In an interview with The Tennessean, Avalon’s Jody McBrayer discusses his battle with depression and urges the church to wake up on mental health.
“Shame is killing people in church…. there’s a lack of compassion and acceptance and understanding in a place that should stand for all those things and more.”
McBrayer has a new book out, So Far, So Good (…But It Was Touch and Go There For Awhile).
And here’s a key excerpt from his interview with The Tennessean:
McBrayer never discussed his depression with church members, but he often heard from them that God should be enough, and those who were anxious or sad just didn’t trust God.
Hearing that just made McBrayer feel worse, he said.
Indeed.
How familiar is that to you, to me?
How many times have we heard the message of “just trust more,” both explicitly and implicitly, at church and from our Christian friends?
And a very quick rejoinder to folks who scold the anxious or depressed Christian: Would these alpha Christian optimists tell Jesus in the Garden any of what they tell us?
If they didn’t know he was Jesus, they sure would.
They’d be telling him to get up off the ground and rejoice because of his inheritance in heaven, to not be so gloomy about his suffering.
But if they knew it was Jesus, I get the feeling they wouldn’t “exhort and encourage” the way they do us for going through emotional turmoil.
God bless McBrayer for being honest about depression in a church where it’s so often dismissed or shamed.
Find a psychiatrist here.
Find a therapist here.
