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Archive of "General" Category
May is Mental Health Month
Every year since 1949, Mental Health America (formerly the National Mental Health Association) has sponsored “May is Mental Health Month.” According to their website,Depression affects more people than any other mental health condition–more than 19 million Americans each year.
Everyone gets down from time to time, but sometimes it’s more than “the blues.” Clinical depression is a real illness that can be treated effectively. Unfortunately, fewer than half of the people who have depression seek treatment.
Too many people believe that depression is a normal part of life’s ups and downs, rather than a real health problem. As a result, they may delay seeking help or not seek help at all. It’s important to know that depression is real, and it can be effectively treated.
What are the signs of depression?
- Persistent sad, anxious or “empty” mood
- Difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep or sleeping more than usual
- Reduced appetite and weight loss, or increased appetite and weight gain
- Loss of pleasure and interest in once-enjoyable activities
- Restlessness, irritability
- Difficulty concentrating at work or at school, or difficulty remembering things or making decisions
- Fatigue or loss of energy
- Feeling guilty, hopeless or worthless
- Thoughts of suicide or death
If you experience five or more of these symptoms for two weeks or longer, you may have depression. See a doctor
or mental health professional for help right away. It’s also important to connect to the people in your life who care about you and can give you support.My 2008 book, Losing God: Clinging to Faith Through Doubt and Depression, follows my four-year struggle with major depression from 1996 to 2000. Despite many wonderful people telling me I might have a mood disorder, I spent most of those years believing my problem was spiritual. If you know someone you believe is depressed–someone who displays the symptoms above–and who feels as though they’ve lost God in the confusion, this book might help.
Beginning Monday on this website, I’ll offer thoughts on how you can spread some hope by spreading the word about this book during Mental Health Month. Check back on Monday!
BAM! book signing for “Should We Fire God?” a great success
I’ve been telling you about a great new book, Should We Fire God?, by Jim Pace. On April 27, 2010, Books-a-Million in Blacksburg, VA, hosted Jim Pace for a book signing. According to Aaron Jarrells, the store manager, this was the largest book signing they’ve held yet. About 130 copies were sold in just under three hours. Jim Pace barely got a break from autographing books the whole night.To see more photos from the event, click here to visit the Facebook fan page for Should We Fire God?
Should We Fire God? is available at Barnes & Noble and Books-a-Million stores, most Christian book stores, and all major online book sellers.
“Should We Fire God?” releases TODAY
Today is the official release date for Jim Pace’s book, Should We Fire God? In the face of recent arguments against faith from atheists Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion) and Christopher Hitchens (God Is Not Great), and in light of the serious pain and problems of our world, is there any reason for hoping in God? As Jim Pace says in his book, if he did his job the way God sometimes seems to be running the world, he’d be looking for a new job; the church he pastors would fire him. Should we, therefore, fire God?This book is going to help a lot of people. Want to help spread the word about it? Here are some ways …
Most Helpful
If you’ll be in the Blacksburg, VA, area on Tuesday evening, April 27, buy Should We Fire God? at Books-a-Million between 7:00 and 9:00pm. Jim Pace will be there for a book signing. We’re hoping for 200-plus people at this event to send a strong message to area store managers that they need this book on their shelves.
Second Most Helpful
If you can’t make it to the book signing, buy Should We Fire God? in a bookstore of your choice. Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, and most Christian chains are carrying the book. The more people who buy the book in a store, the longer store managers will want to keep it on the shelf. The longer it stays on the shelf, the more people who will run across it when browsing.
Still Really Helpful
If money is an issue or you don’t have a bookstore nearby, you can find Should We Fire God? online at a great price. Yes, buying it in a store is more helpful, but hey, every sale is a sale!
Tell your friends about the book. Tell them it has a rocking cover. Tell them Rick Warren wrote the foreword because he liked the book so much. And when you’re done telling the world, click here to join the facebook fan page for Should We Fire God?
“How you coming on that novel?”
Everybody should have a “go to” clip on YouTube that they pull up and watch when in dire need of a good laugh. SNL’s Debbie Downer Disney skit has always been that for me. But recently, my friend Karin sent me my new favorite.I don’t often watch Family Guy. Probably only have seen it a few times in my life. But, as a writer, I find this clip from Family Guy incredibly funny. If I ever get discouraged about the slow pace of my writing, I’ll watch this and feel better. Stewie may be one of the funnies animated characters ever.
Click here to watch it on YouTube.
Thanks to Karin for sending this.
Rick Warren endorses “Should We Fire God?”
Recently, I told you about my friend Jim Pace’s upcoming book, Should We Fire God? Well, just the other day, Jim Pace got some good news. Rick Warren has written a foreword for the book. Warren is best-known for his wildly successful The Purpose Driven Church and The Purpose Driven Life. He’s sold millions of copies of his books. He says this about Jim Pace’s Should We Fire God?“We live in a broken world. Because of that, we’ve all been brought to our knees by tragedies. What do you do when you’re struggling with overwhelming circumstances and emotions? How should you respond when your faith is tested and God seems absent or in no hurry to act?
In this book, Jim Pace offers helpful insights on the age-old question of God’s role in human pain. Jim shares from his own personal battle in understanding God’s faithfulness in the midst of pain, as well as dealing with the issues raised after the tragic shooting at his alma mater, Virginia Tech. Many of his congregation attended there during the shooting.
Jim shows how the Bible answers these kinds of situations. The answers are clear, he says, but they are often not what we expect or desire.
The fact is, no one is immune to pain or insulated from suffering. But God is there to provide real comfort and hope no matter what we face in this life. He uses even tragedy for our growth and his glory, when we give him all the pieces. While God may seem absent, He is never really gone. While He sometimes seems silent, He is always speaking His love for us. While he sometimes fails to do what we think He should, He is always actively engaged in our problems, wanting to draw us closer to Him. In pain, we learn things about God that we will not learn any other way.”
Rick Warren
Saddleback Church
The Purpose Driven Life
Jim Pace’s Should We Fire God? releases on April 8, 2010.
“Should We Fire God?” by Jim Pace
Jim Pace has been one of my co-pastors for three years; he’s been a mentor and friend much longer. In April 2010, FaithWords will publish Jim Pace’s first book, Should We Fire God?Given the terrible suffering in our world, and in light of recent atheistic works such as Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion and Christopher Hitchens’s God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, is there any reason to hope in the God of Scripture? What’s he really worth in a world that seems to be, regarding Christianity, “over it?” And if there is a God, has he so bungled his role as the great Sovereign that we should simply let him go? Should We Fire God?
I’ve read portions of this book and have given it my endorsement. As one who has, in the past, wrestled with these questions quite a bit, I can tell you that Jim Pace has written a thoroughly well-conceived and well-reasoned work.
I’ll be blogging more about this important book as we move closer to April. And once Should We Fire God? is available for pre-order, I’ll let you know.
In the meantime, be saving your pennies for April 2010.
Pre-order “Introverts in the Church”
The title alone–Introverts in the Church–was enough for me. As an introvert who has often felt out of place or overwhelmed in the extroverted church world, I pre-ordered my copy of Adam S. McHugh’s forthcoming book as soon as it became available on Amazon.The publisher, InterVarsity Press (my publisher for Losing God), says,
“Introverts are called and gifted by God. But many churches tend to be extroverted places where introverts are marginalized. Some Christians end up feeling like it’s not as faithful to be an introvert.
Adam McHugh shows how introverts can live and minister in ways consistent with their personalities.”
The publication date is November 2009, but no need to wait. Click here to pre-order as I did.
A Biology of Mental Disorder
Having written Losing God, a book all about my struggle with depression, I’m always looking for new articles on mental disorders. Came across a good one today from Newsweek. Click here for “A Biology of Mental Disorder.”
Recommendation: “The Maytrees”
If you’re looking for summer reading that isn’t too heavy but isn’t total fluff either, Annie Dillard’s The Maytrees may be for you. I just finished my second trip through and enjoyed it as much as–maybe more than–the first.The Maytrees is a simple story that asks a simple yet profound question. Dillard’s novel follows the lives of Toby Maytree and Lou Bigelow over several decades as events force them to ask themselves, What is love? (Don’t worry guys–this is no breezy, sentimental romance. The book is tough, honest, and gritty.)
The Maytrees is short–just 216 pages, with plenty of whitespace–but it’s packed with meaning. No word is wasted. Every sentence counts. Every line reveals something important about these characters and their story. In a 2007 interview with NPR, Dillard said of her spare prose style, “The idea was to eliminate every single unnecessary word.”
And Annie Dillard is a genius at description. Of Lou and Toby’s first encounter on Cape Cod, Dillard writes, “They shook hands and hers felt hot under sand like a sugar doughnut.” About the setting, she says, “…The ocean lashed and threw salts.” Simple. Clear. Imaginative. Perfect.
Click here for the NPR interview, and here for the Amazon link to The Maytrees.
“found art” cover is itself art
I love book covers. When I was a kid, I’d buy a book if it looked good, knowing full well I’d never crack it open once I got it home. I just wanted to look at it.These days I love reading, and only buy books I mean to read, but I’m still more likely to take a risk on a book I know nothing about if it has a good cover.
Found Art is such a book. It releases from Zondervan in November. I know nothing about the book, beyond what the cover reveals. Leeana Tankersley wrote it; it’s about finding beauty in foreign places. That’s it. That’s all I know. And that I’ll probably buy it because of its cover.
I’m not sure I could explain why I love it. Why does one painting draw our attention, and another doesn’t? Beats me. I love the colors of this cover, I know that, and the simplicity of it. The font choices are perfect. The subtle lines of cracked paint in the title banner are a nice touch, too.
The old adage, “You can’t judge a book by its cover,” isn’t true. I judge lots of books by that alone. Maybe that’s shallow of me, but with so many books out there, a cover needs to grab me. This one did. Check out Found Art this November. I will.
UPDATE: My editor at Zondervan, Angela Scheff, just informed me that Curt Diepenhorst designed the cover for Found Art. If you check the fine print on the back of my book, When Answers Aren’t Enough, you’ll see that he also designed that cover. Congrats, Curt, on another great job.
