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World Mental Health Day 2020: Greater Investment – Greater Access
The World Health Organisation recognises World Mental Health Day on 10th October every year. With the current worldwide pandemic, an already dire mental health landscape has seen mental health conditions rise across the globe. Mental health is a topic that many Christians struggle to talk about. In Broken by Fear: Anchored in Hope, author Rob Merchant gives an extremely honest account of his struggle with mental health. In this blog post, The Revd Anne-Marie Renshaw, Team Rector in the Thurstable and Winstree Team Ministry tells us what she thinks of the book.
Mental health is a topic churches don’t always find it easy to talk about and Christians can feel there is a stigma attached to admitting that they suffer from depression or anxiety. Rob Merchant has written a beautifully, painfully honest and open book about his personal struggle with his own mental health and how it has been shaped by his journey of faith and discipleship.
This is a book written by a Christian for Christians. Rob draws on a wealth of Biblical passages and writes of how God’s grace has been at work even when he has been at his lowest ebb. He tackles fear, shame, anger and despair and explains how they can come to dominate a person’s life, but then moves on to the power of forgiveness, faith, hope and love to redeem and transform. He offers no easy, glib answers, but holds out a lifeline based on his experience of God speaking to him and holding him through the storm of living with mental health challenges.
Everyone needs to read this book. If you have no first-hand experience of depression or anxiety yourself, this book will give you an insight into how you can help and support others who are living with it. If you are supporting someone else or if you are yourself struggling with depression or trauma, you will find Rob to be a fellow traveller who knows what it is to be fearful and has discovered kernels of hope in the Bible and in his own experience of lived faith. This book is a gift borne out of deep personal pain that will help many others to find an anchor in stormy seas.
The Revd Anne-Marie Renshaw
Team Rector in the Thurstable and Winstree Team Ministry
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