Christian Heinze

Former writer at The Hill. Now want to help destigmatize depression, anxiety etc in the Christian church. Email thewearychristian @ gmail. com

[Patrick Schreiner ☧ @pj_schreiner]

Christmas: Christ with us.
Good Friday: Christ for us.
Easter: Christ before us.
Ascension: Christ over us.
Pentecost: Christ in us.

- Chris Regas

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

Hertling: Pulling the rotational armored brigade from Poland sends a strategic message to Putin.

When the last U.S. tank brigade left Europe, Russia did exactly what was predicted in 2014: Crimea and Donbas. This risks sending the same signal again. 2/

[Matt Smethurst @MattSmethurst]

This was the last thing @TimKellerNYC ever said to Redeemer Presbyterian Church.

In God’s providence, it was scheduled to be shared with Redeemer congregants on May 19—the day he died (three years ago today).

[Blake Mycoskie @BlakeMycoskie]

If your friend broke their leg you would drive them to the hospital, sit with them through physical therapy, and not say a word about the trash not being taken out. Nobody questions a broken leg.

But when I went through two years of severe depression, people looked at my kids, my house, and my bank account and told me to get over it. That is the part about mental illness that nobody talks about enough. You can't see it. And because you can't see it, people assume it isn't real or that you don't have a good enough reason to be feeling it.

Kevin Love and I got into exactly this in this episode of the No Magic Pill podcast. A man who had every external marker of success and was still fighting battles that nobody around him could see.

It doesn't matter what you have on the outside. That is not how this works.

Have you ever been dismissed or told to just get over something you were genuinely struggling with?

The episode is live now. Click the link in the bio to listen. @kevinlove

[Gospel in Life @gospelinlife]

Many people pray when they’re in trouble and then when the trouble passes, they don’t. They pray when there’s time, but when they get busy, they don’t. Why? Because in their prayer life, they’re trying to get things from God, but they’re not trying to get God. They’re not after knowing God. – @timkellernyc

Sermon, Confident in Love
https://t.co/9Ap8AxLQEr

[Christian Heinze @CPHeinze]

For anyone not familiar with Joni's story and her amazing ministry for those w/disabilities, she has been one of the most beautiful examples of what a lifetime of total dependence on Christ looks like. The pain of pain is awful, and the hope of hope will be glorious.

[Glen Scrivener @glenscrivener]

Joni Eareckson Tada on standing before Jesus at the last day.

“Thank you for that wheelchair… Now send it to hell.”

[Kaeley Triller @KaeleyT]

Are people over medicated? Yes.

Do some people need anti-anxiety meds? Also yes.

It doesn’t mean you don’t trust God. It means your brain and body are struggling to regulate stress the way they should, and you’re getting help.

[Christian Heinze @CPHeinze]

Re-posting this interview with Biola Christian Prof and philosopher J.P. Moreland on his battle with anxiety and depression. He talks about how Medication for his condition helped him "tremendously" and why so many Christian leaders miss the boat on the issue. https://t.co/MaBYR9e3Ij

[Christian Heinze @CPHeinze]

There has been a significant uptick among Christian influencers peddling the tragic idea that a lack of faith underpins medical conditions like anxiety, depression, OCD, PTSD etc., I would urge Christians to read this book by acclaimed Christian neuroscientist Dr. Matthew Stanford. https://t.co/ScdWIBWXz1

[Christian Heinze @CPHeinze]

Absolutely, some truth to this - but anxiety is a medical condition and study after study has confirmed this.

Yes, our faith in God can profoundly help us through anxiety just as it helps Joni Eareckson Tada deal with quadriplegia.

But it doesn't change the physical nature of the disease.

It is profoundly damaging for so many Christians to get the narrative that if you just pray hard enough a medical condition will go away.

It is biblically illiterate and medically illiterate, as well. Not only that -- millions of Christians suffer because of the shame and stigma this message produces.

And as for the medical component, I wouldn't be alive without my anxiety medication. I won't go into the details, but thanks be to God for medication for anxiety - just like medication for other diseases.

Dr. Brian Briscoe, who has served as the chair of the National Psychiatry Section of the Christian Medical and Dental Association, told me in an interview that medication can be "agents of God's mercy."

That's because this is a physical disease.

It breaks my heart that so many Christians are not getting treatment, suffering in silence, and often succumbing to suicide because they're told by faith leaders that a lack of faith causes their mental health problems.

[Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey @RelatablewABS]

Therapist @TTuck10 came on Relatable to talk about anxiety. I asked him, "If you could define anxiety, how would you define it?"

Tucker: "Fear of the future. Fear of the unknown. The verse, 'Be still and know that I am God' used to make me so angry.

I'm like, God, what do you mean be still? Like, I got a real problem here. I'm in a storm. Why do you want me to just be still?

And what I realized is that the word, and I believe it's "Rapha" in the Hebrew, it doesn’t mean just ‘don’t move.’ It means ‘release your grip.’

The idea that I thought that I had control, that was a lie anyway. If I can start to realize like, yes, the circumstances might happen that are negative or I might be in the middle of a battle right now, but if I can loosen my grip and stop white knuckling it, then I can realize that like oh—God is God, not me, and He’s going to take care of me no matter what happens.

That really is the solution to anxiety. It’s not changing your circumstances or slapping meds on it.”

[Christian Heinze @CPHeinze]

@RelatablewABS @TTuck10 This is so sad - the fact Christians continue to suffer in shame and stigma because Christian leaders continue to slam medication that saved my life and many other Christians' lives, as well. https://t.co/WuwdCicQbn

[Daniel Darling @dandarling]

Images of the Baptist church in Ukraine that Russia destroyed (from Chris Segrest, Cross Church in Sachse, TX).

[OCCA @theocca]

My Story, John Lennox’s autobiography, is released today.

A personal reflection on a life shaped by questions of science, philosophy, and Christian faith.

📘 Available now in the UK: https://t.co/Zx1nMBW3GB

📆 Available in the USA: June 2

@ProfJohnLennox

[Christian Heinze @CPHeinze]

Great list. I'd add one more. Survivability. Recall attempt, personal issues, COVID restaurant visit. Also quickly pivots (trans/sports issue), fast thinker who isn't wedded to previous positions & makes compelling arguments no matter which side he's taken. Quick to read political moment.

[McKay Coppins @mckaycoppins]

As a society, we are making an enormously risky bet: that we can reap the rewards of a runaway gambling industry without paying any price; that the litany of social ills long associated with this vice—addiction and impoverishment, isolation and abuse, cheating and chasing and corrosive idleness—can, this time, be kept in check; that, unlike every civilization that came before us, we can beat the house.

What are the odds that we’re right?

https://t.co/4w7HPUy0Kk

[Christian Heinze @CPHeinze]

The 3 minutes before he starts singing - real Christianity. So real, raw, and beautiful. Then stay for the song. https://t.co/I5id5eeWBg

[Christian Heinze @CPHeinze]

"When wolves comes to steal, kill, or destroy His sheep, Jesus actually becomes the Lamb and offers himself.... Jesus does more than save you from hopelessness. He saves you for himself." - Ann Voskamp https://t.co/Ll8BBtej4H

[James Pethokoukis ⏩️⤴️ @JimPethokoukis]

TIRED: “We’re electing a president, not a pope.”

WIRED: “We’re electing a president and a pope.”

[Christian Heinze @CPHeinze]

I remember lots of evangelicals calling the 2008 Obama campaign movement cultish and wondering if he could be the anti-Christ because of the fervor of his crowds. He was a super popular politician and first black man to conceivably becomes president. And that was enough to make them wonder. And Trump's been doing stuff like this for a long time.

I say this as someone who believes Jesus is the way truth and life, and knows that evangelicals are unfairly portrayed in so many ways. White evangelicals have done so much charity work in inner cities and across the globe that the media ignores, and has so many dear, wonderful people I'd trust my life with.

But the alliance with Trump has cost the church a lot of "you are the salt of the world."

[Matt Lewis @mattklewis]

My Evangelical friends are constantly telling me, "Sure, Trump isn't perfect, but the Democrats blah, blah, blah..."

Question: Can you think of a Democratic president who has ever a) tweeted out a vulgar message on Easter Sunday morning, or b) committed idolatry by casting themselves as Jesus?