Recommend-a-blog (2)

It’s only been a year and change, so I guess it’s about time I did another one of these.

Eddy Plett is a brave man. Talking candidly about mental illness (particularly one’s own struggles) is not universally greeted with enthusiasm in certain conservative evangelical circles.

Especially when you do it on the Internet.

As Eddy points out in his first post on the subject:

“I am saddened by the number of believers that struggle silently with significant mental health issues. What makes the struggle even greater for most of them is that they are unable to talk about it in the church for fear of being seen as unspiritual.”

He continues:

“It is my belief that simply bringing these issues out of the ‘darkness’ into the ‘light’ and being willing to walk hand in hand with our brothers and sisters in their struggle would do much to reduce the intensity of these illnesses. While it may not extinguish the flame it would stop throwing additional fuel on it.”

Not content with merely generalizing, in a second post entitled “My Struggle With Mental Illness”, Eddy gets personal, recounting his own experience frankly and with neither self-pity nor hand-wringing. It is a story of hope rather than despair:

“While I am still influenced by my mental illness and have to live within certain limitations because of it, I am no longer defined by it. I live in hope not only for the future but also that the Lord is using me today for His purposes.”

While never making excuses for sin in the lives of believers, Eddy distinguishes various contributing causes of mental illness. Parts 3 and 4 in the series will be equally of interest to anyone who has had personal experience with these issues — or who has partners, children, friends or loved ones that are affected. He deals with every facet of mental health: physical, emotional and (in the fourth and future posts), spiritual.

Whether or not you agree with Eddy’s conclusions, it is refreshing to see the subject tackled so forthrightly.

Eddy Plett posts at assemblyHUB, a multi-author conservative evangelical blog. As with all multi-author blogs, the site is a mixed bag ranging from average to excellent depending on the day and writer. It should go without saying (but doesn’t, so I’ll say it) that as with every site I mention here, enthusiasm about a particular post or writer is not a blanket endorsement of everything they believe or an endorsement of the views of everyone with whom they associate. It is also my personal opinion and may or may not reflect that of others who post at ComingUntrue.