Dear Friends,
In place of my weekly eVotional in which I reflect on Scripture and life, I am linking you to our conversation last week in The Living Room: Exploring the Mystery We Call God. Each week Henry Rojas, Art Brooks and I talk on this Internet radio program about Christian spirituality in plain, everyday language. Last week’s conversation was about depression and hope triggered by the death of Robin Williams. Here is an excerpt from our conversation:
Williams told a story linked desperately between film characters as though they were breadcrumbs so others could find him so he could find his true self. Instead we discovered our own selves:
- An alien trying to fit in a foreign land.
- A father disguised as a nanny just be near his children.
- An executive losing love tragically and escaping in a world of mental illness.
- A military DJ shouting hope to a broken, hateful world.
- A wounded healer guiding another toward mutual discovery. His roles told a story…
Though Robin Williams brilliantly portrayed fictional characters they were not unlike him. They are not unlike you and I. That’s why we are moved by the stories. Somehow their pain journeyed toward climatic resolutions, a resolution Robin Williams never realized himself….The story gathers all those characters together and says to them, ‘I hear you and I see you’. To all of those characters we can say, ‘you represent all of us’. We are in this together and you no longer have to hide. Your pain may never leave, but you will no longer be alone in your pain and that makes it more manageable.(Henry Rojas)
I think that it is an important conversation and I hope you will listen. We’d love to get your thoughts and feelings about it on The Living Room Facebook page.
Listen to the Episode: Depression
Grace and peace,
Tim
