When the Noise Won’t Stop. A Christian guide to dealing with anxiety.
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Finding Peace in the Chaos: A Christian Guide to Anxiety and Mental Health
Anxiety is one of the most overwhelming struggles Christians face today, and many wonder: Can faith and anxiety coexist? Does God care about my mental health? In this episode of Sunburnt Souls, we sit down with Paul Grimmond, author of When the Noise Won’t Stop: A Christian Guide to Dealing with Anxiety, to explore these pressing questions.
Paul shares his personal journey with anxiety, his hospitalisation due to burnout, and how he learned to manage the mental noise while deepening his faith in Christ. We unpack what Scripture says about mental health, the role of prayer, theology, and community support, and how Christians can find peace in the midst of anxiety.
Whether you struggle with panic attacks, chronic worry, or anxiety in ministry, this conversation offers practical insights, biblical encouragement, and real hope in Jesus. Tune in for a faith-filled, compassionate approach to Christian mental health, and discover how God’s grace is sufficient even in the darkest moments.
Listen now and learn how to silence the noise with faith, wisdom, and the love of Christ.
Paul, thanks so much for being here!
Paul: Oh, Dave, thanks so much for having me. It’s a real privilege.
Dave: The pleasure is ours! I actually came across your book a couple of years ago during a really anxious period in my life. I had a mate named Rob who was walking with me through it. We’d catch up weekly for an extended time, and as you do when you're supporting someone, you think, How can I help? What resources can I offer? Rob handed me your book, which was a bit of a risk because he hadn’t read it himself. But man, it was exactly what I needed as a man of God wrestling with anxiety. I’m so grateful for my friend, and I’m grateful to you for writing it. What inspired you to put this book together?
Paul Grimmond: Yeah, I mean, I’ve walked with anxiety on and off for most of my life. I’ve struggled with it in different ways. At one point, I was already working with publishers, having written some other books, and we were discussing what to write next. But I felt a real burden for this.
I’d shared publicly about my experiences and had the privilege of people opening up to me about their own struggles. Over time, I got to sit with people and share the hope and truth of the gospel in a way that acknowledges we are human beings—body, mind, and soul.
Then came 2020. I wrote this book in the second half of that year, just after the first big lockdown. Anxiety was through the roof for so many people. It felt like a crucial moment to dig deep into what the Bible says and to research the medical side of things as well.
Paul Grimmond’s Journey: Living with Anxiety as a Christian
I had panic attacks as a teenager, though I didn’t know what they were at the time. I had no language for it. I just closed my eyes and hoped it would pass. In my mid-to-late 20s and into my 30s, the panic attacks returned. I ended up being hospitalised at one point, dealing with a severe episode of burnout in ministry.
Since then, it’s been an ongoing wrestle—learning, adapting, and trying to be faithful day by day, depending on God and living wisely. Some days are better than others. Overall, I think I manage better now than before. But rather than expecting it to disappear completely, I’ve learned to live with it.
Dave Quak: That’s an important shift in thinking. In the early days, were you praying for God to take it away? How did you move from wanting to be free of it to accepting its presence in your life?
Paul Grimmond: Oh, that’s a big question! And I don’t think there was just one moment—it was more of a gradual shift over time. In my late 20s, when I was really struggling and ended up in hospital, I had all these medical tests done. Eventually, a doctor sat me down and said, Look, you don’t have a physical illness. This is anxiety.
That was a turning point. I started learning how to manage it better and realised this wasn’t a new thing—it had been with me since I was young. My body is wired this way, and while it brings challenges, it also brings strengths. I’m emotionally sensitive, which has actually helped me minister to others.
One passage that really shaped my perspective is from 2 Corinthians, where Paul talks about his ‘thorn in the flesh.’ He pleaded with God to take it away, but God’s response was, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. That’s huge. It reminded me that God is at work even in my struggles. Anxiety might be part of my story, but it doesn’t define me.
And he kind of cries out to God three times, you know, "God, please take this from me." It’s really interesting in that text that we don’t get told exactly what the thorn is. We just know that it was miserable. Paul didn’t like it. And he keeps crying out to God to take it away. The passage isn’t completely clear on how exactly he came to the realization, but he says, "Basically, what I realised—what God helped me to understand, and what I heard God say to me—was that what you need more than me taking this away from you is learning that my grace is sufficient."
That phrase has actually become more and more significant for me, especially in pastoring people. Pastoral ministry is a lot of walking with people in the mess of a sinful, broken, fallen world. And over time, I’ve realised that a lot of this stuff doesn’t get fixed straight away. Much of it is about helping people to love Jesus and walk faithfully, even when the mess continues.
Moore College & Mental Health: Training Future Leaders
I'm really excited about what I get to do there. I love being able to work with those people, and there are so many great aspects to it—helping them develop awareness, habits of resilience, and training them to become more personally aware of what’s going on emotionally. Encouraging them to express that can be really helpful, as well as helping them to build solid peer and supervisor relationships for support.
It’s a great encouragement. And hopefully, God willing, sharing these things at this stage in people’s lives will provide them with more resources under God to keep going when things get messy and tough in the future.
Dave Quak:
Yeah, absolutely. And the people you’re investing in are, in turn, going to be investing in others—pastoring churches, going on mission fields. The seeds you’re sowing are going to multiply.
Paul Grimmond:
Yeah, I mean, that’s my prayerful hope.
Dave Quak:
Absolutely. And your book was written with three groups of people in mind. Can we unpack that? Let’s start with the first group.
Unpacking the Noise
Paul Grimmond:
Well, first of all, it’s written for people who suffer from clinical levels of anxiety. I’m so aware that, for many of them, it raises big questions about their faith. It makes them ask, "What does it mean to honour Jesus when I feel so rubbish?" or "What do I do when I can’t accomplish what I want to?" or "How do I deal with the guilt and shame that come with that?"
I wanted to speak to people who share some of my experience and let them know that God has some really precious, important things to say to them in Jesus. That it's okay, and that God loves them.
The second group is broader—our society has become more aware of mental health issues, and nearly everyone I talk to has a friend, family member, or someone they love who wrestles with this stuff. So I wanted to help them gain more awareness and thoughtfulness about how to be a good friend, a good supporter, and an encouragement in God.
The third group is pastors. Lots of church leaders are dealing with these issues all the time. I felt that providing a clear biblical framework and a healthy model for understanding what’s going on would be really useful for them as well.
Dave Quak:
This is a big question, but what is your framework for mental illness? A lot of times on this podcast, we’ve tried to articulate a theology of the existence of mental illness. Some of the problematic theology—the idea that it’s just reciprocity or the result of the sins of your fathers—seems to have been dealt with, which is great.
What does the Bible say about anxiety?
“Thus when the anxiety comes, my first reaction doesn’t need to be “There is sin and I need to stamp it out” but rather, “it’s so hard some days living in this fallen body but God loves me and knows me and graciously holds me in Jesus”
Biblically, I think books like Ecclesiastes speak to this. There’s a phrase in Ecclesiastes that says, "Who can straighten what God has bent?" There’s a sense in which, in response to human rebellion, rather than letting humanity continue on its own path apart from Him, God has made us live in a world where we experience some of the mess of human fallenness and sinfulness—on a cosmic level, an environmental level, and personally as well.
As individuals, we experience this in two ways. We’re not just spirits trapped inside bodies; we are embodied beings. Our physical bodies are part of this fallen world. We all know how that plays out—we get sick, we have bad days, we struggle. As we age, we don’t recover as quickly. If I get injured playing sport, it takes me three months to recover instead of three weeks. That’s just part of life.
At the same time, we are also spiritual beings. We make decisions, we sin, we make mistakes. I borrowed this language from CCEF (the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation in the U.S.), but they talk about people as sufferers and sinners. I find that really helpful.
We live as sufferers in a fallen world—sometimes awful things happen to us, and those experiences contribute to mental illness. We also live in physical bodies, and because of the fall, there are chemical imbalances and neurological issues that make some of us more prone to certain struggles than others.
And then, on top of all that, we are people in relationship with God, navigating our own sinfulness and need for grace.
So, having these three spheres—suffering, embodiment, and sinfulness—helps give me perspective. I don’t get anxious just because I’m a sinner. I get anxious because I’m a sufferer in a suffering world.
Dave Quak: Yeah, I like that. I like how you frame that because it's hard to articulate when you're actually trying to put language to it.
Paul Grimmond: Yeah. No, I think that's been a real challenge.
Dave Quak: Yeah. I spoke to another guy, and his language was like, "Hey, the potential for mental illness exists because of the Fall, but it's not a direct result of a person's engagement in sin." So, the potential for sin is created by the Fall, but it's not a one-to-one correlation.
Sometimes, the people I've dealt with have wrestled with the idea that maybe they've done something wrong and God has afflicted them. What do you think about that?
Paul Grimmond: You know, I just think we have to be really, really careful in that space. I mean, we have to be real about the fact that sometimes we do experience the direct results of our own sinful folly, right? The world's made in a way where, for example, if I burn the candle at both ends and haven’t slept for a week, I might get sick. I think God has wired the world in a way that actions have consequences.
But when it comes to mental health, we're talking about much bigger and more complex things than a direct interplay between "I did something wrong here, therefore I'm experiencing this here."
For me, John 9 is really important. When Jesus’ disciples ask Him about the man born blind—whether he sinned or his parents sinned—Jesus says, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him." That’s a crucial passage because it reminds us that we live in a broken, fallen, and messy world, and that brokenness affects us at deep and complex levels.
Trying to create a direct connection between "I sinned, therefore I’m suffering this" is usually an unhelpful place to go.
Dave Quak: I agree, and that kind of thinking only brings people to a place of guilt and condemnation, especially in a realm that’s already confusing.
When I was still trying to figure out my own mental health diagnosis and was on the journey, I would have been really susceptible to poor teaching because I was just grasping at answers. I was just trying to figure it out—"What’s going on?" But God, by His grace, revealed a path forward for me through Scripture. I just pray that’s the case for other people too.
Paul Grimmond: Oh, totally, brother. That’s so important, isn’t it? We really need God’s kindness and the help of other brothers and sisters to open the truth of God’s Word to us and keep us from false teaching that often piles on guilt and shame where it doesn’t belong.
Dave Quak: Yeah, absolutely.
With your role at the college, you equip a lot of students. Now, some people would say that those with mental illness are not fit for vocational ministry. In my case, I struggle with bipolar. It doesn’t happen as much with me because I’m sort of in between bipolar 1 and 2, but when someone is really manic—especially with bipolar 1—they can sometimes lose grip on reality.
That can be a scary place to be in spiritual leadership because spiritual leadership is, by nature, spiritual, and sometimes psychotic episodes feel spiritual. What’s the interplay between vocational ministry and mental illness? If you don’t mind me asking, Paul.
Paul Grimmond: Yeah, no, that’s such an important question.
What is the biblical perspective on anxiety and mental health?
I always want to say to people that mental health struggles are not an automatic disqualification from ministry. I actually know lots of people who struggle with anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and other conditions who, under God’s kindness, have their mental health well managed. They’ve also learned really deep, significant things about their relationship with God and the truth of Jesus through those struggles.
Paul Grimmond: That enables them to treat people with generosity, care, and wisdom in what they do. But I do say to people that, for some, it might be a reason to choose not to go in that direction. Sometimes the cost of it, the implications of managing it, or what it means for their capacity—whether for people or for certain tasks—might be a limiting factor.
Maybe there are some roles or ministries that they won't be able to do because of how their condition affects them at this time. So, I try to turn that into individual conversations with people, encouraging them to talk to trusted friends and advisors, get feedback, and reflect on their own growth, challenges, and learning. That way, they can discern how their experiences might shape their decision about where they fit in serving the church and potentially leading ministries.
Dave Quak: That's a good insight. It offers the same grace to someone with mental health issues. If we feel called to vocational ministry, we all need a discerning process.
Paul Grimmond: Absolutely.
Dave Quak: It's not everybody's goal, right?
Paul Grimmond: But I do think that discerning process is so important. We often remind people that it's not just their decision to make. If I can put it like that, they make it in relationship with God's people—especially with others who have experience, wisdom, and ministry runs on the board.
It’s vital to invite trusted leaders to get to know you, watch your life, and give you feedback about how God has made you. Are you the kind of person who should be pursuing this kind of role?
Dave Quak: When we link this back to your book, what has been the positive feedback? What have you felt has really hit the mark?
Paul Grimmond: There have been lots of different things. For some people, just the very fact that the book exists—that someone has said, "Hey, this is a real issue"—has been really important.
Some have appreciated a little section where I explore church history, looking at figures like Spurgeon and others who have suffered through the ages. I find Spurgeon fascinating. He talks about his struggles very rarely, but when he does, he’s incredibly honest. He didn't have any of our modern medical categories, but he simply acknowledged, "This is a thing."
He also made the point that if you think people can just snap out of it, then you’ve never experienced it and don’t understand what’s going on. I think it’s helpful for us to realise that we’re not the first believers in history to wrestle with these things. Christians have had the Scriptures, lived in a fallen world, and faced the reality of mental suffering for centuries.
That sense of not being able to just "fix it" by sheer effort of will is something that people have found comforting.
I've had readers who were initially thinking about how to care for others but then realised, "Oh, I experience this too, and I’ve never had a word for it." I’ve also had guys in ministry for 20 years say, "I think I’ve experienced this, but I’ve never understood it." That’s given them avenues to talk about it, seek support, and think through it in a new way.
The thing that has probably resonated most is the idea of taking responsibility for something you’re not in control of. It’s a strange concept, isn’t it? You can’t control it, you can’t make it go away, and you can’t fix it. But even so, the people who seem to live well with it are those who say, "This is a part of me. There are things I can take responsibility for, and I will entrust myself to God in this space."
I think the grace that Jesus offers in His death and resurrection is so important. Jesus says to us that God loves us—not because of our circumstances, but apart from them, with absolute clarity.
People who wrestle with anxiety often feel ashamed. They think, "I'm struggling to get to church—how can I be godly? How can I even be a Christian? I'm struggling to serve others—what does that say about me?" That sense of shame and guilt can be overwhelming.
But God says to us in Christ, "I love you. I have committed myself to your complete forgiveness and cleansing." The language of adoption is so powerful—when God adopts us as His children, we don’t become part of the family only when we’re doing the right thing, only to be kicked out when we fall short.
How does God’s love help us through anxiety and struggles?
By faith and coming into a living relationship with God, you stand in a place of security and certainty with Him. For people struggling with mental illness, that's such an important truth to hear. But you also need brothers and sisters around you to keep sharing it with you and to pray with you about it.
And they help you to just cling to it when sometimes it doesn't feel very real.
Dave Quak: Absolutely. I was praying with a loved one a few days ago about some of the heavier things in life, and we got to a place where we needed to pray, "Let me let You love me" when it came to some of the darker places. Because when we were praying, there was a sense—though it wasn’t true, obviously—that there are some areas of darkness when it comes to mental illness that we don’t want God to love us in, because we don’t feel like they’re the lovable parts of us.
We feel like they’re the unredeemable parts or the evil parts. But like you just said, positional righteousness means we are made right in Christ as a condition, not as a temporary state. We've got to allow God to love us in those places because there's no other way for them to be redeemed except through the love of Jesus.
Paul Grimmond: And there are little truths there that are so helpful for us to cling to. When there are those parts of me that I’m afraid to acknowledge before God, or that I feel embarrassed about and don’t want to bring into the open, I have to remember—God already knows.
Dave Quak: He already knows.
Paul Grimmond: He knows what it’s like. He knows you. He knows those things are there. When you tell Him, He’s not shocked. He’s not going to run around the room and shout at you. He’s not going to turn away from you. There’s this tender compassion with which He sits and loves His children.
When we come and speak to Him about those darker places we experience, He is ready and willing to receive us and will treat us with incredible tenderness and kindness.
Dave Quak: Absolutely. I know my story is not unique, but I didn’t fully understand the depth of God’s love for me until I went through dark times—until I had to sit in them for a prolonged period and have Him be God to me. Have Him be my Father, ministering to me.
It’s a horrible way to go about it. If there was a quick pill or something, you’d take it. But the result? I wouldn’t change it for anything.
Paul Grimmond: Yeah. And that’s the interesting part, isn’t it? You’re right—it feels so awful at times, and you just think, "I wish there was another way." But there isn’t. There’s no shortcut to truly grasping the depth of the riches of the love of God in Christ Jesus.
His love is deeper, bigger, richer, and more real than anything we can begin to imagine. But it takes time, suffering, and difficulty to truly know it. There’s that phrase in Hebrews where it says even Jesus was made perfect by His suffering.
Exactly what that means? It feels like it's at the edges of our capacity to understand. But at least part of it must mean that Jesus was made into our perfect High Priest by His suffering so that He could stand with us in compassion.
He knows what it’s like to suffer and experience the anguish of living in this world. So when I come to Him and say, "It feels like this," or "I hate this part of me," or "I feel so embarrassed or ashamed about this," I know He already understands.
And He’s going to receive me tenderly, with open arms. It’s so hard for us to believe sometimes, but Scripture is really clear—that’s how God is toward us.
Dave Quak: He loves us. If you read the Bible for five minutes, His love saturates every page.
Paul Grimmond: Yeah.
Dave Quak: Yeah, he really does care. What I really liked about your book was when Rob gave it to me. The phrase that stood out was "when the noise won't stop"—the title. At that point, it felt to me like 45 TV channels were on in my brain all the time. The noise wouldn’t stop, and I couldn't get away from it.
Even going to the beach, away from everyone else, the noise came with me. Hiding from it, the noise came with me. Have you got any insider advice, even just one step, for anyone who feels like every TV channel is on in their mind right now? What's the first step towards stopping the noise?
Paul Grimmond: I wonder if it's just acknowledging and realising that the noise is a sign that things aren’t right.
You're not responsible for the noise. You can't automatically fix all of it, but you can acknowledge it. You can recognize that it’s there, that it's having an effect, and that you need to reach out and tell someone about it. I think we really need the body of Christ at this point—to love us and serve us.
I also think the noise is often filled with the language of accusation—shame, that sense of disgust we feel with ourselves, all of that kind of stuff. One of the things God has helped me to do over time is learn to doubt the noise.
If I could put it like that—when I was experiencing the noise, I used to get caught up in it, trying to solve it and fix all the bits. But I couldn't hear, and then another thing would come, and I'd bounce around all over the place. Over time, God has helped me to recognise that when that’s happening, it’s just an anxious part of me speaking. I don’t need to listen. Now is not the time to listen. Now is actually the time to say, "Okay, I’m feeling it. I can't make it go away, but I don’t need to sit and listen to everything it’s telling me."
Does Anxiety Ever Go Away?
I'd say it's gotten duller. There are days when it stops. I’m not there all the time, but I go through seasons when it comes and goes. I'll have patches where I wake up at 4 a.m. and my mind is looping a thousand times. I’ll try to pray, and then I'll go around the loop another thousand times.
Yeah, all that stuff still happens. But now, in God's kindness, I'm not quite as anxious about being anxious. I can acknowledge, "This is a thing. I’ve got to persevere and just put one foot in front of the other today." My job today is just to survive. Today is not about solving everything and fixing it all for tomorrow. I just need to sit in God's grace and do what He's put in front of me today.
I’ve also come to realise that, at some level, the noise has helped me grow. It’s become part of who I am in a way that God has even used that horrible thing for good in my life. On my better days, I can see that, explain it, and recognise how it's happened. And then there are other days when I’m just clinging on for dear life.
Dave Quak: I appreciate that you can do one thing. When I was researching this book and watching some of your other interviews, I thought to myself, "This is a man who is comfortable in his own skin." You seem like someone who has wrestled with a lot and come to grips with who you are in the world.
And I don’t think that happens if we just have an easy, normal life. It takes processing. It takes self-reflection. So, do you like being Paul Grimmond?
Paul Grimmond: I am so thankful to God for who He made me to be. I’m thankful for the privilege of who I am and what I get to do. There are still weird things that happen—like when I get up to preach, I’ll come down and feel like I’ve been stupid or said something I shouldn’t have. But you know what I mean.
Paul Grimmond: Like that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And that's just part of my life. I live with that, and I don't want you to feel like, "Geez, cut it off."
Dave Quak: No, I don't think you've got it all sorted.
Paul Grimmond: Right, right. But I just want people to hear that. I feel deeply thankful for what God has put me through. I'm thankful for the way it's helped me to love other people. I'm really thankful for the relationships and the depth of relationships it's given me. I feel like it's helped me to mine the depths of the gospel.
Dave Quak: Yes.
Paul Grimmond: And understand some of the reality of God's love and God's promises.
How did Charles Spurgeon struggle with anxiety, and what can Christians learn from his battle?
Spurgeon used to spend three to six months at a time over in Europe convalescing when he was at his worst. Nobody ever tells those stories. You just hear the story about him preaching to 10,000 people and 100 people getting converted—yada yada.
The elders in his church semi-regularly sent him away to get some rest or to do other things. It's okay to be human. If you ever get a chance, read The Ministers Fainting Fits.
Dave Quak: Okay.
Paul Grimmond: It's one of his Lectures to My Students. It's a beautiful description of the reality of this experience in ministry and the need to trust in God and rest. It's a lovely piece.
Dave Quak: I'm going to read that because I love Spurgeon. He's such a character.
We spoke about the areas that people found helpful in the book. Have you found that people are saying, "Okay, Paul, book number two—we need more information on this"? Has there been a desire for more?
Paul Grimmond: That's an interesting question. Most of the feedback I've had has been overwhelmingly positive.
Dave Quak: Yeah.
Paul Grimmond: It hasn't felt like there are huge gaps. But as I keep reflecting, I do think there are other important things to consider.
I think things like family of origin, the influence of your own family growing up, and how that impacts the way you respond to these struggles. There's probably more room to explore how to bring grace into that, especially if you've come from a place where your family has been unhealthy or unhelpful. That can contribute to your experience, and I think there's more space there to explore those things.
Dave Quak: I think that's good. This may not be your wheelhouse, but if you know any academics who want to write to 13-year-old girls like my daughter, equipping them on how to support their friends, that would be helpful.
My daughter is 13, and regularly, she comes home and says, "My friend had a panic attack, and I just stood there like a stunned mullet, not knowing what to do."
We need to be equipping those who are the supporters—because this is just growing and growing, and it's affecting younger and younger kids.
Paul Grimmond: Yeah, yeah. That’s really interesting. I do think the youth space is a really significant one because they encounter this a lot now. And again, having that framework to work out how to be a good friend is crucial.
Dave Quak: Yeah, they fly in blind. And then the residual effect is mental pressure on the supporter because they don't know how to help. That’s an important space we should explore.
Paul Grimmond: I've seen that in people in my own family—teenagers trying to look after others and having that exact same struggle. As a teenager, you're still trying to make sense of yourself while also trying to love and support others. That’s a really complex space to navigate.
Dave Quak: That’s right. And when you're trying to figure out yourself and your own faith.
Paul, Matthias Media is your publisher. What’s your preferred way for people to get hold of your resources?
Paul Grimmond: You can go straight to their website—Matthias Media. You can buy directly from the publisher.
You should know that I don’t make anything from the sales of the book. I’ve signed over all the royalties to the publisher.
Dave Quak: I didn’t know that.
Paul Grimmond: Christian publishing is a hard place to make money. I love Matthias Media because they keep trying to produce gospel-based resources on a whole range of topics. I want them to survive by seeking ways to keep going.
Anything earned from the book basically goes back to them to help produce more resources.
Dave Quak: So that's awesome. Is it available on Amazon and all that?
Paul Grimmond: Yeah, you'll be able to find it on Amazon and through any of the major Christian bookstores around the country as well.
Dave Quak: When they buy it, not directly from a source, does that mean there’s less commission going back to Matthias?
Paul Grimmond: Absolutely. If they buy directly from them, then all the profit on the book goes back into them being able to produce other resources.
Dave Quak: Yeah, okay. So listeners, do that because it is a great ministry. What about e-books? Are they available? Is it on Audible?
Paul Grimmond: No, it's not on Audible, but it's available as an e-book—Kindle and all that kind of stuff.
Dave Quak: Just as we start to wrap up, why don’t you give us a little bit of an update on what’s happening at Moore College? A lot of my friends got equipped there. One of my friends went there, came back, and schooled me on something I had learned, and he was right! So I was like, okay, they’re doing good stuff there. What’s going on at Moore at the moment?
Paul Grimmond: The big news for us in the last few years is that our four-year program, which is our central training program for people going into full-time, word-based ministries, has been a bachelor’s degree. We’re in the process of turning that into a master’s degree. So we’ve been reviewing our curriculum at a very significant level over the last three or four years.
Some of the big changes include doing a lot more in the reflection space—helping people be more personally aware of what’s impacting them and how they’re impacting others. We’re also working on integrating problem-based learning towards the end of the course, helping students think through how their biblical understanding, theological training, and church history all apply to real-world ministry.
Like many tertiary institutions, it’s easy for different departments to become siloed—the Old Testament guys focus on their area, the New Testament guys on theirs, the ethics guys do their thing, and so on. But we keep reminding ourselves that our job is to train people who can bring all of this together, apply it to real life, and teach others to love and serve Jesus.
We’re working on making sure students can integrate these elements better, so they’re better prepared when they finish their studies. That’s some of the key work we’ve been focusing on recently.
Dave Quak: That’s exciting. That’s super cool.
Paul Grimmond: Yeah, it’s very exciting.
Dave Quak: Awesome. Well, Paul Grimmond, it has been such a pleasure having you on the show. I appreciate your generosity with your time, wisdom, and insight. I’d love it if you could pray for us as we start to wind up today. Is that cool?
Paul Grimmond: It would be a great privilege, Dave. Thanks so much for having me—it’s an enormous privilege to be able to speak here. Let’s pray for people who are struggling.
Dave Quak: Awesome.
Paul Grimmond: Father in heaven, we thank you that you are the Lord of all the universe. We thank you that you know each one of us intimately and personally. And we thank you, Father, that you have made a promise in Jesus to be with your people, even when they sit in the deep blackness of anxiety and depression.
Father, we pray for those who are listening who are really in the midst of an intense struggle at the moment. We pray that you would help them. When the noise won’t stop, help them not to listen to the noise. When they feel like they are in darkness and their prayers are bouncing off the ceiling, we ask that you provide people around them who will love them and remind them of your grace.
We pray for the supernatural work of your Spirit, that people might be able to turn and see Jesus and remember that the cross is the promise of your love—not their current circumstances.
Help them to know they are adopted children and that even in their struggles, they wrestle in a place of security, with you as their loving Father.
Lord, we long for the day when Jesus returns, when you will wipe the tears from our eyes and the distress of this world will pass away. But until then, Father, we ask that you hold on to us and grant us the grace to cling to you.
Please, according to your promises, use even these hardships to grow us in the likeness of Jesus and in our love for you.
We pray all these things in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Christians Struggle with Anxiety and Still Have Strong Faith?
Many believers wrestle with anxiety and wonder if it means their faith is weak. Paul Grimmond, author of When the Noise Won’t Stop: A Christian Guide to Dealing with Anxiety, shares his personal journey with anxiety, burnout, and hospitalisation—highlighting how God’s grace is sufficient even in our struggles.
Does the Bible Address Mental Health?
Paul explains that mental illness isn’t necessarily a result of personal sin but rather a reflection of living in a fallen world. He references passages like 2 Corinthians 12:9 (where God’s power is made perfect in weakness) and John 9, where Jesus corrects the belief that suffering is always linked to sin.
How Can Christians Support Loved Ones with Anxiety?
Paul’s book is written for three groups:
Those personally struggling with anxiety, offering biblical encouragement and practical wisdom.
Friends and family who want to support a loved one.
Pastors and church leaders seeking a biblical framework to walk alongside those battling mental health challenges.
Can People with Mental Illness Serve in Ministry?
Mental illness does not automatically disqualify someone from ministry. Paul encourages those called to serve to seek wise counsel, be self-aware, and understand their limits while trusting God in the process.
How Does God’s Love Help in Times of Anxiety?
One of the most powerful truths Paul shares is that God loves His people even in their struggles. Anxiety does not change your identity in Christ. The invitation is to lean into God’s grace, seek support from the body of Christ, and remember that healing can be a process.
How to get help with faith and mental health
If you’ve been wrestling with mental health struggles or navigating the balance between faith and medication, Sunburnt Souls is here to remind you that you’re not alone. Through open conversations and shared stories, we explore hope and healing in the messiness of life. Visit sunburntsouls.com to connect with resources and listen to more episode. Subscribe here to continue receiving updates.
