I want to live in a mental hospital

I want to live in a mental hospital.

This past Wednesday night in youth group we discussed a Ted Talk video called “Lessons from the Mental Hospital .”   The woman shared her struggles with eating disorders, depression, and addictions.  She talked about how when she was institutionalized as a senior in high schooler she finally found a community where she could take off her masks and begin to deal with her own brokenness.

One comment that stood out to me was “in the mental hospital everyone wore their scars on the outside”.

Listen to more of the things she said.

• there was no pretending, the jig was up.
• we could express how we really felt
• everyone learned how to be a good listener.
• how to be brave enough to tell our own story while being kind enough not tell anybody else’s.
• nobody was allowed to be left out.  everybody was worthy just because they existed.
• there we were brave enough to take off our [masks]

It struck me that this is the kind of community we need our church and youth group to be.  We live in a world full of broken people, including ourselves.  Let’s not make people wait until they get to the mental hospital to offer them this kind of support.