May 2017 will see the release of our first booklet – Little Book of Chaos – a response to issues of depression, self-worth, anxiety and the hard times that life brings.

“I was gradually being stripped of my identity and self-worth”

“Depression is a bubble. I am trapped inside while the world continues around me. I am alone”

Can you even begin to imagine wrestling with these feelings every day? Feeling powerless to stop it?

Or perhaps you don’t have to. Perhaps for you, or someone you know, this reality takes over each morning.

“My thoughts are troubled and I keep groaning. My heart is racing fast. I am trembling with fear, completely terrified. I wish I had wings like a dove, so I could fly away and be at peace. I would quickly find shelter from howling winds and raging storms” Psalm 55:2, 4-8 (CEV)

This Psalmist knew pain and suffering. Thousands of years before we’re sitting here reading this, the struggle was just as real.

1 in 4 of us will suffer from a mental health disorder at some point in our lives. If we aren’t affected personally, chances are we know someone who has been or will be.

Mental illness is scary, painful, and all-consuming. It can make us numb to the world, to the people who love us. It is experienced in many forms – panic attacks, self-harm, eating disorders, depression – by hundreds of thousands of different people.

Little Book of Chaos

Despite growing awareness in mainstream media, there is still a lot of work to be done in getting the mental health conversation started – especially in churches.

Here at VerseFirst we believe it’s time to talk. That’s why we’ve created Little Book of Chaos.

Featuring a mix of creatively presented Bible verses and real life quotes from people who have shared their struggles and darkest thoughts, Little Book of Chaos reminds us that the struggles are real and that it’s okay to feel what we’re feeling.

The Bible is packed with stories about people who were full of hopes, dreams, and a whole heap of flaws and questions. Just regular human beings like us. Struggling to understand life, happiness, pain… all the stuff we squash down in our deepest being.

Our conviction is that Little Book of Chaos will be a great starting point to get us talking. If we can recognise our own experiences reflected in the Bible, it gives us permission to feel what we feel.

We hope that Little Book of Chaos will bring opportunity for vulnerability and openness about the ongoing nature of many people’s suffering. We recognise that God is at work in people where they are, and that he will speak through and in the midst of mental health issues.

God is found in our everyday experiences, and wherever we find ourselves, we can cry out to the heavens from there.

Interested in this project?

Right now, we’re busy raising funds to make the Little Book of Chaos freely available to anyone struggling with a mental health disorder.

These funds will allow us to print 10,000 copies, to equip mental health charities, organisations working with young people and you.

If you would like to be help us reach our target, head over to our crowdfunding page and make a donation 🙂 – https://igg.me/at/lboc/x