It’s time to start having uncomfortable conversations about mental health

Hope Virgo has some advice on reaching out to people in practical ways so that we fulfil God’s commandment to love everyone 

We all have those people we’d rather avoid, don’t we? The ones that are slightly irritating, maybe a bit too broken, a bit too hard to love. Those people that when we walk into church, we would rather be five minutes late than get stuck wedged into a pew with…or maybe we are that person? That person who feels too broken and, however hard we try, we can feel stuck. I know I felt like that for many years, and still do sometimes, attending a church – afraid of people talking about me, or afraid they would see how ‘wrong’ I was in myself. And yes, before you ask, I was that person who enjoyed wearing a mask to church because it helped me feel safe; I could protect myself from others.