Foundations' Blog

Sometimes it’s hard to know what to say, what to do, and how to respond when confronted with challenges. Often our first instinct is to avoid them, ignore them, or pass them off to someone else to deal with them so that we will not take up our time or increase our stress. Oddly enough, this is how many churches and congregants respond to people with mental health struggles. We don’t know what to say or how to help. The struggles seem above and beyond our experience or expertise. We refer them to speak to someone else, give them trite answers, avoid them, or let them know we’ll pray for them and move on. These responses remind me of the parable of the Good Samaritan. 

In Luke 10:25-37, Jesus responds to the question by an expert in the law, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus answers by sharing a parable (30-35):

“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went away,...

We are almost three years post-pandemic and still feeling the effects. For numerous families, COVID has played a harmful role in bringing anxiety, depression, health issues, and even death. For other families, it did very little but add a wet blanket to an otherwise normal life. Yet the societal effects of lockdowns and changes in the workplace, schools, and culture have placed a weight on lives that are difficult to measure except by the simple term, ‘capacity.’ We, as a society, are nearing, have reached, or have exceeded our emotional and sometimes physical capacity…and it’s showing.

Numerous mental health studies have concluded that anxiety and depression have risen by around 25%, and people have reported that their mental health has decreased since the COVID pandemic. Stress, anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, and loneliness have increased. Motivation and morale in the workplace have declined while many are not showing up to work, leaving others to...