Written for the local paper, The Border Watch:
It seems odd to think that crisis support service Lifeline having record high numbers of calls during 2015 could be thought of as good news.
By no means is it all good news though. In a media release, it was noted that increased levels of online activity might be contributing to people’s perceptions of personal unhappiness and lack of fulfilment. Looking at a steady stream of happy status updates could cause folk to wonder if they were the only ones who weren’t feeling happy and satisfied with life.
Additionally, the pace of current day life could contribute to a basic level of dissatisfaction that is worsened by diminished tenacity or a lack of coping skills and supportive relationship networks.
In the midst of these worrying trends in everyday life, the good news is that more and more people are seeking help.
Among varying age brackets and differing backgrounds larger numbers of folk are calling to share their problems and seek support.
It is encouraging to observe that younger and older, female and male, people are getting better at understanding they have a problem and can get help.
Stigmas are falling away; cultural barriers are coming down; and wrong ideas about medical conditions or seasons of life are being clarified. The message is gaining traction that seeking help is not weakness, and needing support is not an embarrassment.
There may be a perception that Christians would think themselves above such help. Nothing could be further from the truth. At the heart of the Christian gospel is a confession that we are unable to secure out own eternal life and can only do so through the salvation offered in Jesus Christ. Every Christian is a person who has stopped relying on himself or herself alone, and now relies on the life and support God offers personally and through the church.
Many Christians also benefit from the support of practitioners to help our psychological, physical, and circumstantial ailments and weaknesses.
Jesus even went so far as to say that he had come to help the ailing, not the healthy. This has been understood to mean that those who know their needs will accept help, while those who labour under the idea that they’re fine on their own will reject him. Christians live in the everyday conscious need of outside help.
Lifeline itself was founded by the church as an expression of care and support for the needs of the community. Everyone needs a hand.
Perhaps you feel that not coping is something you need to hide or battle through on your own. Not coping is part of life. So is needing help.
It doesn’t seem likely that society will eradicate everything that causes us stress or brings out our weaknesses. We always seem to be creating new ones anyway.
But we can hope for a society where we’ll grow together in our awareness of what not coping is, and in our preparedness to seek the help we need.
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