Emmaus: Making Faith Sense of Mental Health, Part Three

May is mental health awareness month. Mental health is an important issue in sports and especially elite level soccer. As a chaplain, I believe that Christian faith can help with mental health challenges and struggles, but I think sometimes we don’t understand or see the different stories and tools and resources that are needed or necessary for having our faith help inform or heal our mental health challenges. One scriptural text in the Bible that I believe can help us is Luke 24:13-36. Today, as I have been all month long, I want to share two lessons with you in part three of this series. This builds on the previous lessons that we’ve covered, namely, 1) Jesus draws near to us in our grief and loss; 2) we’re often blind or disoriented; 3) Jesus asks the questions and listens; 4) we are invited to share our story and experience in our own terms. Today’s first lesson sees Jesus exhorting and challenging us and then explaining everything about himself. I am sometimes surprised that the disciples still don’t see Jesus at this point, but I get it…it happens. The second lesson that we see is that we ought to retain as much as we can in such moments that are good aspects of our lives — generosity, hospitality, and so one — no matter what mental health issues we are going through, the invitation of the disciples will be key to seeing Jesus eventually. I recently preached a sermon on this subject that you can view here on the Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church YouTube channel there might be some different stories or insights that you pick up here that aren’t in the podcast — whatever is helpful. From the Touchline is a short-feature (10-15 min) podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer). Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd, in the Apple and Google store.