All Who Are Weary: Easing the Burden on the Walk with Mental Illness

by Emmy Kegler

Overview

We live in an age uniquely attentive to the problem of mental illness. More than half of us will be diagnosed with a mental illness or disorder at some point in our lifetime. It has been easy, for centuries, to relegate persistent emotional and mental struggles entirely to the realm of a failed personal work ethic ("Just don't worry so much!"), not enough faith ("Just pray harder!"), or, in recent years, a chemical imbalance in our brains ("Just take this pill!"). Yet, for those of us who live with mental illness, none of these suggestions provides the quick relief it promises, and the continued struggle takes its toll on our already burdened hearts and minds.

In All Who Are Weary, Emmy Kegler joins the reader on the long walk of reflection, understanding, and compassion, calling followers of Jesus back to ancient practices of lament, vulnerability, honesty, community, and hope. This book is not a map to a cure, nor a perfectly restorative prayer. Written with a wide community in mind—patients, but also parents and partners, coworkers and friends, pastors and therapists, and the whole church—All Who Are Weary points to the embodied grace known in Jesus, trusting in the promise of a lighter load for all.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781506467801
Publisher:	Augsburg Fortress, Publishers
Publication date:	11/09/2021
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Emmy Kegler is a pastor, speaker, and author of One Coin Found: How God's Love Stretches to the Margins. As both pastor and patient, Kegler has an intimate relationship with mental illness and its complex connections to faith. She works to normalize the experiences of depression, anxiety, and a host of other diagnoses and symptoms, treating them not as proof of exclusion from God's grace but rather a common and expansive experience of the human condition in which God remains present and compassionate. She lives in Saint Paul with her wife Michelle and their two dogs and cat.

Table of Contents

Foreword vii

Preface ix

Author's Note xvii

Chapter 1 Sin 1

Chapter 2 Prayer 21

Chapter 3 Seeking Treatment 37

Chapter 4 Sadness 57

Chapter 5 Worry 69

Chapter 6 Psychosis 81

Chapter 7 Trauma 97

Chapter 8 Food 117

Chapter 9 Addiction 135

Chapter 10 Suicide 149

Chapter 11 Boundaries 171

Chapter 12 Self-Care 189

Acknowledgments 205

Notes 207

Editorial Reviews

11/01/2021

Christians struggling with mental health issues will find a powerful, persuasive ally in Lutheran pastor Kegler (One Coin Found: How God’s Love Stretches to the Margins). Kegler, who has dealt with her own mental health demons along with her wife, Michelle, shatters myths that depression and other conditions are a moral failing. She takes a nuanced approach, writing, “I cannot offer the magic words that have healed me or others; what I can offer, however, is the sketches of a wide and wandering map in which I and many others who live with mental illness of all shades are walking.” The church, she suggests, has misunderstood and mistreated mental illness, while derision of conditions like obsessive-compulsive disorder and schizophrenia litter modern conversations, which fuels a sense of shame for those needing assistance. Helping others to walk their own paths toward mental health recovery, Kegler caps each chapter with questions for the reader to ponder—without judgment—as well as suggested further reading, along with healing, normalizing analogies (“We have much greater grace for a broken ankle than we do for our faltering minds”). While encouraging readers to continue their prayer practices, Kegler also gives them permission to seek pharmacological interventions and talk therapy. Kegler offers impassioned salvation to fellow Christians who have struggled with mental health; this book could in fact save lives. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"Kegler offers impassioned salvation to fellow Christians who have struggled with mental health; this book could in fact save lives." —Publishers Weekly

"What a pastoral, kind, and true book. Emmy is a trustworthy guide, a gentle prophet, and a fellow sojourner for the weary and the wounded. In so many ways, this book will lovingly shepherd the lambs." —Sarah Bessey, author of New York Times bestseller A Rhythm of Prayer and Miracles and Other Reasonable Things

"When faced with the topic of mental health, Emmy Kegler offers something that is sadly rare from a Christian pastor: companionship. Not the trite 'I'll pray for you' variety, although she certainly offers prayer, but the rich and deep kind. The kind that pulls up a chair and says, 'I struggle with this too, let's talk.' All Who Are Weary is a refreshing change of pace." —Matthias Roberts, psychotherapist and author of Beyond Shame

"All Who Are Weary is a beautifully and gently written companion to those who journey with mental illness and a guide to help us all love one another better. No matter who you are or where you are on the journey, I hope you'll get this book and allow Emmy Kegler's powerful words to come alongside you." —Kaitlin Curtice, author of Native: Identity, Belonging & Rediscovering God

"All Who Are Weary is an excellent contribution to the project of changing that culture, getting honest about the realities many of us live with, and letting others know they are not alone." —Emily Joy Allison, author of #ChurchToo: How Purity Culture Upholds Abuse and How to Find Healing

From the Publisher