My first job for War Cry was interviewing John Kirwan about his book on parenting and child and teenage mental health. A year and a half later we’re returning to the subject of mental health. That’s perhaps a long time for such a significant issue, but it’s a huge topic where it can be hard to know what to say.
And that has been a problem in addressing issues of mental health. In society and in our churches we can avoid the topic, because we don’t know what to say. This isolating experience hurts those who are ill and those who aren’t, leaving us vulnerable to a lack of understanding and sympathy.
Two comments Kirwan made stuck out to me. The first was that the most important thing is to be available to listen. The second was to see the person. If someone breaks their leg, or gets the flu you don’t tell them to harden up, or that it’s made up, he said. You see a person and that they’re sick and need help.
It reminded me of a scene from Victor Hugo’s novel Les Misérables where Bishop Bienvenue welcomes the newly released prisoner Jean Valjean to his home. Having been rejected by society for his criminal record the shocked Valjean asks why Bienvenue accepts him so openly.
‘You need not tell me who you are,’ Bienvenue replies, ‘This is not my house; it is the house of Christ. It does not ask any comer whether he has a name, but whether he has an affliction. You are suffering; you are hungry and thirsty; be welcome … Your name is my brother.’
This Sunday is also Pentecost when Christians celebrate the moment the Spirit of God filled Jesus’ followers, confirming what he said, that God was alive and living with us.
The response of those followers, filled with the power of God, was to head to the streets spreading the exciting news of God’s love, in many different languages.
It’s appropriate then that one of the stories in this issue is about people at Hutt City Corps reaching out to the Chinese community in their own language. Being somewhere you can’t speak to people can be hugely isolating.
It’s a reminder that God asks us to join his plan that sees past boundaries to see people and offers a listening ear, a helping hand and good news.
Robin Raymond
Hebrews 3:12 Contemporary English Version
‘My friends, watch out! Don’t let evil thoughts or doubts make any of you turn from the living God.’
Ngā Hiperu 3:12
‘Kia tūpato, e ōku tēina, kei noho te ngākau kino, whakaponokore i roto i tētahi o koutou; kei whakarērea te Atua ora.’