September has crept up on many of us, and according to the meteorological calendar we are now in a new season; Autumn has arrived. Just as the months and seasons change, so we are starting a new series on QPLive where we are going to think about mental health and emotional well-being. We will learn from Jesus what it means to live “life in technicolour” as we explore the vast range of his responses .
Jesus was fully God, but the wonder …the miracle of the incarnation is that he was also fully human. We witness to, and confess, along with Christians throughout time that Jesus was “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God”, but the Creed (The Nicene Creed) goes on to say that Jesus “became incarnate ..and was made man”.
To be “made” human, to be human, is to have mental health and emotions. This is how God has made us. If we are to live life in all its fullness (John 10:10) then as Church we need to talk about our mental health and the gifts that come from understanding our emotions and confront the impairments if we chose to suppress our emotions or allow them to become disordered.
On Sunday we are going to think about the question:
“Was Jesus’s emotional life monochrome or did he experience a technicoloured emotional life?”
I wonder how you respond to this question? If would be great to know what you think (beyond a yes/no answer) and let us know what you have done to stay mentally well in this season.
The children and youth are going to follow the same themes, albeit at a level appropriate to their age and stage. We are hoping that thinking about the same things as a whole church will lead to some great family and inter-generational conversations. I suspect the children and youth probably have a lot to teach us adults about mental health – how to talk about it well – and our emotional wellbeing.
