May my prayer come before you; turn your ear to my cry. For my soul is full of trouble, and my life draws night to the grave…. You have taken from me my closest friends, and have made me repulsive to them. I am confined and can not escape; my eyes are dim with grief. Psalms 88:2-3, 8-9a.

Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me not be blessed! Jeremiah 20:10

I have walked many a darkened pathway in my life. Some of led into pits of despair and depression. Back in late 1972, I was in seminary, aiming to be a Methodist minister. Unfortunately, that was also a period of spiritual crisis for me, when I questioned everything I had been taught was true. Was there even a God, and, if there was, did he care what happened to ordinary people? Not only did I have serious doubts, but I looked around me at the seminary, and saw drunkards, homosexuals, and others who seemed no different than anybody else in the world. After six weeks, I quit.

For over two years, the overriding emotions in my life were doubt and depression. I grew cynical, questioning the motives of everyone I met. After several months of unemployment, I got a job with the state of West Virginia, through the good offices of a relative. I was still desperately unhappy, and decided to go to graduate school. At first, things in Chapel Hill were no better than they had been in Charleston; at one point, I seriously contemplated suicide. By God's grace, he directed to a small congregation of loving Christian people who loved me back to sanity.

That period was the worst, but there have been many others, some long, some short. Very often, the time following a bout of despondency is a very productive one for me. Once the dam breaks, everything flows out in a rush. That was what happened about this time last year, as I've shared with you before. I just came out of what I can only describe as the "winter blahs." The technical name, they say is, appropriately, "SAD," or seasonal affective disorder.

Depression, which has elements of self-hatred, anger, and hopelessness, is a very common part of our existence. Some of the greatest figures in the Bible experienced it, from David, to Jeremiah, to John the Baptist. In prison, and facing the prospect of death, John the Baptist began to doubt the whole foundation of his ministry. He sent some of his followers to Jesus to ask if he really was the Messiah, something he had earlier proclaimed with great fervor.

Depression has many causes, but many of them amount to jumping to the wrong conclusions. Making mountains out of molehills, believing self-fulfilling prophecies of failure and disaster, and drawing sweeping conclusions based on very few facts are just a few. My purpose here is not so much to look at the causes, though, as the solutions.

One of the worst consequences of depression, and one that makes it most difficult to treat, is the desire to be alone. Not only do we enjoy less fellowship with other people, but we also tend to draw back from our relationship with Christ. I know how easy that is to do; I did it for many years. I've learned finally to deliberately seek out the company and counsel of others in the down times. The friendship and love of the church and Chapel Hill drew me out of the deepest pit I was ever in. Those people are gone from my life now, but I have a niece who's closer than a sister, and a brother and sister in Christ that I trust with my darkest secrets. Everyone needs someone to talk to, about anything and at any time. In Christ, we all have someone like that; our Lord Jesus.

Besides talking to others, and to the Lord, we need to talk to ourselves. Self-talk is one of the main ways we cope with the realities of life. We need to ask ourselves if the problems that concern us so much are really so great in the scheme of things. Are we thinking rationally, or with our emotions? What evidence is there that the situation is really as bad as we think? We can ask the Lord's help here, as well. The Holy Spirit is both the Comforter and the Counselor.

Activity is a good antidote for depression. It is very common for someone who is depressed to sit around doing very little or nothing, which only serves to feed the depression. Even if what we're doing is not very productive, or a lot of fun, we must find something to burn energy and occupy our minds. Better still, we should seek out something we can do with other people.

Long-term, clinical depression has no easy solutions, and I'm not really addressing that here. Sometimes, this condition results from a chemical imbalance, and sometimes there are deep-seated emotional problems underneath. Though people with that degree of the problem certainly need Christian fellowship and prayer, they also need medical attention and counseling. Those of us with family or friends with severe depression should never assume that "they'll snap out of it," or that "it's all in their heads." Sometimes the end result for people so caught up in despair is suicide, or murder. We should always take any threat of suicide very seriously, and seek professional assistance.

The opposite of depression is joy, which we experience only in Christ. Depression, doubt and despair are close cousins, and they hang out a lot together. If we begin to lose our joy in the Lord, they jump right in to fill the void. The only way to avoid depression is to abide in Christ, and the only sure way to pull out of it is to renew our fellowship with the Lord. Whatever problem we face in life, Jesus is the solution.

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Beneath His Wings Devotionals - Vol. 2