Rethinking Depression

Depression.  It seems we can’t go anywhere, watch TV, read the news without hearing about it. There are endless commercials for anti-depressants and medications to take in addition to anti-depressants if we still feel down. Additionally, there are countless hotlines and programs to prevent suicide.  Therapy is an ever-growing field, and now, we can even use an app to get therapy on the go. According to the CDC, one out of six adults struglle with depression in our nation each year. Enter 2020.  The fear of COVID-19, shutdowns, job loss, police shootings, and violent riots-as if life wasn’t stressful enough.   As a public school teacher, I encounter students each year whose anxiety and/or depression make everyday tasks difficult. But, as we all know, while it is prevalent in society, it is also prevalent in the body of Christ.  Some people may ask why Christians deal with depression when they should be at peace, relying on the Lord for their joy.  As a Christian and someone who has dealt with depression for at least 25 years, I have learned that instead of asking “why”, maybe we should rethink depression in the Christian life.  While it is in no way wrong to seek professional help for this and other mental health disorders, maybe we are missing something.  Maybe depression isn’t only an ill that we must fear and cure immediately, but a part of some of our fallen personalities that God can use in mysterious and beautiful ways.  I try to always consider the following when I encounter depression in my own life:

1. Our relationship with God and others are a factor.  Recently, I stumbled upon a replay of a sermon by Ravi Zacharias which addressed how modern societies wish to rid mankind of all negative thoughts and emotions.  In this sermon he spoke of a new drug, invented but not yet approved, that could erase memories.  The target for this drug is murderers, molesters, the worst of the worst criminals.  With this drug, they could live happy, guilt-free lives.  While this example is extreme, it is important to note in dealing with depression.  Society wants us to believe that we should rid our lives of all negative emotion, but it is imperative to not that some of us deal with depression as a result of sin.  In Psalm 51, David cries out in repentance:

“Have mercy upon me, O God,
According to Your lovingkindness;
According to the multitude of Your tender mercies,
Blot out my transgressions.
² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin.

³ For I acknowledge my transgressions,
And my sin is always before me.
⁴ Against You, You only, have I sinned . . . “ (Psalm 51:1-4).

The first question we need to ask ourselves in dealing with depression is “Do I need to confess and ask for forgiveness?  Is sin causing some of my negative emotions? Am I refusing to forgive others for the wrong they have committed?”  As in Romans 7 and in many of the Psalms, depression which is linked to personal sin, cannot be cured by a medication but only through repentance and reconciliation. 

• We are in good company.  King David, the apostle Paul, Job, Martin Luther, and many great writers, inventors and artists have struggled with depression.  I have many dear family members, including myself, who deal with depression.  Is it odd that so many of the Psalms tell us “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18) and “Even though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil” (Psalm 23:4)”?  Paul seemed to struggle with similar emotions in 2 Corinthians 1:8 saying “We were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself” and “What a wretched man I am?  Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24). Consider Christ himself. He lived a lonely life.  He was misunderstood and, in moments, depressed by the state of mankind and what he had been called to do.  When he asked the disciples to pray with him in Gethsemane, he told them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death” (Matthew 26:38).  Maybe depression isn’t only an ill we must fix.  Maybe it is used of God as it has been in the lives of those who have gone before us. If Christ and so many others suffered depression, why is it that we should never have to deal with it as we share in Christ’s sufferings?
• Depression helps us walk alongside others who are suffering. Because we live in a fallen world, depression touches each one of us.  Some of us deal with it personally, but all of us have family members or friends that deal with or have dealt with depression.  A girl I used to mentor in a treatment facility and I had a saying, “When you feel like you’re going crazy, you are not the only one.”  If we deal with depression, that can be a gift for others.  It can help them know they are not alone and allow us to know how to pray for them specifically and maybe even mentor them in particularly difficult times.  This is another way God can use our own sorrow to bless others.  After all, isn’t it easier to “mourn with those who mourn”? (Romans 12:15) if we’ve actually mourned ourselves?  Paul addresses this blessing of suffering in the beginning of 2 Corinthians when he says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Corinthians 1: 3-4). 

The solution?  Maybe there isn’t one this side of heaven.  We live in a fallen world. Depression will play a role in our lives as humans and even believers, for some more than others.  Don’t get me wrong, it is important that we ask for help if we are dealing with depression or any other mental illness, but may we also consider the possibility that it can also be a gift. For me, I wouldn’t trade my journey with depression for a different life. It puts me in great company, causes me to be more dependent on God, and helps me understand and pray for others who feel alone.  May we all consider the possibility that depression and other hardship may be a tool God uses to refine us and encourage others, a hidden gift from God.

References:

https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/diseases/depression-anxiety.html

https://sermons.love/ravi-zacharias/4301-ravi-zacharias-secularization-pluralization-privatization.html