Emily Parker spoke with author, award-winning blogger and speaker, Emma Scrivener.

Emma: A number of things. Partly it's because I write a blog and talk about different mental health struggles. What I found was that as I wrote about these things, other people came back and said, "Me too!"

I have found that church can be the most amazing place for people like me, who feel messy, weak and broken. The church I'm in at the moment is amazing and wonderful. But there are times when I think Christians can make judgments. Things like, if you prayed more you wouldn't feel so anxious. If you had a bit more faith you wouldn't be so stuck. I was thinking back to when I was younger and hearing these stories, the before and after, of people being fixed, and I wanted to go back to myself at that age and say, "No, no, no! That is not what the gospel is all about." I wanted to say again for me and the other people that I talk to on the blog and in life, who struggle, saying, "Is it ok to be a Christian who feels like this?" And, "Shouldn't I have been better by now?" Or, "Why am I struggling? Is there space in the Christian life for this darkness?" I wanted to say, "Yes there is." We have a God who comes for people; not just people who are fixed. He is a God who works miracles in our life and can work miracles overnight. I've seen that in the lives of many people and praise God when it happens. But He is also there for people like me who are working things through and it's ok to be working things through and not have it all together. In the book I wanted to say that.

I also wanted to talk about the Christian life in terms of a day and that's why it's called A New Day. We start with the evening, with our struggles, where we try and fix them. Then we move to the darkest point of history where Jesus himself comes into our darkness at the cross. We then think about what that looks like in our lives. Does it mean suddenly everything is fixed? Does it mean this new identity is something that happens all of a sudden, in the sense that I'm a Christian, I've moved from death to life, but it is also a process, in the sense that I'm being changed day by day.

The picture that the Bible uses is that we're like a bride, with my dear prince. But do you know what? If you're a beggar and you suddenly become a princess overnight, you don't feel like it straight away. In fact you'll live the way you used to live as a beggar, even though you're a princess. So it's just unpacking that and unpacking it particularly as it relates to mental health struggles.

There are some issues that we face that God delivers us from and really helps us with, but there are some things that are ongoing. I'm thinking of things particularly like depression, where it's not necessarily true that it just goes away. It might be something that you have to deal with on and off your whole life, but God is there for you in that, and not just before you feel depressed and then after, and nowhere in the middle. He's there right in the middle of it as well.

The book is thinking about these things and then thinking about how do we see ourselves as Christians if we struggle, and how do we help those who do, and how can the Church help?

Emily: That's fantastic Emma. If we want to get a hold of a copy of your book how can we do so?

Emma: You can get it in Christian book shops. You could also get it through my blog, which is emmascrivener.net. You could get it through SPCK publishing or IVP, or Amazon. And if not then go in and demand your copy! Ask them, "Why are you not selling this incredible book?"