Rachael Newham

If you’ve read any of my blogs recently, either on here or on my new blog –  http://thinktwiceblog.wordpress.com/ (apologies for the shameless plug) then you will know that I recently spent two weeks shadowing and working with the Spiritual Care Department of the Hertfordshire Partnership Trust. Having travelled around nine different mental health units, I feel I am at last beginning to understand the phrase ‘Break my heart for the things that break yours’. Seeing so many people in the grips of unspeakable pain has literally made me weep. Hearing about lives that have been spent battling abuse, mental illnesses and addictions have allowed me to see people in the tiniest way, how God sees them. Not as illnesses, weirdos or people to be feared – but people to be admired, loved and supported. So many of us avoid the dark and difficult places in society; yet we only need to flick through the gospels to see that Jesus inhabited the places and spoke to the people that society fled from. I am guilty of letting my fear and embarrassment stop me from reaching out, but I hope and pray that I remember to see the people who God created, precious and unique and to treat them as such. Remind me I wrote this if needs be…