Hi, how are you? Feeling good, feeling bad
Introduce Depression as part of the series
How well do we know each other? As we find out how different we are how do we react? Specifically, when we face mental health issues ourselves, how does our faith in Jesus help? Does being part of this community of faith make it better or worse? When you discover someone else has a mental health issue does that affect your attitude toward them or the way you treat them?
The series we are launching is intended to do two broad things:
- Learn Jesus’ very practical acceptance and love for meProvide those of us who feel different sometimes (most of us in one way or another, or at one time or another) with an understanding of how Jesus views us, what he offers and what his Body, the community of faith, can do to help. We may be challenged by a mental health problem or we may simply feel like we are different for other reasons – financial, culture, education, age, behaviour, previous life choices.
- Learn Jesus’ way of offering friendship to othersEncourage us as a community of faith to be aware of and to embrace difference. Although to some extent like will attract like, as we grow there will be increasing diversity and this is something to celebrate and encourage. There will be people firmly within this community as well as those nowhere near us who present themselves differently to us and some may suffer from a mental health issue for a long time. I want to encourage us to live our lives in a way that reflects that we follow Jesus and the way he would live with others – learning to accept and embrace those differences.
DEPRESSION – FEELING GOOD FEELING BAD
Although we sometimes make fun of this condition or take it lightly we should probably be careful. The “D” word has been hopelessly devalued and carries a suitcase load of stigma – a bit like “gay” or “queer” - with a connotation of weakness. So I am tempted to avoid using it altogether but instead will do so in an attempt to "rescue" and normalise it!
The word can simply be used to describe your state of mind when the weather turns wintry or when your team lose by a disputed penalty in the last minute of the game. Do you identify with any of these?
Depressed mood
Demoralised
Disillusioned
Downcast
Dark cloud
Dejected
Despondent
Down in the dumps
If not you may be living in denial!
On the other hand depression can describe a common illness which can be completely debilitating and unbelievable unpleasant. What can you do to address this issue?
The different forms and causes of depressive illness are many and complex and too much for us to go into here.
IN THE VINEYARD
As I have said before, “It is OK to be sick.”
It’s OK to have appendicitis or a gall stone, it’s OK to have ME, it’s OK to be in a wheelchair, it’s OK to be diagnosed with cancer.
And it’s OK to be depressed – either clinically diagnosed or “feeling down”.
Addressing this subject is an attempt to puncture the stigma & prejudice that surrounds mental health illness.
IN THE BIBLE
What does the bible have to say?
Psalms 42 & 43 are written by someone struggling with depression.
But let’s look at one of the giants of the faith, someone who did amazing things for God and see how he also suffered from severe depressive episodes and how God ministered to him.
1 Kings 18:46; 19:1-18
Ahab chose a wife from different state who made it her business to dismantle and destroy the Israeli nationality and infrastructure. Came to a head in the dramatic challenge on Mt Carmel when Elijah demonstrated the power of God in a quite spectacular way. In addition, Elijah’s prayer has brought the end of the severe drought. You would have thought, Elijah did, that this would have given Ahab the means and the reason to turn back his wife’s destructive plans.
Elijah ends up at Mount Horeb which is where, 400 years before, God appeared to Moses in a similar way after a 40 day wait and where God established the original covenant with Israel. The very battle for which Elijah is fighting.
You could argue from the story that Elijah suffers from manic depressive illness. His reaction - to this amazing victory and then the answer to prayer in relieving the drought on the land - is manic, running with Ahab’s chariot all the way to Jezreel (which is a sign of his loyalty to Ahab as he now expects Ahab to act to re-establish the covenant of Israel with God).
We then see a dramatic mood swing, a great shift in temperament, almost inexplicable really, to depression.
There are many, many ways in which a depressive episode can be triggered – bereavement or other forms of loss, financial pressure, a chemical imbalance in the brain. Studies have shown that soldiers often suffer from serious depressive illness as a result of combat fatigue and this is what Elijah’s story most resembles. And the story also shows God caring for Elijah in the same way that modern psychiatry has learned to care for soldiers suffering from post combat depression.
How does the depression come about?
Verses 2&3
Ahab, rather than supporting Elijah, allows his wife to issue a threat to him and all of a sudden he panics. It all changes in that moment. What this looks like is an anxiety attack – he ran for his life.
The threat turns the high of victory and the high of seeing God greatly at work into a major disappointment leading to a panic attack and a depressive episode. He runs and runs. He just wants out, he has had enough, he just wants to die (which sometimes seems the sensible thing to do when you are in a serious depressive state).
How often have you experienced a great touch from God and then found yourself hours, days later, disillusioned and disappointed?
Verse 4
I have had enough, Lord, take my life, I am no better than my ancestors.
- Seeking aloneness, get away from people, even his close assistant
- Listless, lethargic, giving up
- Feeling inferior, not worthy
- Death wish
A classic response when you feel depressed.
All of us will feel some or all of this at some point in our lives.
Last week we looked at how Jesus crosses boundaries to befriend us – even though he knows who we really are and how we really are.
Here we can see how God treats us when we are suffering from depression. The text implies a surprise in what happens next – as though the narrator can’t quite believe that God does this.
The surprising gentleness of God the carer
Verses 5-7
Verse 7-8
- A change of circumstances
- A holiday, a break
- Exercise
Verse 9, 10, 13, 14
- The psychiatrist’s couch – gentle questioning
- Space to talk and share
- Therapeutic tools – confiding relationship, listening
- Space to acknowledge his state of mind
Verse 12, 13, 15ff
- God speaks quietly, gently
- Calling Elijah back into a restored relationship of intimacy with him
- Confirming his call and purpose for his life
- Gives hope, reminds him that he is not on his own
Hundreds of years before Freud and Jung and Clare we have the bible describing God’s gentle care for someone suffering from what would be called clinical depression.
What to do today?
Depression is common and experienced by many of us and many times. To some extent it is a natural part of who we are – our temperament – to some extent it becomes an illness which needs treatment of various sorts.
The Vineyard is a place where you are welcome to come as you are – whatever your physical or mental health. We worship and follow the God who loves and cares for us. Is this not a story worth telling? Is this not a reality worth sharing? Let’s not keep this to ourselves but tell the world about God the Father who cares for us, Jesus who crosses boundaries to befriend us and the Holy Spirit who comes to fill us with new life today.
Application
Are you feeling like Elijah today?
Have you been anxious recently? Felt like running, like giving up, not worthy of anything? Not understanding what is going on? Tired, disillusioned. Disappointed with others? Facing a difficult question? Tired of carrying the load for others who are shirking their responsibility?
Here are some ways in which I counsel you to address the issue of depression:
- Eat and drink well;
- Get plenty of sleep;
- See if your circumstances need addressing;
- Change your surroundings – go on holiday;
- Listen to the still small voice of the Father talking with you, hear the truth, memorise helpful bible verses;
- Acknowledge you are depressed – at whatever level;
- Stay a part of the community even when everything tells you that they don’t like you, don’t want you, don’t understand you;
- Commit to a housegroup;
- Ask people to pray for you.
Prayer
Most of all I want you to know that you are not a spiritual failure (Elijah wasn’t) even though you can’t understand how some of these people around are smiling so much and singing songs with such cheerfulness!
Sometimes God takes us through dark places to bring us close to him. It may be painful and involve darkness and tears but it isn’t wasted. He will draw us into an encounter with him deeper and greater than anything we may have experienced before.
I am sure Elijah would point to Mt Horeb as being his high point with God, not Mt Carmel. God will care for you gently and bring you to a stronger and healthier place and to a more profound and effective relationship with him.
Father we pray for all those suffering from depression. And we pray for ourselves because we all have felt like this or will do from time to time. Lord, please don’t take away our darkness and melancholy cheaply and easily but rather use it to draw us closer to you, to make our personal relationship with you more real, to develop in us a better and more compassionate understanding of others, teach us to be realistic about our spirituality. We confess that often we confuse it with just being joyful and sometimes we forget that there was a Gethsemane for Jesus too.
Ministry
I understand that people may be nervous about receiving prayer if struggling with a mental health issue:
- If necessary, we have people here with a lot of experience in this area (personal experience and ministry experience). Although God is the one with the answers we understand that sometimes a more experienced friend is helpful and we have those people on hand.
- No one who is praying for you will give you any advice or quote bible verses at you to try and educate you! No one will say, “just pull yourself together”. They will simply ask the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ Spirit, to come and bless you and bring comfort, encouragement and healing.
- We encourage you to join a housegroup where you can be known and where you can get to know others. Where you can make friends and share your life and be a support and help to others as well as receive it yourself.
David Flowers, 12/11/2007