Mental

Deliver the gift of healing

Care for the lonely, depressed, the suffering, those who have lost.

Watch our Truth in Two to find out what to do (full text and hyperlink below).

Call. Write. Send. Visit. Zoom. Be during the Christmas season, during every season.

Subscribe to “Truth in Two” videos from Comenius (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaches at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).

Picture Credit: Luke Renoe, Snappy Goat

FULL TEXT

The holidays are a time of joy for many, but a time of depression for others. Age, death, loss, and loneliness all cause despair in December. The book of Proverbs helps us to be mindful of people around us during the holiday season. Be generous toward others, since we cannot know another’s “bitterness,” states Proverbs 14. “Anxiety” means severe emotional distress which “weighs down” a person according to Proverbs 12. The anxious person finds their situation unsettling, sometimes intolerable. Sorrow of heart can crush one’s spirit, so says Proverbs 15. The word “crush” means someone is beaten and broken; their energy has been whipped out of them. Their whole person is likened to “dried up bones,” the Hebrew word picture of depression. The depressed person is so defeated, they cannot “bear” their life, and by extension, may see no reason to continue in it, we are reminded in Proverbs 18.

What should be our response? “A good word” as said by Proverbs 12. We ought to think before speaking, being sensitive toward one with “a heavy heart” because saying the right thing at the wrong time can be insensitive, Proverbs 25 says. “The answer of the tongue” is to be “from the Lord” affirms Proverbs 16.1. “Refresh” a person with “good news” Proverbs 15 tells us. By so doing, our caring communication can be “cold water to a thirsty soul” Proverbs 25.25 declares. There is need for support from a friend, who, like a UPS driver delivering a gift, brings “healing” according to Proverbs 13. May we practice the biblical teaching of Proverbs for those who struggle during the holiday season and during any season.

For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, President of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.

NEURODIVERSITY. Caring for all kinds of brains, including persons on the spectrum of Autism, here is my Summer 2020 article on the subject.