Meditation on the Dark Night of the Soul

By Mary Krehbiel Bowman, West Charlestown, Church of the Brethren, Tipp City, Ohio. Reprinted from Caregiving, Winter 2001

What is the experience of living life dispirited,
with only hopelessness and darkness
to face each day?

What is the experience of the dark night of the soul …
when the only shred of hope is that there may be
a God … when a leap of faith to believe may be
the only thread between living and suiciding?

Is it true that the deep well of pain those with mental illness
suffer may be carving out a future place for spiritual joy?

Is it true that one’s joy can only be as great as one’s
pain has been deep?

How can the limbic system of the brain dysfunctioning
into chemical disarray cause such spiritual despair?

And, what is the vision seen by those who have lived
these earthly depths of hell?

For to come up from the depths of this hell may be
to truly experience the New Jerusalem,
to truly feel the Christ Presence, and
to truly be touched by Gracious Angels
in a way others may never know…
And, oft, out of such a journey, emerges a
Wounded Healer who sees through to the windows of others’ souls…

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OAnthem — “If We Can Care

This anthem was written by Bryan Harness (text) and Harold Moyer (music). A PDF file of the music can be downloaded here.

Holy Spirit, we are gathered, such as we are.
We assembled that we might be of service to you,
though we have different skills, different understandings,
and different emotions to place at your disposal.

We see you at work among us. We have sensed that
you see in us what we cannot always see, that you
have patience with our oddities, and that you hold out
hope when we are inclined to give up on each other.

Help us be a people living your kingdom way.
Use our time of worship today to hold us to lives
of greater integrity of love in how we treat each other.

— Anonymous

O Holy God,
open unto me
light for my darkness,
courage for my fear,
hope for my despair.

O loving God,
open unto me
wisdom for my confusion,
forgiveness for my sins,
love for my hate.

O God of peace,
open unto me
peace for my turmoil,
joy for my sorrow,
strength for my weakness.

O generous God,
open my heart
to receive all your gifts.

— Howard Thurman, www.mentalhealthministries.net

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Confession of Need

O God of darkness and of light, help those of us who feel trapped in the shadow side of life. We yearn to sense your presence in the darkness.

God of action and of rest, help those of us who find our moods swinging uncontrollably. We long to be aware of your accepting presence when we have trouble accepting ourselves.

God of calm and of concern, help those of us who are all too easily imprisoned by anxiety. We trust you, yet we want you to help us trust you more.

God of oneness and of many names, help those of us who have trouble integrating aspects of our personalities. We plead for you to calm the sea of confusion within us and help us gain perspective.

God of the living and of the dead, help those of us who are gripped by the choke-hold of grief. We could use your help to know what to let go of and what to hold on to.

God of joy and of routine, help those of us who have it good in life. Help us learn how to best use our physical health, our material resources and our emotional strength.

Merciful God, we are your needy children. Help us in our journey into spiritual maturity that we may increase our sensitivities to those who wrestle with issues of mood and emotion, with those who labor for physical healing and for those who require extra energy to compensate for life’s barriers. With increased sensitivity, lead us into the path of motivation and equip us with the energy to make a positive difference for each other.

In the spirit of our master, Jesus, we pray.

— Anonymous

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Bible Verses of Comfort for Persons with a Mental Illness

Compiled by Rev. Susan Gregg-Schroeder, www.MentalHealthMinistries.net, Used with permission.

Hebrews 13:5
God has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.”

Psalm 46:1-3
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult.

Psalm 57:1
Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, until the destroying storms pass by.

Psalm 91
Assurance of God’s Protection

Psalm 121
Assurance of God’s Protection

Psalm 139:7-12
Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.

Jeremiah 29:11
For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.

Isaiah 40:28-31
Have you not known? Have you note heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings of eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 41:10
… do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.

Isaiah 43:1-2
Thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.

Matthew 11:28-30
Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Luke 6:20-21
Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

John 14:27
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

1 John 4:16b, 18a
God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.

Romans 8:38-39
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.


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Prayers in Moments of Anxiety and Fear

God, this storm of anxiety is rumbling through
my soul.

Flashes of uncertainty streak through the dark sky
of my mind;
self-doubt thunders through my veins;
winds of isolation bend and break my spirit,
and I am flooded with fear.

God, I long for the resting of this tumult within me.
I ache for your calming word
"peace … peace, be still."

Help me to remember that just as thunderstorms
bring welcome relief to summer heat and
parched land,

So this inner storm can also water the arid places
of my soul and refresh my whole being,
bringing rainbows of hope and promise,
that signal a new and free spirit within me. Amen.

— Theresa Eshbach, A Deacon Manual of Caring Ministries


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Sermon: Sometimes, The Church Needs to Be the Village

By Bryan Boyer, district executive for Pacific Southwest

Job 3:20-4:9
Mark 9:38-41

The old African proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child,” is a helpful one for us as Brethren to consider. We have a core belief in a community ethic, a sense of mutual accountability and a desire to serve one another. One politician noted that, “It takes a family, not a village.” Yet sometimes, neither family nor village can meet the complex needs of today’s society. One case in point is the issue of mental illness. As a former practicing psychologist, I often found that family resources were over-taxed, governmental programs were restrictive, and the population in general was not very empathic or receptive to those with mental illness. This, then, is a tremendous opportunity for the local church to really become part of the supportive family and village.

Those who suffer mental illness can become isolated from their family and their village. When difficulties strike us or our families, it is all too easy for people on the outside, like Job’s friend Eliphaz, to rationalize what has happened. When someone is robbed, we ask if the victim locked the door. When someone gets injured in an accident, we want the details to see what mistake the person made. Even the disciples want to make sense out of why a certain man was born blind. Was it because he, or his parents sinned (John 9:1-2)? These are ways that we emotionally separate ourselves from our own anxiety of danger. Our natural tendency is to avoid those with mental illness as if we could get caught up in some erroneous cause-effect relationship.

It is amazing to see individuals come in for treatment, feeling isolated, alone, and sometimes having a sense of shame. Once, a burly, upright man came into his therapist’s office and admitted that he was afraid others at his factory would find out that he took “pills” for anxiety and depression. It made no sense to him that he would have these difficulties. After all, he had successfully faced many difficult issues in his life, was a man of deep faith, and was looked upon by others as the type of person one could lean on. He felt like a failure. In the weeks following, he came back reporting he felt a little less isolated — but it was more a sense of misery loves company. He found that he was not the only one who had these type of problems. There were a few others at work who acknowledged they took medication or saw a counselor too. There was nothing he did wrong or needed to feel shame about, he simply had an illness and took medicine for it like someone who takes insulin for an inefficient pancreas, or wears glasses for their eye sight.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health (www.nimh.nih.gov), depression affects 19 million Americans, and according to the Department of Health and Human Services, one in five young people face mental health problems in our families and village. These figures indicate that cognitive and emotional suffering are quite common. It is amazing how we segregate ourselves from those with mental illnesses when the issue is so common. The local church should be a place where people can be open about their physical and emotional state without the fear of being isolated, as opposed to feeling like they have to put on their Sunday mask along with their Sunday best to “play” church.

As noted in our Mark scripture and elsewhere, Jesus healed people with many different ailments. Mental illness did not come to be scientifically studied until the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, so the gospel writers were probably not as aware of these maladies as we are today. While the focus of the healing scriptures in the Bible are on Jesus’ authority over heaven and earth, some think that the demons spoken of in several texts were actually people with emotional illnesses. People felt possessed and were ostracized by the community. There are scriptures, for example, where a man was even isolated in a cemetery after chains could not hold him (Mark 5:3). We may not have people living around tombs anymore, but we have folks talking to themselves on the street corners of our major cities who have been turned out because of funding policies and a lack of follow-up. These persons are a sign of our societal values, or lack of values. As scary as these persons may seem, there are effective treatments that can take away the menacing voices in their heads and the anguish from their lives.

As local congregations, we are not called to administer medications or give therapy, unless we are supporting those specialized ministries. But we can appropriately direct persons to professionals who can help. At the same time, we must not minimize the tremendous positive effect that we do have in the village as supportive friends and family. Many years ago, I used to think that the power to heal was in the therapy office. The “magic” happened, for the most part, behind the closed therapy office door. I went to school for years to develop and perfect techniques to help people behind that door. It did not take long, however, to discover that the persons who recovered most quickly, or at least coped with their chronic condition, were people with a broad support system. Persons with a loving family, a supportive church, and friends did better than those economically and socially estranged.

One of the greatest things the Church can provide for persons who suffer from mental illness is a safe place for them, their friends and family to meet for support and encouragement. These safe places can be a healing balm if they are conducted in a confidential, non-judgmental way. Some of these types of groups are laity led, while some have a clergy member. Some groups start out with an awareness program and later lead to a support group. Some are primarily sharing groups, while others sometimes have speakers join them from time to time.

Yet whether we form a support group, or find ourselves a little more receptive to others in our Christian walk, it is important for us to walk humbly in our faith. Science does not have all the answers and the study of the causes of mental illness is still in its relative infancy. It is so easy to give advice when one does not know what one is talking about! We tell people to “cheer up” when they are depressed, to just “focus” when a person has Attention Deficit Disorder, or to use “will power” when someone is addicted. These kind of comments do not appreciate the fact that problems like these are not simply choices, but have underlying organic components. If someone had pneumonia, we wouldn’t tell them to simply “snap out of it,” and we wouldn’t tell someone with a broken leg to “jump up and dance.” Neither should we do so to someone with a mental illness.

Being part of a family means that we learn more about those in our midst with mental illnesses and then find appropriate ways to be caring and supportive. Being part of a village means that we advocate, educate, connect, and work with other persons and other agencies to provide more effective solutions to treat mental illnesses. It is sad to know that so much suffering is hidden in our very midst. The good news is that God can use all things for the good (Romans 8:28)! The Church has a tremendous opportunity to reach out, heal and advocate for those with mental illnesses.

Possible Illustration
The apostle Paul knew we are not to be co-dependent, that is, to take all the burden of care on ourselves:

In 1 Corinthians 3:6-7 he wrote, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants or the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” As a farmer’s responsibility rests with preparing a crop for harvest, so the Christian caregiver’s responsibility is to “plant” and “water.” God then provides the growth. In other words, Christians are responsible for care; God is responsible for cure.

Kenneth Haugk, Christian Caregiving, A Way of Life. Augsburg: Minneapolis. 1984.


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A Service of Worship for Mental Illness and/or Depression

By Carol Pfeiffer, pastor, Nettlecreek Church of the Brethren, Hagerstown, Ind.

Opening Hymn

Call to Worship

Hymn

Invocation

Choral Reading: Psalm 139:1-18; 23-24
For Four Readers, Adapted by Carol Pfeiffer

All: O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.
Reader 1: You know when I sit and when I rise;
Reader 2: you perceive my thoughts from afar.
Reader 3: You discern my going out and my lying down;
Reader 4: you are familiar with all my ways.
Reader 1: Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.
Reader 2: You hem me in — behind and before;
Reader 3: you have laid your hand upon me.
Reader 4: Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.
All: too lofty for me to attain.
Reader 1: Where can I go from your Spirit?
All: Where can I flee from your presence?
Reader 2: If I go up to the heavens.
All: you are there.
Reader 3: if I make my bed in the depths,
All: you are there.
Reader 4: If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
Reader 1: if I settle on the far side of the sea,
All: even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
Reader 2: If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
Reader 3: and the light become night around me.”
Reader 4: even the darkness will not be dark to you;
All: the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being;
Reader 1: you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Reader 2: I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Reader 3: your works are wonderful,
Reader 4: I know that full well.
All: My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.
Readers 1 and 2: When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
Readers 3 and 4: your eyes saw my unformed body.
All: all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Reader 1: How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
Reader 2: How vast is the sum of them!
Reader 3: Were I to count them,
Reader 4: they would outnumber the grains of sand.
All: When I awake, I am still with you.
Reader 1: Search me, O God,
Reader 2: and know my heart;
Reader 3: test me and know my anxious thoughts.
Reader 4: See if there is any offensive way in me,
All: and lead me in the way everlasting.

Sharing A Story
Invite someone who has struggled with mental health issues to share their journey toward hope.

Choir Special
“You Are Mine” by David Haas,
GIA Publications, Inc., 7404 South Mason Ave., Chicago, IL 60638

Prayers of the People
Pray for those who are hurting.

Scripture: I Kings 19: 1-13

Sermon: “From Despair to Hope”

Sermon idea:
Elijah ran for his life and ended up at Horeb, the mountain of God. He was frightened and depressed and wanted to die. Use this scripture to explain how many of us face fear, anxiety and depression, either personally, or we know someone who has/is facing these things.

Elijah was faithful to God, but expressed feelings of self-pity and exhibited signs of depression. Yet the Lord instructed him to “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by,” verse 11.

God did not reveal God’s self in powerful miraculous ways, but in the “gentle whisper.”

God asked the question, “What are you doing in this place?” Indeed, often the stresses of life bring us to a cave of depression, and we want to give up. Yet scripture tells us that God was with Elijah. He just couldn’t see or sense God through the fog. He relied on himself in self-assurance.

Sometimes we need to allow God to direct us to persons or professionals (i.e. doctors, psychologist, counselors) to help us get out of the cave of depression, be it physical or emotional distress. We need to stand alongside those who are dealing with depression to be that Christ presence to them.

Utilize this passage of scripture to move people from despair to hope in God through the journey of depression or mental illness.

Psalm 142 Litany
Reader 1: With my voice I cry to the Lord;
Reader 2: With my voice I make supplication to the Lord.
Reader 3: I pour out my complaint before him.
All: When my spirit is faint, you know my way.
Reader 1: In the path where I walk they have hidden a trap for me.
Reader 2: Look on my right hand and see.
Reader 3: There is no one who takes notice of me;
Reader 4: No refuge remains to me;
All: No one cares for me.
Reader 1: I cry to you, O Lord;
Reader 2: I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.”
Reader 3: Give heed to my cry, for I am brought very low.
Reader 4: Save me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me.
Reader 1 & 2: Bring me out of prison,
Reader 3 & 4: So that I may give thanks to your name.
All: The righteous will surround me, for you will deal bountifully with me.

Anointing Service

Hymn
Offering taken during closing hymn


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Prayers and Hymns

From Hymnal Supplement and Hymnal: A Worship Book
No. 1000, “Thank you for the night”
No. 1084, “Take, O take me as I am”
No. 377, “Healer of our ev’ry ill”

Loving God
Loving God, when we are assaulted by fear and worries, we take refuge in you.
Healing God, when we do not have answers,
we trust in your steadfast care.
Embracing God, when we feel alienated,
like strangers in a foreign land, we remember that
we are your beloved children. You know us
by name and we belong to you.
Accepting God, we rest in your unconditional love
for us. We do not have to be better, smarter,
stronger or wiser to earn your love.
Help us to be a reflection of your infinite
compassion, which has been made known to us
through your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

O God, we accept that, in some way, we are all broken.
We affirm that we do not need to fix one another.
We trust in Your ability to heal all wounds
and invite Your healing mercy
to be poured out upon us like a salve,
bringing light, hope, and wholeness. Amen.

Leader: Our eyes are not God’s eyes.
Many: Lord, give us your vision.
Leader: Our mind is not God’s mind.
Many: Lord, give us your wisdom.
Leader: Our heart is not God’s heart.
Many: Lord, give us your compassion.
Leader: May we see a way where there was no way.
Many: May we have light where there was darkness.
Leader: May we offer grace instead of judgment.
All: Amen.

— Jeanne Davies, associate pastor, Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren, Elgin, Ill.


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 And now, as we stand together,
and hold on to each other,
may our strength be in our union.

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