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Surviving Depression
August 6/, 2006/
*I Kings 19:1-16*
Once upon a time, there was a traveling preacher on the Canadian frontier.
Hungry and tired, he arrived at the home of Christian people to stay the night.
Before he went to bed he entered this optimistic note in his journal:
“Arrived at the home of Brother Brown late this evening hungry and tired after a long day in the saddle.
Had a bountiful supper of cold pork and beans, warm bread, bacon and eggs, coffee and rich pastry.
I go to rest feeling that my witness is clear; the future is bright and I feel called to a great and glorious work in this place.
Brother Brown’s family are godly people.”
On the basis of his entry the next morning before he left his room, however, it appears that his bountiful supper had changed his spiritual outlook.
This is what he wrote in his journal the very next morning:
“Awakened late this morning after a troubled night.
I am very much depressed in soul; the way looks dark; far from being called to work among this people, I am beginning to doubt the safety of my soul.
I am afraid that the desires of Brother Brown and his family are set too much on earthly things . . .
”
Please turn with me in your Bibles to our Scripture passage for today, 1 Kings 19:1-16.
Please follow along with me as I read: /“Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.
\\ Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, "So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow."
\\ Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.
\\ But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree.
And he asked that he might die, saying, "It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers."
\\ And he lay down and slept under a broom tree.
And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, "Arise and eat." \\ And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water.
And he ate and drank and lay down again.
\\ And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, "Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you."
\\ And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.
\\ There he came to a cave and lodged in it.
And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" \\ He said, "I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts.
For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away."
\\ And he said, "Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord."
And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.
And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.
\\ And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.
And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.
\\ And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.
And behold, there came a voice to him and said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" \\ He said, "I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts.
For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away."
\\ And the Lord said to him, "Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus.
And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria.
\\ And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place.
” /
If you suffer from depression you’re not alone; far from it!
Even deeply spiritual men and women down thru history have experienced depression.
Martin Luther, great Protestant reformer, suffered periods of black gloom.
Charles Spurgeon, probably the most effective British preacher of his generation, was immobilized for weeks at a time by depression.
Soren Kierkegaard, influential nineteenth century writer, suffered chronic depression.
And J.B. Phillips sank into a debilitating depression after the popular success of his paraphrase of the New Testament.
Lovers of Jan Karon and her mythical town of Mitford know that in the latest volume in the series, Father Tim, godly Episcopalian, experiences depression.
Father Tim grapples with whether or not to take his prescribed antidepressants.
Elizabeth Sherrill is a Christian writer, one of the editors of /Guidepost/ magazine.
She grew up in a loving family and has a loving family of her own.
She is a successful author.
She enjoys many material blessings.
She has had every reason to be happy.
But Elizabeth Sherrill has struggled much of her life with bouts of depression.
“A nameless, bottomless sadness,” is what she calls it.
“Depression,” she observes in a recent Guidepost article, “can throw its gray pall about us when the sun is brightest.”
David, son of Jesse, poet-king of Israel, and other contributors to the great hymnbook of God’s people, the Psalms, knew depression.
Asaph, temple musician, in the psalm read this morning, speaks of his depression:
“When I was in distress, I sought the Lord; \\ At night I stretched out untiring hands \\ And my soul refused to be comforted.
\\ I remembered you, O God, and I groaned . . .
\\ You kept my eyes from closing: \\ I was too troubled to speak . . .
”
For some of us, depression, at least so far in our lives, is an unknown mystery that those other, rather weird people experience.
There are “sunny Christians,” whose lives seem almost completely free of dark clouds.
And these people are wondering why the pastor is preaching such heavy stuff.
But I think I am correct in surmising that people who know nothing of any kind of depression are in a minority.
And some of them really do get depressed, but just don’t want to think or talk about it.
If you really are never depressed, you need to pay attention so you can respond helpfully to your friends who are!
Some people seem more prone to depression than others.
Depression occurs twice as often in females than in males.
Depression occurs more often in higher socio-economic groups.
Depression occurs most often in the fourth and fifth decades of life, but can be experienced just about any time in life.
Depression can be “clinical,” that is usually requiring medical treatment.
Or depression can be much less severe, but nonetheless troubling.
Depression is the feeling of being “down,” the feeling of being “blue.”
Depression is what we feel when we contemplate our RRSP accounts these days.
Depression is what some feel when they return to work or school after vacation.
Depression can be a letdown after a huge “high.”
Depression is what sometimes hits us along with an attack of the flu.
Depression is what we may feel after a big argument with our spouse, a sibling, or another family member.
Depression is part of the grieving process when we’ve lost a love or a loved one.
Depression happens when anger is turned inward, when we’re mad at ourselves.
Depression and deep fatigue often go hand in hand.
Depression usually walks along with feelings of failure.
What is it that breeds depression in you?
Some Christian writers have told us that depression is sin.
That means we should feel guilty about being depressed.
And that usually makes us more depressed.
We want to rid ourselves of depression as quickly as possible.
We’d like the preacher today to offer three quick and easy steps out of depression.
Much of American Christianity is preoccupied with therapy, with offering cures for whatever ails us, including depression.
But could it be that, instead of searching for cures for everything that ails us we ought to be listening for God’s voice in all the experiences of life, even in depression?
Could it be that depression isn’t all bad?
Maybe there are some things we learn, some growth possible ONLY through these low, dark times.
A sixteenth century monk we know as John of the Cross originated the phrase “the dark night of the soul.”
He described God’s work in us not through joy and light, but through sorrow and darkness.
John of the Cross taught that night and darkness may be the friends, not the enemies of faith.
He taught that God may lead us into a night in which our senses, that is, our usual ways of feeling and experiencing life, are emptied.
Thus, we have no feeling of God’s presence.
John of the Cross described this ‘dark night’ as a time when those persons lose all the pleasure that they once experienced in their devotional life.
And there may follow a deep darkness of purifying and waiting.
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