Thanks for stopping by! Here are my latest posts links. Click a photo below and select the button to read more. You'll also find buttons to frequently visited pages, a teaching highlight video, and endorsements from colleagues and readers. I pray you find encouragement here!
Welcome, Friends
Podcasts as a Spiritual Discipline: 10 Tips for Fruitful Listening
If you’re like me, listening to podcasts is one of the main methods—besides Sunday service and private devotional reading—we spend time with God’s Word during the week. In order for our listening to have a meaningful impact on our walk with Christ, we must approach the practice with wisdom and intention. Here are ten ways you can add intentionality to your podcast listening practice...
8 Truths to Remember in the Midst of Sadness
This printable resource card references 8 common lies we may find ourselves listening to as we walk through seasons of sorrows, and pits them against eternal biblical truths. By providing a wealth of key Scripture references, Dr. Newheiser reminds the sorrowing to look to their identity in Christ and God's unchanging character as a means of sustaining grace.
Hope + Help for Depression & Grief: 9 Episodes You Don't Want to Miss
If you are someone walking through a season of grief/depression, or have been called to care for someone who is, these podcast episodes are sure to offer helpful biblical insights, gospel-centered comforts, and practical applications for taking next steps by faith.
When Depression Feels Safe: A Rousing from Charles Spurgeon
While this article will not speak into everyone’s experience of depression, and I do not dare suggest that all forms of depression are elective, I'm confident some sufferers will be able to relate to what I'm talking about. They’ve sat in sackcloth and ashes more often than necessary because the position developed into a reflexive reaction to relational, circumstantial, or spiritual pain. A coping mechanism, of sorts. A misguided form of self-preservation.
Making Church a Safe Place for Sorrow
By corporately acknowledging the broken-hearted through worship, preaching, and one-another care, we affirm that sorrows of any kind rightly belong in the house of God. Such attentiveness, compassion, and Christian community can become one of the most blessed manifestations of Jesus Christ’s presence we can experience on this side of heaven.
Live Radio Interview: How to Talk to Your Depressed Child
I had the pleasure of being interviewed on The Ride Home with John & Kathy radio show regarding my article at The Gospel Coalition, "How to Talk to Your Depressed Child." For fifteen minutes, we spoke about some of the challenges and necessities of caring for a child who is walking through depression.
How to Talk to Your Depressed Child
As caregivers, our encouragements will inevitably be imperfect, our patience will sometimes tire, and, try as we might, we won’t always be able to understand the perspective of our despondent children. But our loving ministry—alongside the medical supervision of licensed practitioners and the care of counseling professionals—is part of Christ’s care for them.
When We Hit Rock Bottom: Waiting on God in Sad Seasons
There is a special promise for those who shed tears in desperate places—the sorrow will not endure forever.
God will restore us once more, and our joy will be made all the greater for having endured the tribulation by faith.
When rock bottom feels like the end of us, we can trust that Christ will hold us fast—for “with him is plentiful redemption” (Psalm 130:7).
For the Baby I Didn't Get to Hold: A Poem for Grieving the Miscarried & Stillborn
While this poem is for my dearest nephew, Timothy Sawyer, born 6 lbs. 5 oz. and 20 inches long, it is also for family members who have walked alongside a grieving parent—who have shed tears for a baby they never cradled in their arms.
May the love for that child never be deferred, lost, or forgotten, but cherished and proudly worn as a reminder of the joyous reunion that awaits upon the horizon. May we grieve, may we hope, and may we look forward to the day when sad things come untrue.
13 Reasons Why Depression Needs Discipleship • Part II
Between the conflicting messages of the world and the church, it can be hard to understand how discipleship is supposed to fit with the battle against depression. That's why I wanted to offer a series of blog posts highlighting the necessity of intentional discipleship (or biblical counseling) while traveling through seasons of despondency. This post offers reasons #5-8.
13 Reasons Why Depression Needs Discipleship • Part I
Between the conflicting messages of the world and the church, it can be hard to understand how discipleship is supposed to fit with the battle against depression. That's why I wanted to offer a series of blog posts highlighting the necessity of intentional discipleship (or biblical counseling) while traveling through seasons of despondency. This post offers reasons #1-4.
Four Sustaining Graces for Seasons of Depression
Many of us know what it’s like to hope for the cloud of depression to pass. The experience is exhausting—both physically and spiritually. Yet, while depression is a season where our capabilities may be diminished, there are small sustaining graces to partake in which can carry us along while we wait.
Children, Come and See: Displaying Mom's Faith in Christ
Our faithful pursuit of taking pleasure in Jesus is the best witness we can offer our family. By taking the time to share how God is working in our lives, we attract our children to the larger story of God’s redemption. If Jesus is the Gift that keeps on giving, what better way to share the treasure than by inviting our children to come and see for themselves?
Engaging Grief with Hope
Even though grief can be aggressive, pushing it back is not helpful. Grief doesn’t demand to be overcome—it brashly appeals to our hearts, crying, Hear me! This hurts! In short, grief requests our engagement. While some may choose to silence their sorrows through self-medication, followers of Christ are called to engage their grief with hope. Christian hope is not meant to cancel out our griefs and sorrows, but is meant to sustain and comfort us in them and ultimately redeem us from them.
Dancing with Disappointment
I was recently reminded how tempting it is to let dashed hopes dominate my countenance. But once the initial shockwaves settled, I turned to God in prayer and thanked him for leading me to a moment where my hopes and his providence collided.
I recognized the opportunity for what it was: a chance to experience the bite of disappointment without my foundations being shaken. I already knew how to leap with joy through an opened door—now was the time to gratefully stare at a closed one.
Dear Pastor: Please Serve Me Jesus
I recently had the misfortune of hearing a Christ-less Sunday sermon and it grieved me so terribly, I penned some reflections. It was the first time in my Christian walk that I sat at the table in my Father’s house with a fork but no feast. Why is it important to preach Christ crucified each and every Sunday to believers and seekers alike? In this new article, I implore preachers to serve Christ up in every sermon, instead of making him a footnote of liturgy.
My Name is Beloved: Finding Identity in Mental Illness
Once a sinner receives Christ by grace through faith, God will not let his dear ones slip into eternal ruin. No temporary malfunction of the mind can reverse God’s call of his elect. No man’s judgment can nullify Christ’s claim on souls whom he purchased with his blood — including believers living with a mental illness
Good News for the Discouraged Mom on Mother's Day Weekend
Sometimes Mother's Day weekend looks like limps in our hearts and lumps in our throats. When we feel we don't measure up to what it means to be a "good mom," we don't feel much like celebrating life, let alone motherhood. But there's good news to be found for discouraged mothers. Here are gospel truths to remember as your weary heart heads into Mother's Day.
Mourning Dashed Hopes: Biblical Wisdom for Changing Seasons
Author/writer Shauna Letellier recently invited me to share a portion of my story of depression recovery in her "Stories of Hope" summer blog series. In the article, I explain how the failure to make adjustments for our seasons in life can compound our sorrows in dark and dangerous ways. Through the dashed hope of self-preservation, Christ taught me the true and better hope of trusting him fully with my ever-evolving times.
Encouragements for the Discouraged Mom: Real Victory Radio Interview
The recording from my guest appearance at Real Victory Radio with Amy Elaine Ministries is now available to stream on iTunes & Soundcloud.
We chat about messy hearts in motherhood, learning to adapt to new seasons of life, walking through depression recovery, and encouragements for the discouraged mom.
Afflicted Ones: The Church Needs You to Be Brave
Where are the afflicted ones who will take a risk and let their brothers and sisters know they are not alone in their struggles—that they too have walked a forlorn road?
The church needs the afflicted to care for the afflicted so the comforts of God can be fully dispensed. When the afflicted are shamed or silenced or shunned, Christianity suffers and God’s name is profaned.
Being Needy Isn't a Fault—It's a Design
When someone is struggling or suffering, they can sometimes be hesitant to reach out for help. But what does the Bible have to say about our neediness? Is it a character flaw or sin? This article explores some of the ways we view neediness as annoying or inconvenient, and how God's design for his people and community go against the grain of trending cultural norms.
Help! I'm a New Christian Living with a Psychiatric Diagnosis
In this new blog post, I answer a question I received from a reader who is a new Christian living with a psychiatric diagnosis. I share my top four suggestions for charting a path forward, including resources, recommended reading, and notes from a weary traveler who has passed that way before.
The Time God Met Me in the Mental Hospital
It's by design we raise our ebenezer on the battlefields of life. Maybe for you, that place is a hospital bed. Maybe it's a courtroom. Maybe it's a jail cell. Maybe it's a clinic. Maybe it's a cemetery. Believe there is no place too taboo for our Jesus, no building or circumstance can keep him away from consoling your hurt and wiping your tears.
Examining the Dark: What to Do When Depression Lifts
It may sound bleak—or even depressing—to closely examine our dark seasons, but there are many redemptive benefits from endeavoring on such a journey. I want to offer you a few recommended reflections for such times as these, that you might condition your sea legs for future sorrowful swells. As Charles Spurgeon once preached, “Storms help to make the sailors sturdy, and trials help to make Christians strong in faith.”
Encouragements for the Depressed Mom
Walking through depression can be a dark, deep, lonely season of life–especially for mothers. In this video feature at Thrive Moms, I share four huge Biblical truths that have helped comfort me as I’ve traversed the fog of depression.
Should Christians Take Medication for Mental Health Issues?
How should biblical counselors respond to medical treatments for mental health issues? Here's what the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors has to say about it.
What is Self-Harm & How Can We Help?
Do you know someone who struggles with self-harm? Do you feel upset, confused, and helpless to offer them meaningful support?
In this new article, I answer frequently asked questions about the behavior, pointing caregivers to important gospel truths that illumine the road to recovery.
What to Say to Comfort Your Depressed Friend
Depression is too complex to be mended in a single encounter. What your friend needs most from you is compassionate faithfulness–a commitment to walk the length of the dreary road, hand-in-hand, side-by-side.
Overcoming Anger by Grace
Analyzing our anger can be a wonderfully fruitful exercise and catalyst for spiritual maturity in Christ. But it's hard, ugly work. Visit this page for a collection of helpful resources on the topic of anger, such as audio recordings, printable worksheets, a video recording by Christine, and Scripture references.
Pursuing Humility in Mental Health Recovery
Searching for relief at all cost–to the point where life is not worth living unless it comes quickly–is quite possibly the most life-threatening posture someone struggling with severe depression can take.
Approaching the Wounded with Compassion: Video
So what does your depressed loved one need most from you now? And how can you equip yourself to walk them through the darkness? Watch this recording from my "Walking Through the Darkness" video series to hear my suggestions.
Encouragements for the Woman Who Feels Sidelined
If you are a sister in Christ feeling depressed, anxious, bitter, or angry because you have been sidelined from ministry, here are some truths that I want you to remember as you take your turn to "sit out."
Roaming Hell's Hollow: Trusting God in Spiritual Depression
If God’s temporary silence feels like the removal of spiritual training wheels, then clinging to gospel truths is the way we learn to balance on trust instead of perception (Psalm 77:19).
Into the Fire: Fear and Doubt in Mental Health Recovery
Set-backs in mental health tempt us to make predictions about the future of our well-being without any concrete evidence. So what's the problem with our "what if" questions? And what should we ask ourselves when we're overrun by fears and doubts?
Speaking/Teaching Highlights
Christine has written another remarkable, beautiful, transparent, humble piece. I thank God for her voice.
Christine is a rare and wonderful woman, and it's been one of the greatest joys of my ministry to get to have the opportunity to work with her. She takes women deep into God's Word, stretching and growing them in ways they didn't even realize they needed.
Feelings of inadequacy and overwhelmed days can frequent young moms. As Christine opens up her thoughts, she shows how to reign them in with the gospel, explaining how God's path for Christian living is the only way that truly gives hope.
Christine’s writing really speaks to me. I can tell she writes from the perspective of someone who has been there. The thing I appreciate the most is that her writing is so biblically based. It is full of scripture and hope. Could not recommend her more.
I've been following Christine for many years now and I don't want to miss one single thing that she writes. Both her articles and her books are rich with life wisdom and biblical wisdom. She puts the two together fantastically while being so vulnerable about her own life.