Nicky Gumbel testified about how God healed him from panic attacks and taught him how to rebuild his trust.
Nicky Gumbel
The pioneer of Alpha Course, Nicky Gumble, shared a beautiful story of God’s restoration and healing. He first mentioned what C.S Lewis said about grief. According to him, when the author’s wife died, he felt like a door slammed in his face. He believed that he experienced the same thing when his close friend, Mick, died. “I expected to feel the comfort of God’s presence, and I didn’t. And it was a very difficult time,” he recalled.
His friend died in front of him while he was playing squash. Because of that traumatic moment, he experienced panic attacks for several years. He had not talked to anybody about what had happened, even his wife.
“It was too painful to talk about. I felt a lot of guilt about what had happened. I felt it was my fault that he died. And that I hadn’t been able to save his life,” he highlighted.
Streams Studio. (Screenshot). (2024). Rebuilding Trust. Retrieved May 15, 2024: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPs5l2mLJ58
Healed Him From Panic Attacks
Furthermore, he mustered the courage to talk to his wife and then to a therapist. That’s when he learned that mental health challenges are something that people would face. “Just because you’re a Christian, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have mental health issues,” he emphasized. Then, he explained that there are ways of coping with it. For him, it was not wrong to go on medication or therapy. He reminded people that they were human beings with fallibilities. He believed that it was not wrong to ask for help.
Moreover, he treated the healing journey as a process of rebuilding trust. “It’s like in a relationship when something has gone wrong, and trust has been broken. It takes time to rebuild trust. And I think it took me time to rebuild trust in God,” he shared. Since then, he has been fully convinced that God loves His people and He is with them even when things go wrong.
Watch the full testimony here.
Reference | Streams Studio
Header Image: Streams Studio. (Screenshot). (2024). Rebuilding Trust. Retrieved May 15, 2024: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPs5l2mLJ58
