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| The evangelistic newspaper of the modern Jesus Army | 2002 |
SHARING THE JOURNEY
Colin Ridley explains how he has beneficially combined 25 years of Christian community living with being a practising psychiatrist.
Over the years I have found my training and practice in Psychiatry useful in many ways. People who have questions about mental illness and its treatment often come to me for advice and information. I am always careful to support and never undermine the doctors actually treating a person.
Many people forget to listen when someone is talking to them. I have found it best to resist all the helpful ideas that come into one's mind when someone is talking to you, and simply listen and hear what they are saying. By the time someone has finished talking, often they have worked out a lot of the solutions for themselves. Sometimes I'll feed back what I've just heard in more explicit terms. For example, someone might say they're a 'bit down'. I'll say: 'It sounds like you're feeling really crap at the moment'. Often their eyes light up as you find they exact word they've been thinking but didn't like to say, especially if they are a Christian! (Christians are never meant to feel crap about life are they?)
At 'Cornerstone', the Jesus Fellowhship community house where I live, we seem to have developed a ministry to those who have 'burnt out'. This can happen in any environment and Christians - with their desire to serve and their faith in God providing grace - are especially vulnerable.
Your mind and emotions tell you 'I'm getting knackered, I need to stop' but a lot of Christians at this point feel that they have to keep going and start 'burning out' as a result. I encourage people to make time for themselves to nourish their own inner needs. Unless you can look after yourself you run out of energy to minister to others. Many Christians fail to listen to God on this point, (encouraged by the performance-orientation and the workaholism that is so widespread in the world today).
I have also found that those with a serious mental illness like schizophrenia usually find the life style of community living too stimulating for them. They usually fare better living in a less stimulating, probably professional setting of some sort, and attending our meetings as any other church. As with all illnesses, sometimes Jesus heals miraculously, sometimes He heals slowly, and sometimes He does not seem to heal at all, but simply share the journey with us. We too can be part of that journey to bring the life and hope of Jesus to all.
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