{"id":1276,"date":"2019-09-27T12:42:47","date_gmt":"2019-09-27T17:42:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/?p=1276"},"modified":"2019-09-28T12:47:06","modified_gmt":"2019-09-28T17:47:06","slug":"pastor-and-mental-health-advocate-jarrid-wilson-dies-by-suicide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/2019\/09\/27\/pastor-and-mental-health-advocate-jarrid-wilson-dies-by-suicide\/","title":{"rendered":"Pastor and Mental Health Advocate Jarrid Wilson Dies by Suicide"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mental health is a serious issue that we do not address well as Evangelical Christians.\u00a0 For those of you who believe that the mentally ill individual can just “power through” this by “trusting in God,” I would offer you a chance to reflect that it is not so simple.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Mentally ill people are not necessarily demon-possessed.\u00a0 Brain structures and chemicals DO matter.<\/p>\n

Love and prayer are still required beyond the physical treatments!<\/p>\n

RIP Jarrid – may you finally experience the “peace that passes understanding” with Jesus now<\/p>\n

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Before his death, he tweeted, \u201cLoving Jesus doesn\u2019t always cure suicidal thoughts.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Jarrid Wilson, a California church leader, author, and mental health advocate, died by suicide Monday evening at age 30.<\/p>\n

Wilson, known as a passionate preacher, most recently was an associate pastor at megachurch Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California. A co-founder of the mental health nonprofit Anthem of Hope, Wilson was open about his own depression, often posting on his social media accounts about his battles with the mental illness.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a time like this, there are just no words,\u201d said Harvest senior pastor Greg Laurie<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes people may think that as pastors or spiritual leaders we are somehow above the pain and struggles of everyday people. We are the ones who are supposed to have all the answers. But we do not,\u201d Laurie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, pastors are just people who need to reach out to God for his help and strength, each and every day,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

His wife, Julianne Wilson, posted<\/a> a photo tribute of her husband on Instagram. The photo slideshow shows him fishing \u201cin his happy place.\u201d She described her husband as \u201cloving, giving, kind-hearted, encouraging, handsome, hilarious.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo more pain, my jerry, no more struggle. You are made complete and you are finally free,\u201d she wrote in the caption.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuicide doesn\u2019t get the last word. I won\u2019t let it. You always said \u201cHope Gets the last word. Jesus does,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

News of Wilson\u2019s passing followed a series of tweets the young pastor posted throughout the day Monday that dealt with suicide, including a post encouraging followers to remember that even though loving Jesus doesn\u2019t cure illnesses such as depression, PTSD or anxiety, Jesus does …<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/a>…<\/p>\n

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This content was originally published here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mental health is a serious issue that we do not address well as Evangelical Christians.\u00a0 For those of you who believe that the mentally ill individual can just “power through” this by “trusting in God,” I would offer you a chance to reflect that it is not so simple. Mentally ill people are not necessarily […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8kHU7-kA","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thelight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/92082.jpg?fit=1200%2C675","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1276"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1282,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276\/revisions\/1282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}