Category: Mental Health

But What Does That Really Mean?

The news is exhausting. Not just all the pain and stupidity. It’s that everything requires interpretation. Even if and when someone in public is being straightforward in their speech, we might be forgiven for suspecting they are not. We are not unjustified in assuming everything we are hearing is spin.

You may find you suffer from this same sort of fatigue from dissembling, obfuscation and manipulation at work as well. I sure hope not (been there, and it’s awful). We would pray and work at, for sure, not wanting this kind of experience among those we count as friends, and most certainly not family. But it happens.

We can at least all resolve to let what people experience in us be authentic. In another, I will take flaws, oddballness, even monumental screw-ups over interpersonal dishonesty or double-speak.

Jesus said, “Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one” (Matthew 5:47 NRSV). People had debased the practice of oath taking by using it in an attempt to cover their insincerity and deceitfulness. Better to just speak plainly.

Save us, Lord, from spin narratives with one another. We see enough of it on the news. May we not devolve into a world where everyone has to guess about everyone else.

The Bundle Deal

It is reported that around 1.7 million Canadians work in the gig economy. And it’s growing, especially in the current reality. It is said to be part of a trend, where more and more of us are in temporary, casual, or otherwise unstable jobs (Toronto Star, May 19, 2020).

How can a person be encouraged if drawn into this growing new world? Depression is said to be an increasing problem in the months ahead, as we all struggle with getting to, well, whatever is yet coming–a second coronavirus wave, even more economic and social instability, even chaos?

I find resonating in me the often repeated observation in facebook posts: I will believe what you do more than what you say. But our identity is not any one thing we do, or job that we did not exactly aspire to (or choose, in spite of some tie-dyed 70s style psycho-babble-speak claiming that whatever situation you’re in is what you chose–especially unhelpful for those dealing with abuse). I am tempted to say there is honour in any work, and while I believe that, a person might not emotionally be in a space to hear it.

Instead, I am inclined to foist on this situation an observation or two about what makes you you and me me. First off: it’s not any one thing. Certainly not a job (those who love their jobs need to know this, too, if they are not going to be one-dimensional). Is not each of us a whole bundle of amazing stuff, with a unique personality, certain aptitudes, a heart for some concern or concerns no one else may even know about, and a special set of experiences. The idea here isn’t to make you feel worse about where you’re at (“What am I doing in this?”). It is to see that you and I have so much more going for us that any one thing we do. It all needs to be explored and brought out in some way. It is extremely rare to have a job in which all of this can be explored. In other words, at the risk of being corny, find some way to celebrate the wholeness of your life, the gift that  you are.

And maybe the self-realization will propel you to new things.

Caring Will Endure

A crisis brings out the best and worst traits and behaviours. On one hand, we are warned of coronavirus-related scams. But we also see companies retooling to produce ventilators and personal protective equipment, and people making a point of showing appreciation for frontline workers. 

How will I conduct myself? has always been a question in time of testing, and may be just beneath our consciousness as we try to absorb the enormity and implications of the current crisis. We can fret internally over this, or focus on the everyday practical measures we keep hearing about–and need to–to help keep ourselves and others safe. If we believe love is at the heart of everything (see the beginning of John’s Gospel), then everyday caring is how we exercise that deep truth in a practical manner, and experience some peace and assurance in the doing.

The scammers and opportunistic leaders will have their day. It is caring that will endure.

Having Issues

A certain world leader recently referred to his own “great and unmatched wisdom.” You and I might speak of ourselves in such terms–in a tone of light self deprecation. He wasn’t joking.

Most of us would find his claim laughable or just plain pathetic. If we are ruthlessly honest, however, we might harbour self perception that is not dissimilar.

Maybe you have avoided obviously disruptive or destructive living. You figure you have it pretty much all together. So you don’t condescend, manipulate,dominate, move any or all conversation to your own person, bestow your ‘help’ and advice unbidden on others? You have, that is, no issues at all?

Truly impoverished are those if us who consider that only others “have issues.” We are then missing the true wonder of the humanity within us and of which we each are part. Such awareness and self discovery leads any of us with any consciousness to seek growth in our understanding and manner of relating to others and the world at large.

Consider: “We are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed” (1John 3:2).

Feeling inadequate, failed? God knows what fulfillment you are yet to know.

Feeling smug? You are missing something.

Happy

You can hardly go anywhere these days without hearing the Pharrell Williams song, “Happy.” A report by Carol Graham of the Brookings Institute may indicate that it will not resonate with people uniformly through the life cycle, at least as Brookings Institute report might indicate.

Apparently there is a worldwide trend for people to have a U-shaped pattern to their life-long degree of happiness. Middle age is tough, it seems. Well, middle age can be especially tough. I would not want to minimize, having had my own very low times, how difficult certain seasons and circumstances of life can be. But there is hope to sustain us through those times.

In Romans 15:13 Paul indicates that there is a happiness that does not depend on circumstances.  There is joy, which is not to be taken necessarily  as a jump-up-and-down kind of thing (though it certainly can be), but is based on the certain knowledge that there is the Lord who loves and values us, and has a purpose for us. We know of this, and put it into practice in various ways, through the welcoming of the Holy Spirit.

And, as the context Romans 15:13 makes clear, mutuality of acceptance and service is key to experiencing such enduring inner peace.