Life is a joyous journey, that is full of ups and downs. Things went awry, stealing the upbeat music. The journey of life takes its turn at a junction where we’re most unprepared.
Sometimes, it left us anxious, anguished, very lonely, and depressed, but not plunging fully into the mud of depression. The reasons are aplenty and differ from person to person.
Nothing is exciting yet you can’t simply give up on living. Our life’s a gift, we’re not the real owner. We do not want to spoil it. So, we tried our best to tag along. And we kept hiding it. As much as I would like to make this personal, I’ll make it general.
My true question here is; can true Christians get depressed?
Yes, they can, they will and they should. Although there were ways to stay guarded, more may be depressed. If so, there must be a reason. If not, they’re not in the realm of life yet.
As long as humans were there, emotions and feelings did not leave us. So, the feelings of anxiety, loneliness, and depression are timeless. For me, my long hospital stay and chronic neurological disorder that I have to deal with every day added a new dimension to looking at life and its bogeys.
Getting depressed:
Disorientation of life is not by choice, but it’s very common. We’re planners and dreamers; we all want to achieve big and live a stable and comfortable life. Ostensibly, that is not for all.
The reasons were aplenty – wrong choices, sinful acts, ill health, failed relationships, stresses while managing our blessings, etc. For many, it becomes the building block of living for Christ. Christ helped them set apart from the world by showing them the true path of existence.
Christians may get depressed, but overcoming is the transformation of life. The overcoming part isn’t easy, it might take a lifetime for some of us.
Depressed to transformed:
Here I would like to discuss a few Biblical Characters who experience all these although we cannot categorize them as depressed:
David, I know I should not begin with him. He was the Psalmist of praise and worship. He was a man after God’s own heart. 1 Samuel 13:14 His transformation from depression is quite an example.
In many of the Psalms, he writes of his anguish, loneliness, fear of the enemy, his heart-cry over sin, and the guilt he struggled with because of it. We also see his huge grief in the loss of his sons in 2 Samuel 12:15-23 and 2 Samuel 12:18-33. In other places, David’s honesty with his weaknesses gives hope to us who struggle today.
While we don’t know whether David was facing what today we might diagnose as some form of depression, we do know the dark places his mind took him and what brought him hope in the midst of all that.
Throughout David’s journey, we get glimpses into his mental state, and many of his psalms paint the picture of a man struggling with feelings of depression and hopelessness “I am worn out from my groaning.” Psalm 6:6. “All night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears.”
Many of his psalms follow a similar pattern: an opening section where he expresses his raw emotion, a complaint, a request, and then an expression of praise or trust in God. It’s David’s way of pouring out his real self before God in all of its confusion and pain, but choosing to keep trusting God and praising him, even when he doesn’t feel it.
In Psalm 13, David after pouring out his feelings and making a request to God, David ends with these lines: “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.” (vv. 5-6).
As a shepherd boy to the anointed King of Israel, David’s mental health seemed to go up and down, but one thing that remained the same was his reliance on God to help him in times of need.
When I’m out of my long hospital stay, I try to find meaning in his Psalms. I cry with him in my pain, I praise with him in my hope!
When we’re struggling with our mental health, may we be like David and choose to keep crying out to God.
Anguished and grief:
Hannah is a woman who knows grief. 1 Samuel 1:1-20. She longs for a baby, but her womb is painfully empty. She is continually mocked and taunted by her husband’s second wife who has children, and weeps to the point where she can’t eat.
Each year, Hannah and her husband visit a place called Shiloh to worship and make sacrifices to God. One particular year, Hannah is praying outside the temple. “In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly,” says verse 10.
Hannah’s pleas to the Lord for a child are so raw and desperate that the priest who sees her praying outside the temple thinks she’s drunk (v. 13). She’s been praying for a baby for years, and yet her prayers have gone unanswered. We can only imagine how she must feel; confused, ashamed, disappointed, or worn out.
Yet in her sorrow and desperation, Hannah doesn’t give up—she keeps seeking the Lord and worshiping him. When we’re facing pain, grief, or any mental illness, may we be like Hannah and keep turning to God. She became the mother of Samuel.
Triumphs to lows:
Elijah is a prophet, an incredible man of God, and yet at the height of one of his biggest triumphs, he feels hopeless and terrified. God has just used Elijah to defeat 450 prophets of Baal in an epic display of power and glory. On top of that, God has brought rain to the land after three years of drought. 1 Kings 19
But now Jezebel—the wife of Ahab, King of Israel—is determined to kill Elijah, and hearing this, he runs for his life. He’s afraid and exhausted and prays that he will die. What happens next?
What’s interesting here is that God doesn’t tell Elijah the full plan when he’s feeling scared and overwhelmed in the desert. Instead, God waits until he’s ready to take the next step.
How often are we terrified and overwhelmed about what might come next? What do we do when we’ve reached a breaking point, and things seem hopeless?
Elijah’s story shows us that God is our comforter and provider, even in the darkest places. He knows what we need, letting him take a nap, and we can trust that he also sees the bigger picture and has a plan for us.
Though we might feel lost or unsure of what to do next, God reveals his plans to us when we need to know; not always when we think we should know.
Loss and sufferings:
Job in the Bible is almost synonymous with loss and suffering. Anyone familiar with the Bible probably knows Job had a pretty rough time of it. Once referred to as “the greatest man among all the people of the East” (Job 1:3), Job is stripped of all his material possessions and family.
He’s served God faithfully all his life, and yet in one awful day he loses everything; 11,000 animals, all of his servants, and, worst of all, his seven sons and three daughters. Can you imagine his deep sorrow and confusion?
As if losing every material thing wasn’t enough, Job also contends with painful sores that cover his body, from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. Imagine that; you’ve lived a “blameless and upright” life, and now, the people closest to you have the gall to suggest that you must deserve what you’re going through.
Sadly, the sentiment of Job’s friends is something that many of us who struggle with mental illness face today; the idea from others that we must have done something to cause our condition or that God has given it to us as a test.
After everything Job has lost and endured, it’s no wonder that he begins to feel hopeless. His words reach new levels of desperation: “I despise my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone; my days have no meaning” (Job 7:16)
The Transformation:
Have you ever felt alone in your pain, or like your suffering goes unnoticed by God? Job felt that way. In chapter 30: 20, he says these poignant words:“I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me.”
But God does answer Job. After Job has said his piece, it’s God’s turn. And he doesn’t hold back. “Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me,” God says to Job. “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand…” (Job 38:3-4).
God proceeds to put Job in his place and remind him who he is; powerful, loving, and triumphant over death. God isn’t just boasting about all he’s done—he’s encouraging Job that although evil has a place in the world now, it won’t last forever; ultimately, God will have the victory.
Hope – now and beyond:
We aren’t promised a good or an easy life. We are to carry our yoke and follow him. Your yoke might differ from mine, but it’s heavy without him and we bore it in silence.
The Bible doesn’t say that by following Christ we’ll be free from troubles, pain, or mental health challenges. But it does say that God will be with us in those challenges and that we have victory over death through Jesus. “Carry my yoke, it is lighter.”
There is hope in knowing that one day we’ll live free from pain and suffering (Revelation 21:4). In the interim, let’s remember that amid life’s messiness, God is still good and in control, and he is with us. Hold onto him.
Lamenting life:
Jeremiah wrestled with great loneliness, feelings of defeat, and insecurity.
Also known as the weeping prophet, Jeremiah suffered from constant rejection by the people he loved and reached out to. God had called him to preach, yet forbidden him to marry and have children.
He lived alone, he ministered alone, he was poor, ridiculed, and rejected by his people. In the midst of it, he displayed great spiritual faith and strength, and yet we also see his honesty as he wrestled with despair and a great sense of failure:
“Cursed be the day I was born…why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame?” Jeremiah 20:14,18.
His Lamentations resonate with me. It gave me hope and transformed me in my depressing moments.
Don’t end your life as yet:
Jonah wanted His Life to End (Jonah 4) Having just spent three days in the belly of a “huge fish” after an attempt to run away from God’s call, Jonah was a man on a mission: to tell the people of Nineveh that destruction was coming because of their sin.
But when the Ninevites listen to Jonah and repent, God calls off the destruction that was planned. And Jonah isn’t a fan of this. He’s angry that God has chosen to show compassion to the people. And this anger leads him to want to give up on life.
Twice he asks God to end his life, saying, “It would be better for me to die than to live” (Jonah 4:3). When God asks him if it’s right to be so angry, he responds: “It is. And I’m so angry I wish I were dead” (v. 9).
Maybe you haven’t felt quite as angry as Jonah. But we’ve likely all reached a point in our lives where giving up felt easier than facing challenges. Especially when we felt as though God was being unfair.
We don’t hear what happens to Jonah after his conversation with God. Maybe he repents of his anger and can celebrate that God is a God of second chances. Or maybe, he chooses to stay bitter and wrapped up in his self-righteousness. We hope it’s the former.
Deeply anguished:
When we face disappointment or we struggle with feeling like things aren’t fair, how do we respond? Do we ask God to give us his heart; to help us see things through his eyes?
Jesus knew what was to come. Isaiah prophesied that Christ would be “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” Even Jesus Himself was deeply anguished over what lay before Him.
He knew that God had called him to a journey of great suffering, he knew what must happen for us to live truly free. Our Savior and Lord were willing to pay the price on our behalf, but it wasn’t an easy road. Isaiah 53:3
We can be assured, that in whatever we face, Jesus understands our weakness and suffering, our greatest times of temptation and despair, because he too traveled that road, yet without sin.
In the garden, through the night, Jesus prayed, all alone, calling out to His Father, asking Him for another way:
“And He said to them, ‘My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch.’ And He went a little beyond them and fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass Him by. And He was saying, ‘Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.’ Mark 14:34-36
Transformed living:
Countless men and women of faith who have gone before us have wrestled with the same things we do today. In their times, they might not be diagnosed with mental health disorders, but many suffer like us.
Now we know that the road of anguished, sorrow and grief, suffering and loneliness too was the road traveled by Jesus himself. So, he knows our condition.
Let’s ask God to show us what he wants us to learn from each of them, and, as these people in the Bible did, choose to keep trusting God and coming to him amid our struggles.
God can transform our lives – not letting us perish with the sorrows of the world!
