We often ask - ‘What about you?’

Every fortnight people from a farming background, or who have a heart for the countryside, offer a personal reflection on faith and rural life. They hope that you will be encouraged by it.
Young man in a field and a tractor on a background. Concept of agriculture and field works.Young man in a field and a tractor on a background. Concept of agriculture and field works.
Young man in a field and a tractor on a background. Concept of agriculture and field works.

“What about you?” It’s a greeting we often use.

Perhaps you haven’t seen someone for a while, so when you do, you naturally begin, “What about you?” However, if you suspect they have been finding life tough, then your question, has an altogether deeper meaning behind it. They may have been suffering, and you want them to know that you genuinely care.

As a part-time farmer, who loves the countryside and its people, “What about you?” is a question I passionately believe every one of us needs to ask ourselves and answer honestly. In The Little Book of Minding Your Head, an excellent book by Stephanie Berkeley, she writes, “Mental health in agriculture is the elephant in the room.” We may realise that we are suffering from poor mental health, but we simply try to ignore it and carry on regardless.

Many intertwined issues often weigh down farmers and farm families, from seismic changes in farm support, to a lack of appreciation for farmers, financial pressures to TB, bereavement and family issues to isolation, succession planning, Brexit, and Coronavirus regulations. These are just a few, but are these, or other issues, nagging away at you? Perhaps you feel that to admit it is a sign of weakness, so you don’t to ask for help.

For a moment, let me take you to another rural community and a family with its own deep-seated problems. Two sisters, Mary and Martha, are heart-broken. Their beloved brother Lazarus has died. In his thought-provoking book, Encounters with Jesus, Tim Keller explains that each sister receives from Jesus just the help she needs.

What Martha needs most is Jesus’ truth, so Jesus teaches her, “‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha answered, ‘I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?’” (John 11:23-26).

Jesus says that He is God and so if you believe in Him, if you are His follower, like Lazarus, then you will “live [with Me forever] even though [you] die” - the result? Martha is comforted by Jesus’ truth.

Whatever ache is stretching your heart, perhaps you too really need to hear Jesus’ truth. That, for example, Jesus has died to forgive our straying from God. Or, you may need to hear the truth that Jesus is the Good Shepherd of his flock (John 10:1-21). Perhaps you need to hear that because Jesus is “the resurrection and the life”, He has beaten death for His followers.

But not everyone is like Martha. Some of us are more like Mary, who needs someone to put their arm around her shoulders, grieve and empathise with her. And so that is exactly what Jesus does. “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. ‘Where have you laid him?’ He asked. ‘Come and see, LORD,’ they replied. Jesus wept.” (John 11:33-35).

Jesus weeps with Mary, but we may miss something deeper. Jesus is “deeply moved”, which literally means ‘to snort with anger’. Jesus is angry at the heart-breaking suffering we face, because Jesus knows that He did not make the world to be like this. And the result? Mary is comforted by Jesus’ tears.

Perhaps, in your struggles, you too need to know that Jesus weeps with you. That Jesus is actually angry when He sees your suffering, for this is not how He made the world to be.

So, “What about you?” I warmly commend Jesus to you, who came to bring you His truth, his tears – and hope. And while we have hope in Jesus, there are also excellent wellbeing projects that can help: Young Farmers’ Clubs of Ulster’s ‘YF Sees You’; ‘Make a Moove for Mental Health’; and ‘Across the Hedgerow’. There are also mental health mentors.

Rural Support initiatives include: ‘Life Beyond’; ‘Plough On’; ‘Across the Hedgerow’ and Rural Health Forum. There is also the Farm Safety Foundation’s The Little Book of Minding Your Head, which is very helpful. Pastoral support may be available in your local church (my phone number is also at the end of this article if needed). Support is available here too:

Rural Support: 0800 138 1678, 9am to 9pm, Mon to Fri

Lifeline, 0808 808 8000, open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week - a Northern Ireland crisis response helpline for people who are experiencing distress or despair

Please don’t suffer in silence – consider getting help, and if you think someone is in need, please don’t ignore it and hope it will go away; seek advice and support. Help is available. Please take it.

Rev. Kenny Hanna is minister of Second Dromara Presbyterian Church and grew up on his family’s farm in the foothills of the Mountains of Mourne.

If you would like to talk to someone about this article, please email Rev. Kenny Hanna at [email protected] or call him on 028 9753 1234.

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