my mood. Lost friends, past failures, broken relationships, etc. Nothing changes if nothing changes, so I took action.
Today, I chose to listen to my inner child. I chose to serve my inner child. I chose to embrace my inner child.
Picture this. It is Sunday morning. You are attending your Sunday morning church service, yearning to experience God, working to deepen your knowledge of God, and aiming to deepen your relationship with God. You are in the middle of the musical worship portion of the service when people slam through the sanctuary doors with a ruckus. But it doesn’t stop there. They loudly speak to people throughout the congregation. Would you be distracted? I would be. Would it interrupt your worship? It would for me.
The Stages of Change Model is a key tool in addiction counseling and recovery. We can see the Stages of Change model active in more than just recovery from substances, but instead in any type of change we are endeavoring to make. This model even describes when the Holy Spirit starts convicting us for things in our life that are not of God.
Recently, I have encountered many Christians who say that addiction is not a disease it is purely a matter of choice and self-control. As somebody in recovery and finishing up his Masters in Addiction Counseling, I firmly say that is bologna, and can be a very dangerous and harmful thing to say.
“At some point you just have to let go of what you thought should happen and live in what is happening.”
I tweeted this on July 28. If I were to have a take away phrase from this last year, it would be this. As you may know, last year, I felt as though I lost everything. I lost my mind. I lost my credibility. I lost a relationship with a man I looked up to. I had to start from square one.
From a year ago to ever since I can remember, I always struggled with depression. There was low self-image, self-esteem, self-compassion, and self-love. I had no sense of self-worth. Most days, I passively tossed around the idea of suicide. Even when I wasn’t suicidal, fleeting thoughts like “what would happen if I was not here anymore” would cross my mind several times a day. I thought I was good for nothing except to be another statistic of people who took their own lives. Nobody would see it coming. I looked as though I was happy and had my life together on the outside. On the inside, I wanted to die.
Last summer, I graduated Summa Cum Laude with an Honors BS in Psychology and an Honors BA in Christian Studies with a minor in Worship Arts. I had a few job offers both inside and outside of ministry for after I graduated. I was working in youth ministry at my church and had my local ministers license. It seemed like I had everything together. On the inside, I was falling apart. After 2 years of sobriety from alcohol, I started drinking again at my grandma’s funeral. It started off small, and soon became a problem once again. I was spending almost every night at the bar after classes. I would find any reason to drink. I was trying to cover up the deep depression I was experiencing. Summer hit and I graduated. I had no job and no school to keep me distracted from my depression.
“Blind Man Given Eyes To See” is a riveting work of non-fiction that sees Nazarene theologian, John Fernandes, document his personal experience and life-long struggles against an array of terrifying psychological and medical conditions such as depression, Bipolar disorder, anxiety, eating disorder, addiction and alcoholism. The trauma from these conditions, along with the sexual assaults he suffered in the hands of trusted friends would later culminate into an attempt to take his own life, an act that lands him in a behavioral institute eventually.
While employing brilliant and descriptive terms, John Fernandes delve into the symptoms which characterize many of the conditions that had afflicted him for a long time, just as he offers practical and helpful guides for those that might be going through similar things. On his path to healing, John draws deeply from Biblical scriptures, while promoting a healing process that lay emphasis on the love of Christ, spiritual counseling and therapy, medication, taking responsibility, getting a mentor, keeping fit and learning to forgive. Crucially, all through the book he stresses the importance of people telling and sharing their story of healing!
Righteousness changes based on the relationship and expectations. The expectations I have for a relationship with my friends are different than the expectations I have for a relationship with a wife. In any of those relationships, righteousness would be living up to the expectations that is yielded by the relationship. When the Bible talks about being righteous, it is for those who live up to the expectations that God has set for His people. These are found in the Law and then is given to us through relationship with Jesus.
