Talk Stigma

Foreign. Hi, everyone. My name is Pastor Seth Perry, and welcome to my live stream. I call it Talk Stigma. And it's a time where I talk about everything to do with mental health, stigma and spirituality and faith communities. I'm a recovering addict, and I live well with bipolar disorder. And I'm really glad to be here on Sunday, a day where, you know, I do my thing at church and then I come on Cadre and just kind of just debrief the week and maybe talk about some of the issues that I'm dealing with.

And welcome, Jules. Today I'm thinking about one thing specifically, and it was the theme of my sermon, and I've been thinking about a whole bunch of stuff that has been happening this week. And the one phrase I used repeatedly today was let it begin with me. So if we think about changes that need to happen in the world. Good afternoon, Jules. I'm glad you're here. And Shannon, welcome. If we think about the changes that we want to see happen in the world, if we think about the changes we want to see happen in our lives, I'm thinking about the phrase let it begin with me.

It's a phrase that I saw in my recovery meditations that I was reading in the morning. And Shannon, welcome. I'm glad you're here. Let it begin with me is the phrase let change begin with me. So we can apply it to all sorts of things. So in terms of personal development, which is a lot of what people talk about here in Cadre, Right. Let it begin with me. Let the changes that I want to see happen in myself. I'm not going to look outside of myself. Let's see what I can do today. And what I like about the phrase let it begin with me is it can be just making one small change, one small change once a day.

That can work, you know? Sure. Good. But then let it begin with me. From a macro point point of view, we could start thinking about the larger issues in our world, like war. Right? So let peace begin with me. And I can do one small, peaceful action. If I do a bunch of those actions, then they add up to something substantial. Right. But then also when we look at trauma and specifically spiritual abuse, and we look at institutions like the church, and I know so many people, I get to have good conversations with people and respectful conversations with people who are not happy about how their upbringing was, spiritually speaking.

So for them and for me, then it's good to talk about let that change begin with us. One thing. What's one step I can take Today to maybe spark change in my institution, the church that I'm a pastor of, the greater church in general and all Christians in general. How can I inspire other leaders and other people who come to church just to change the way they think? You know, and that's one thing. So let it begin with me is the phrase of the day. And I want to apply it to a story that's very important to me.

And look, I'm not going to get political. And this is not a political issue, even though I have political leanings. This is a human rights issue. And there are a lot of people that are frightened in America this week. And I want to talk specifically about ICE raids, people who are afraid of being deported from the United States. This is a mental health issue, plain and simple. You can see it that way. And I do as well. The reason why I do is I spoke to another person who was concerned for her own safety and well being and was concerned for the safety and well being of her community.

And I said, because she is afraid of her friends and family members and other people in her community being deported, being detained. Yeah, that affects your mental health. That is active trauma. Active trauma. It's active trauma because it's happening. Just the mere mention of being deported and detained is trauma. And that's why Let It Begin With Me was a statement that stuck with me through the whole week. I read it in that reflection. But then when I got this call from someone this week and said, look, I would love to come to, you know, rural America to go to, you know, your event this weekend, but I can't bring my people there.

I can't, I can't bring people from my community. We're, we're dealing with the fact that we're afraid of being deported. So going to rural America is just not the best idea. And so then I really thought I could just brush that off. But now I see there needs to be a deeper relationship with that friend of mine, that the one thing that I can do in this case is help them with what they're going through. That's the first thing, right? It's the relationship. I've formed a relationship with a colleague and they are concerned for people in their community that are going through it.

I myself, you know, I'll say I'm having trouble sleeping because of work stress. I'm having trouble sleeping because my dog died. I'm having trouble sleeping because I got relationship issues in my family. Well, what if I was worried about being deported? What if I was worried about being detained what if I was worried that the laws of. Of the country that I live in could shift and change? And that's the perspective that I got. So today in my sermon, I said, we need to look out for the oppressed people.

We need to look out for people who are afraid and frightened in our lives and surrounding us, in communities surrounding us. We need to look out for our neighbors who don't know really what the future holds for them. I see that attitude here on Cadre, because the people talk about the Cadre sphere here. And if you're an outsider, you'd come in and be like, like, what is that? And you know, that happened to me when I came here. And what it is is a mindset of understanding, concept of neighbor, what that means.

So in a virtual sense, we come into this space as neighbors with an understanding of deep respect for everyone who comments on videos, produces videos, makes posts, all of that. The concept of neighbor is just tapping into the universal need for other people to support other people, plain and simple. And if that isn't necessarily reflected in the community surrounding us or in the laws of the land, then we need to lean in even harder. And we do so with compassion, and we should be doing so with open ears and open hearts.

So when I say let it begin with me, I'm saying that one small thing at a time. I know I can make a difference for the people that surround me, whether they're just having issues with their mental health, whether they're just having issues with addiction, whether just having issues with their physical health, or maybe they are a caregiver, maybe they're grieving, or maybe they don't know if they'll ever be detained or if they're ever going to be deported. Because for me, today, this week, I learned that that falls under the realm of mental health as well.

So let's try this just for once this week. Let the change begin with you and see if you can improve someone's life in a little way by doing one thing. Have a good week. And guess what? I'll be back next week. I always love sharing this time I have with.