September (Web-only) 2003

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Sheila Walsh communicates her Christian faith through broadcasting, singing, writing songs, writing books, and speaking at conferences, most notably Women of Faith. In her books, such as Honestly and Living Fearlessly, she revealed her own journey of faith in an unusually unguarded way. Her latest is titled All That Really Matters (Waterbrook).

In your books and speaking, you've been very honest about your struggles. How have people responded?

Well, it's really important for me, Dick. I mean, it was 12 years ago that I was in the psychiatric hospital, but this year at all the Women of Faith Conferences I talk on Friday night about the fact that, you know, many of you know I went through that experience and struggle with that. But what you might not know is I'm still on medication. It's an ongoing battle for me. I'm not fixed.

But I find that really delightful that God uses our brokenness to be a bridge to other people. A number of people who have written to me, after conferences and said, Look. I've tried to be okay. I came off my medication. I've been really in trouble. How do you talk? The thing that surprises people is you could be involved in something. God can still use you when you're not perfect.

Why does the church have such a difficult time handling honesty?

There's this little echo inside where you think, if you knew the real me, I wouldn't belong here. That, to me, is such a shame. We should be able to be the most honest people, the most vulnerable, the most transparent.

We know that we come to the cross because we've blown it, because we're sinners, because we're hopeless. And then we spend the rest of our life trying to prove to God he probably didn't need to do that anyway because we've got our act so together.