YOUR PAIN BECOMES YOUR VOICE | MEN OF LIGHT SPEECH

Your pain doesn’t disappear.

It transforms.

In this powerful message from the Men of Light Program, at the Evening Light Church of Christ, UNHEARD @HLETE Host Ellison speaks on healing, forgiveness, and finding purpose through pain.

No matter what you’ve been through — trauma, anxiety, loss, betrayal — your story still matters.

And your voice still has power.

This is more than a speech.
This is a reminder:
👉 Your pain becomes your voice.

—

🎙 UNHEARD @HLETE
Where Athletes Speak Freely.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Church. Just want to say I want to thank God for bringing me bringing me here today. I want to thank God for waking us up.

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Guys who are watching across the world in the DMV, across America, across other countries. Want to thank you guys for tuning in. Want to thank Bishop Pettis and First Apense for bringing me here. It's an honor for the past empty decades. So it's been an honor. But I want to get into talking about overcoming mental health. I think it's an extremely important topic to talk about. And I want to tackle it just how I tackle things on the field. I want to tackle this topic, you know, right now in this church. So mental health is a very serious problem that in the black community, in my opinion, is very seldomly talked about. It's touch and go. And I think it's very important because someone who's gone through mental health problems, who is still going through mental health problems, we often are told to let it go. It's not that serious. You know, triggering words like that is something that's not really fine to me because you never know what that person's going through. You know, so you never know how that trauma affected that person, how it's affecting that person's livelihood today. So I think it's very important to talk about that. And someone who's, like I said, struggled with mental issues. I've often been told myself to just let it go. It's not that serious, people don't care. Triggering words like that, you know. But people have disregarded my emotions when we came to our mental health. And I don't feel like that's right. I feel like, you know, in order to overcome mental health, I mean, you definitely got to overcome it. You definitely got to conquer it. But there's different ways to go about it, the different ways to, you know, deal with it. Exactly, deal with it, you know, and everything like that. Because the fact of the matter is, trauma hits everybody differently. It takes a while to get over it. It takes a while to get over things. And it's important to kind of be careful and be mindful of how things go like that. So it takes time for you to overcome, you know, with trauma, triggers, etc. So, like I said before, mental health is a serious issue to overcome, but there are tools and different mechanisms to do and to use to get over that, huh? So I'm gonna get into it right now. So the first point is purpose. Finding your purpose, what your purpose is. Who are you? Is my question. Funny thing is, one of my best friends, I'm actually gonna see him later today, he actually texted me a couple weeks ago. He texted me out the blue, he's like, Who are you? I told him, Well, my name is Ellison. What do you mean? I don't understand what you mean, but it's like once we talked, he was getting into like what is your purpose in this life? Who are you? What is what is your purpose for God? What is your purpose to do in this life? So when he took when we were talking for a little bit, when I was going through my mental health problems, I lost my purpose. And I'm not gonna lie, I lost my purpose. I lost my identity because I felt like my identity was doing one thing, but come to find out it was something different. And for the longest time, even still to this, even still to this day, I have a problem, not problem, but uh, you know, a thing that I'm trying to work through in terms of finding my purpose in this life. And you know, that's the hard thing. When you go into mental health problems, it's a storm. When you're going through depression, it's a storm. It could be foggy, it could be distracting, you can't see, and you lot you lose your purpose for a second, for a quick second. But that's where God comes in and scoops you up. You know what I'm saying? So but there are two things I want to talk about when it comes to finding your purpose. First one is you matter, you're important. When you're going through mental health problems, well, I can speak for myself, I can speak for myself personally. That's all right, you know, I didn't feel like I was important, I didn't feel like I mattered. Some points I felt like I was lonely, but I know at the same time, you know, that that was just a lie from the devil. Because I know there are people who care, there are people who love me, there are people who stand by me, my family, and some friends, not a whole lot, but there's some friends who care about me, you know, and I know that I had to realize that I matter. How did this intertrine with God? You know, God's not gonna put as much more on you than you can bear. God's not gonna leave you in the storm forever. You know, you get out of the storm eventually, even though despite how long it may seem, you get out of it eventually. And that's important for us to realize that just because we may have this storm, you know, we get out of it eventually. Second thing, it's talking to God to figure out what's his purpose for you. We all go through one, like let me let me revert to myself because I may be different for everybody else. But for me, I may I may think that I may know all the answers. I may feel like I can do stuff on my own. I may feel like I know what my purpose is for myself, but that's not the case. You know, when you talk to God and you ask God, you gotta ask him to find out what's his purpose for you for his life, for your life. What's his purpose, not your purpose, what's his will? Because at some point we're a human, I'm human. We don't realize and we don't understand that things doesn't always go our way. And we got to realize too that it's not always our will. It's not it's never our will, it's his will. So talking to God, when we talk to God, like our therapist, we talk to God as our therapist, we pray to God as our therapy. You know, mental health, when you're going with mental health, obviously, you have therapists, you have therapy, but when it comes to Christ, God is our therapist. God is when we pray, God is our therapy. And we need to realize that that He is no matter what type of medicine you may use, what type of mechanisms you need to use to kind of deal with your mental health, if you're a true believer in Christ, God is your therapist. Prayer is your therapy. And talking to him and figuring out what's your what's this purpose, what's his will for your life, it's very important. Understand that that's one of the biggest steps to use to heal, which leads to my second point: healing. When it comes to healing, dealing with mental health, you're not gonna get over it by tomorrow. You're not gonna get over it by she's not gonna get over it by today, you're gonna get over it by tomorrow, you're gonna be over it by next week. You may not even get over it by next year. It takes time, it's like a scar, physical scars. They open up, you get a cut. It takes time to heal. You need nourishment, you need medicine, you need all that in order to heal the scar. Yeah, mental scars, you need therapy, you need venting, you need stuff to do things to get over that mental health you have. And it's important. And for me personally, I've been through a lot of stuff that I'm still healing, you know, I need healing till this day. I feel like I'm in a better spot than I was, like, let's say eight years ago, but I still need healing. And it's important to heal because you don't want to get stuck in the mud forever. You know, it's important to overcome these things. Yes, you know what I'm saying? And I will say for me, when it comes to mental health, you know, it takes a process. Healing is a process, you know, you can't rush it, it takes time. And with healing, you know, it's important to know that it's okay to be stuck in the mud, but you can't be stuck in the mud forever. It's okay to be in that darkness, but you can't be in that darkness forever. And as I and the reason why I say it's okay to be in that darkness, not is the fact it's a good thing, but knowing that God is with you through the darkness, light, and all that stuff. So it's important to understand that. So, you know, when I was going through my mental health problems, even till this day, going through depression, I try to do everything on my own instead of realizing that I need to go to God first, that God's my healing, he's my bad name, he's stuff like that. And this is a quick verse I want to bring up. I was looking over like verses a little bit, nothing crazy, but this is a simple verse. First Peter chapter 5, verse 7. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Simple as that. You know, you put all your stuff, put lay everything, everything by the speed. That's allows you to heal and get up and move forward. Simple verse, but it's true. Yes, very true, very true. And in order to heal, which leads to my third and final point, in order to heal, you have to forgive. Forgiveness. Now, like I said, reverted back to myself because I'm not perfect, I make mistakes, but forgiveness and healing are like joining. They're like a one-two punch, they go together. You know, in order to heal, you have to forgive. And you and I was supposed to put this as my second point, but I've realized I might put this as my third point because this is a very important topic to talk about, forgiveness. You know, forgiveness, you know, for humans, for me, you know, despite like whatever, whatever, whatever has happened to you, regardless of who betrayed you, who wronged you, you know, backstabbed you, etc. Our human instinct is to have some type of bitterness, type of hearted heart, anger, resentment. When I was going through my depression, I had a lot of that. And I'm not staying up here saying that I'm totally forgiven or I've totally forgave people for everything they've done to me, but I'm not saying that at all. But that's something I'm working towards and I'm trying to. I'm not there yet. I'm not there yet. But I know it's a hard thing to do, but I'm trying to work right. And I feel like people who are working through forgiveness, yes, you know, we should take this journey together. Yes, you know, and that's powerful. For you know, for humans, it's one of the hardest things we can do, you know, when we feel like we're backstabbed, wrong, betrayed, etc. Like I just said, you know, it's a human instinct to feel like that. You know, however, to keep this in the back of our minds, another verse I want to bring up, Matthew 6, verses 14 to 15 says, for you forgive others of their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others of their trespasses, neither will your father forgive you of your trespasses. That's simple as plain. We got to forgive others for us. We have to forgive others in order for God to forgive us. Because every sin is on the same level, nothing's greater, it's on the same plateau. Yeah, no sin is greater, no sin is less. We all sin the false sword of the glory of God. I've done wrong, I've been wrong, I wrong people sometimes out of anger. I've been wrong. I need to be forgiven things I've done by other people. I need to be forgiven by God. But then the most important, not the most important, but one of the most important things that me and Bishop Peters were talking about, I need to forgive myself. We all need to forgive ourselves for things we might have done. So I think that's important as well. You know, like I said, we all fall, we all sin the false sword, the glory of God. We've all been wrong through God's eye. So it's imperative for us to forgive others for doing us wrong. And in the same way, we need to be forgiven for things we've done wrong to others, and we need to forgive ourselves. Like I just said, you know, with forgiveness, it's not gonna take away the memory. It has to take away like me trying to forgive stuff, it's not uh it's not gonna take away the memory at all for me, and it's probably not gonna take the memory away from any of you guys. But with forgiveness, you know, it takes away the bitterness, it takes away the anger, resentment, it softens your heart, it opens your heart for clarity. You know, like I just talked about before, through the storm, it's it's very foggy, you can't see stuff, you can't see your purpose, you can't see stuff, but with forgiveness, and that you try to work on that, it opens up your mind, it clears your mind, and opens up most importantly, blessings that God has for you.

unknown 11:25

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

So it's truly important to do that. And like I said, I'm not here to be the main spokesperson of forgiveness because I have not reached that pedal that pedigree. Yes, you know, I'm still working on that. But at the same time, I gotta realize, you know, I've done wrong as well. Yes, I've been wrong through God's eyes, other people's eyes, and I need to be forgiven for things that I need to be forgiven for things that I've done as well. So it's important and imperative to know that. So, you know, when forgiving gives you peace, tranquility, and like I said, hope and blessings from God that are coming your way. So, in conclusion, with mental health, it's like a hill you have to climb, a speed bump you have to drive over. A mountain, a treacherous mountain you have to conquer. Yes, you know what I'm saying, or an obstacle you have to face in life. It's a challenge, and it's a challenge facing the beast-like mental health because you know we all go through things, we all have things that impact us, our livelihood, or just our daily walk of life. But it's important to know that you're not alone. There's tools out there.

SPEAKER_02 12:32

Oh, that's good.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

Yeah, there's tools out there for you to conquer mental health and to overcome mental health. And it's a challenge facing a beast like that because in order to conquer, overcome your mental health challenges, you need tools to defeat it. You know, the first tool, understanding your purpose. You matter. You made you're made out of the image of God, you're God's child. We're all you know, God's masterpiece. I remember my high school coach used to tell me, like, we're all God's masterpieces. So you matter. Yeah, you matter. Ask God to reveal, talk to God, talk to God as your therapist. Pray it's your therapy. Ask God for what's your purpose in this life is, what's his purpose most importantly? It's all about his will. And we need to realize that, including myself. Second, you need to heal in order to rejuvenate those scars that you've been holding on for the past um, decades or whatever, years, decades, etc. You know, healing is gonna help you be better in life, it's gonna be able to get you back on your feet. Healing is important, you know, because without healing, you're gonna be stuck in the mud forever or worse. And we don't want that. And then the third thing, you need the tool of forgiveness in order to give peace, comfort, not for the sake of your debtor, but for the sake of you and for the sake of God, because in order, excuse me, in order to be forgiven, you got to forgive others. Not doing it for the sake of the person who did you wrong, but you're doing it for yourself and you're doing it for God and it's supportive. You know what I'm saying? But for yourself, not for the sake of your debtor, but for yourself, and so that God can forgive you of all the sins that you've done as well. So, in closing, you know, there are tools out there, not just earthly tools, but spiritual tools to God that can help you out. So just wanted to say that I appreciate this time. Thank you again. Thank God for bringing me here. Thank you, Mr. Pettit, the first lady credits. I appreciate it. Have a blessed one. Thank you.