How much should church leaders engage with psychology?
Dave Burke
Olivia was 16 years old and wouldn’t go to school. It began a couple of years before when she started feeling anxious and those feelings grew until they ruled her life.
Everyone feels anxious some of the time, but Olivia struggled all the time. Her fear had a savage intensity that only subsided when she shut herself away in her room.
Why mindfulness is different from Biblical meditation
Dave Burke
We sing about it: ‘Be still for the presence of the Lord…’ We read about it: ‘Be still and know that I am God…’ But we are never still!
The Bible often speaks of ‘stillness’, and the things related to it, such as meditating and waiting on God. But Christians, especially evangelical Christians, cannot abide stillness. We like noise and activity, with a side-order of mild chaos. We don’t do stillness.
Are doctors ‘over-diagnosing’ mental health problems?
In 2018, back pain ceased to be the main reason people were taking days off work. The number one spot is now occupied by the stress-anxiety-depression family of mental health problems.
Some used to say that people with back pain were malingering; now, we reserve that accusation for people with mental health issues.