This past week, I spoke to college students at UNT and TWU about navigating mental health and faith together. At the center of the talk was a tension many of us can carry: the assumption that a strong faith should eliminate emotional struggle, and the confusion that follows when it doesn't.

Earlier this month, I stood in front of a room full of youth ministers and their volunteers, teaching them how to recognize and respond to mental health challenges in the students they serve. Watching them lean in as we talked through warning signs and pastoral boundaries, I felt a familiarity I didn’t expect, and I realized: I never really left my work in ministry. My work now is just a continuation of ministry in a different way.