About

Check in on your friends and make sure they're doing alright, it's a tough time to be a person. If you are struggling with depression, anxiety, or other mental health issues, know that you are not alone. Reach out to your loved ones and ask them to help you or to help you get help. If you are thinking of hurting yourself, reach out. To find out how you can get help for yourself or for those you love, go to https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org.  We are all very excited for you to join us this week as we continue our series on The Image of God with a previous guest of ours, Dr. Katherine Wyma, a Lecturer of English at Anderson University in South Carolina. In this episode, we do deal with heavy topics such as suicide, depression, and anxiety. If these are topics that you are sensitive to, please be aware of that.  In the intro of the episode (1:01-3:46) Lukas and Jae talk about their thoughts on recording this episode and give the arc and purpose for the next few episodes in the series. In the first part of the episode (3:57-8:42), we hear a little bit about Dr. Wyma, her education, her doctoral thesis, and what she does at AU.  As we move into the next part of the episode (8:56-19:44) and begin our discussion for this week, we talk about the reality of sometimes seeing our Image through "carnival mirrors." Often, we distort the Image of God in us based on lies told to us by the World or by the Enemy, just like Adam and Eve in Eden. We summarize Genesis 3 and talk about the Fall of Man and Dr. Wyma vividly pictures how absolutely horrifying it must have been for all the knowledge of Good and Evil to flood into Eve's mind and soul in one moment. We discuss the shame that Adam and Eve felt after they sinned as we begin to move into our discussion of how Christians today buy into a distorted version of our identity in Christ as Image Bearers.  In the main segment of the episode (20:03-43:00), we turn the conversation towards the primary outworking of the distortion of the Image: mental health issues. Dr. Wyma mentions the importance of realizing that words change and how we do need to be wary of our words in a conversation about mental health, or even in our every day lives. Depression and Anxiety are serious topics and we need to be careful not to be flippant in the ways we talk about these issues. We talk about what Depression and Anxiety actually are and how they relate to the broken Image of God. At one point, Dr. Wyma mentions that this Distortion ending in suicide would be the ultimate win for the Enemy. We talk about how the Church ignores discussions around mental health issues and sometimes goes as far as condemning Depression and Anxiety as sin. We discuss the importance of lending a listening ear and we encourage those having hard thoughts to reach out, turn towards friends and, if necessary, seek help in a more professional setting. Often Christians want to focus on one or the other, but there is a marriage between the spiritual (prayer and the Word) and the physical (medicine and counseling) when dealing with issues like this. We touch on how Jesus would react to the broken among us, and in turn, how we should react to the broken among us. In the conclusion of the episode (43:18-47:53) we talk about how this relates to physical suffering in preparation for our conversation next week. Dr. Wyma shares some of her story with us and leaves us all with some encouragement to walk away with in the midst of our suffering . For more information on what we're all about here at The Audibility Podcast, go ahead and check out our website https://audibilitypodcast.com, and to get connected with us follow us on Instagram, @audibilitypodcast.