I’m going to guess that you’re like me and at some point in your life, you have found yourself saying, “If only I’d known then what I know now!” I can say that about being diagnosed with mental illness. Receiving a mental health diagnosis can be devastating – at least it was for me. 

Trauma.  What comes to mind when you hear that word?  Do you instantly think of PTSD?  Post-traumatic stress disorder: the debilitating effect that trauma can have on an individual.  We now freely accept the fact that the impact of trauma is insidious, pervasive, life-changing and enduring.

“This scripture almost sounds like James is addressing ‘weak faith’ (ask the elders to pray for you) as well as sin as a possible culprit (confess your sins…be healed). So, how does this scripture relate to someone dealing with mental health difficulties or disorders?"

Our son was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 22, but it wasn’t until he turned 34 that he was able to accept the diagnosis and receive treatment. During the twelve years of his struggle with untreated mental illness, God taught me deep truths about how to keep believing in His light where there is only darkness, and trusting in His goodness when there is only pain. Here are just three of the lessons…

All of humankind is and always has struggled to find the answer to a universally common question: “Who am I?” This is a question of identity and individual uniqueness. It’s the question we subconsciously ask ourselves and arrange our lives around in an attempt to find meaning with our own existence. Throughout our lives, we subtly attempt to answer this question in different ways: “I am a basketball player,” “I go to Harvard,” “I am the class clown,” and so on and so forth.

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of restoring broken pottery or china. Rather than discarding the fragmented pieces of pottery, the artist reassembles them using a precious metal- such as liquid gold- to highlight the repairs. There is no attempt to make it look new or hide the “scars” of its brokenness. The technique adds value to the original object as the master artists creates something more beautiful than when it was new. Each Kintsugi becomes a unique work of art!