Mental health and well-being is a huge issue. A recent article in The Week magazine stated that ‘In the past five years, the number of Briton’s contacting mental health services has increased by more than one million [and that] mental ill-health is now the leading cause of people under 44 being off work.’ (The Week magazine, 12 April 2025, page 20).
Every month we open up the church and hold a relaxed evening for men to hang out together. It is called ‘ManKIND’. Then, five or six times a year, we run a café night for men where we invite a speaker. Most recently the speaker was Phil Swann, who is a pastor in Llanelli, and before that, a mental health physio working in Heath Hospital.
About 50 men gathered and we heard not only about Phil’s own experiences, but also some really helpful stuff relating to our mental well-being.
Phil pointed out that there was a close connection between the physical and the mental. He also demonstrated that the Bible understands this connection and speaks to it. He told the story of Elijah, exhausted, depressed, feeling a failure, and noted that God‘s response was to give him sleep and food, and then a bit more sleep and a bit more food, before moving on to address the actual issues that Elijah had.
One of the key points Phil made was to talk about the fixed points upon which we anchor our lives. Our culture doesn’t really believe in fixed points anymore. Instead it tells us to try and turn ourselves into a fixed point. Phil pointed out that this is problematic. We are constantly changing internally even at the best of times – our desires and feelings ebb and flow – and if we ever find ourselves struggling internally with dark thoughts and bad feelings then we are really going to lose our way. What we need are some fixed points outside ourselves. Phil pointed out the ones he has a Christian. The first is God himself, eternal and unchanging. The second is God’s profound and deep engagement and interest in our lives. The third is the love of God for us demonstrated by the cross, where the Lord Jesus was crucified in our place to take away our sins. The fourth is the reality that God will accept us once and forever for Jesus sake – he will justify us – by faith alone, becoming our father and committing his resources for our good and our flourishing.