A Letter to the Church

Beloved Church Family,

I write to you not as one who has abandoned the Lord, but as one who has clung to Him through storms that few could understand. My journey has included the painful weight of being labeled “mentally ill,” yet even in that, I have never let go of God’s hand. Though the world may try to define me through diagnoses and labels, I know my true identity is found only in Christ.

The Psalmist’s words in Psalms 44:20–21 (TPT) echo the cry of my own heart:
“If we had forsaken your holy name, wouldn’t you know it? You’d be right in leaving us. If we had worshiped before other gods, no one would blame you for punishing us. God, you know our every heart-secret. You know we still want you!”

This verse is my truth. God knows my heart. He knows that I have never turned aside to other gods, nor forsaken His holy name. Even in the darkest moments of confusion, even when others questioned my faith, I still whispered prayers to the One who has always been my refuge. My mind may have been misunderstood, but my spirit has never stopped reaching for Him.

I want you to know that I love the Lord with all that I am. My afflictions do not disqualify me from His presence; rather, they have driven me deeper into it. The labels placed upon me by others are not the verdict of heaven. God calls me His child, His beloved, His chosen one. He has never left me, and I have never left Him.

To my brothers and sisters: I ask that you see me not through the lens of stigma, but through the lens of Christ’s grace. I stand as living proof that nothing—no illness, no label, no misunderstanding—can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

May we, as the Body, learn to hold one another in compassion, remembering that each heart carries its own battles. And may we, together, continue to fix our eyes on the One who knows every heart-secret, and who knows that even still—we want Him.

With love and steadfast faith,

Naomie Deborah Tilahun