{"id":21559,"date":"2013-04-12T10:17:38","date_gmt":"2013-04-12T09:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/?p=21559"},"modified":"2017-09-16T18:39:10","modified_gmt":"2017-09-16T17:39:10","slug":"ann-voskamp-on-the-fire-of-depression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2013\/04\/ann-voskamp-on-the-fire-of-depression\/","title":{"rendered":"Ann Voskamp on the fire of depression"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHave mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire\u201d (Jude 1:22-23).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Today I want to share an excerpt from one more article before returning to my own posts on this subject after the Weekend. This one is from Ann Voskamp. If you would like to find some more material, Ed Stetzer has a post<\/a> collecting some of what has been written in the past week on mental illness. I\u2019m praying all this outpouring of writing about this subject which has been a taboo in many churches will not just be a short-term response to tragedy but represent a major shift. Here is best-selling Christian author Ann\u2019s contribution to the conversation:<\/p>\n

We could tell you what we know.<\/p>\n

That \u2014 depression is like a room engulfed in flames and you can\u2019t breathe for the sooty smoke smothering you limp \u2014 and suicide is deciding there is no way but to jump straight out of the burning building.<\/p>\n

That when the unseen scorch on the inside finally sears intolerably hot \u2013 you think a desperate lunge from the flames and the land of the living seems the lesser of two unbearables.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what you\u2019re thinking \u2014 that if you\u2019d do yourself in, you\u2019d be doing everyone a favor.<\/p>\n

I had planned mine for a Friday.<\/p>\n

That come that Friday the flames would be licking right up the the strain of my throat. You don\u2019t try to kill yourself because death\u2019s appealing \u2014 but because life\u2019s agonizing. We don\u2019t want to die. But we can\u2019t stand to be devoured.<\/p>\n

So I made this plan. And I wrote this note.<\/p>\n

And I remember the wild agony of no way out and how the stars looked, endless and forever, and your mind can feel like it\u2019s burning up at all the edges and there\u2019s never going to be any way to stop the flame. Don\u2019t bother telling us not to jump unless you\u2019ve felt the heat, unless you bear the scars of the singe.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t only turn up the praise songs but turn to Lamentations and Job and be a place of lament and tenderly unveil the God who does just that \u2014 who wears the scars of the singe. A God who bares His scars and reaches through the fire to grab us, \u201cCome \u2014 Escape into Me.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read more at A Holy Experience \u2013 What Christians Need to Know about Mental Health<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ann also wrote a follow-up<\/a> to this article which quotes the verse from Jude I started this post with.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHave mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire\u201d (Jude 1:22-23). Today I want to share an excerpt from one more article before returning to my own posts on this subject after the Weekend. This one is from Ann Voskamp. If you would like to find some more material, Ed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[349],"tags":[499,545,544,523],"class_list":["post-21559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mental-health-series","tag-mental-health","tag-mental-illness","tag-psychiatry","tag-suffering"],"yoast_head":"\nAnn Voskamp on the fire of depression<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""Have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire" (Jude 1:22-23). 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