Mark Alewine

It was Tuesday May 3rd and we had to take my dad to the hospital by ambulance because he was having some problems just getting up from his chair and his oxygen level had dropped below 80. Dad was dealing with Alzheimer’s as well as COPD and cancer in his right lung. This was his second bout with cancer. He had been in immunotherapy treatments for about three months dealing with the cancer in his lung. He developed pneumonia in his right lung and that started affecting the rest of his body, even his ability to get up and do anything. Though we had seen a steady decline in his health over a 2-month period, this new change occurred very, very quickly, within 24 hours.

Have you ever felt the weight of the world on your shoulders? I sure have.

Sometimes mental health is the thing that gets pushed away, an afterthought, almost judgmental in some ways. “If he (she) only trusted Jesus more, all would be well.” “If he (she) read the Bible more, they would be fine.” There are many other phrases that we could put in this spot. And while trusting Jesus and reading the Bible more are important parts of our spiritual AND mental health, other things also enter into the picture. Most of those are things we probably don’t know about in someone’s life.