MY PASSIONATE DESIRE –

This morning, I was thinking about what I’m trying to do with this unusual Open Door initiative. I’m sure that many must be thinking I’m bizarre to think I can do something as revolutionary as this. But I think that God is a God of possibilities and I believe that this is his work, not mine alone. I’m only his hands and feet. And he guides my pen in the way you have seen it writing over the last many posts.

My experience of leading a faith-based mental health support group called Living Room for nine years and sending out encouraging devotionals since 2013 has prepared me for the work I’m doing today.

Vulnerable people like those with lived experience are within every country and every culture. All deserve the spiritual support that has proven to offer the best kind of healing for people who are feeling rejected in so many ways.

They need to hear the message that there was a man who lived 2000 years ago whose unconditional love and radical teachings became an example for all mankind to follow. This person is Jesus and I believe that his Spirit is still with us today. We’ve all heard about him, even though not all of us believe the same things about him. I hope that you will come to become more familiar with him and his love by becoming part of an Open Door peer support group. You will learn that he will never reject you.

Although each Open Door group will continue embracing its own faith, I believe we can nevertheless unite with others under the umbrella of unconditional love that is open to all—open to a world that struggles for peace and desperately needs such love.

Though our faiths and our cultures are so inherently different, it would be wonderful to be able to gather together with this one purpose in mind—to help some of the world’s most vulnerable find healing. Through unity in this one cause, may the world unite in other ways as well. May the unifying source of Christ’s unconditional love for all bring hope, not only to the most vulnerable, but to the world at large.

If you are a person with lived experience, consider forming an Open Door group for your peers. Find a co-facilitator who will support you and a place where you could meet. You will be free to have a group wherever you are and whenever it works for you. It should be freestanding—not attached to or governed by a religious institution, or any other institution. My prayer is that the guidelines in the manual and Jesus as your model will supply your group with what it needs.

Let me know if this interests you. I will email you a facilitator’s manual and a set of devotionals to use at your meetings. The devotionals, most of which are about Jesus and what he was like, will be the key. Contact me at marja@marjabergen.com if this is something you feel called to do.