The Foreclosed Soul: Part Three
“Climbing Out of Depression”
Rev. Dr. Eddie Bromley Grace Church 3 May 2008
Psalm 43:5; 1Kings 19:1-10
_______________________________________________
Psalm 43:5
5 Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my Savior and my God!
1 Kings 19
Elijah Flees to Sinai
1 When Ahab got home, he told Jezebel everything Elijah had done, including the way he had killed all the prophets of Baal. 2 So Jezebel sent this message to Elijah: “May the gods strike me and even kill me if by this time tomorrow I have not killed you just as you killed them.”
3 Elijah was afraid and fled for his life. He went to Beersheba, a town in Judah, and he left his servant there. 4 Then he went on alone into the wilderness, traveling all day. He sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors who have already died.”
5 Then he lay down and slept under the broom tree. But as he was sleeping, an angel touched him and told him, “Get up and eat!” 6 He looked around and there beside his head was some bread baked on hot stones and a jar of water! So he ate and drank and lay down again.
7 Then the angel of the Lord came again and touched him and said, “Get up and eat some more, or the journey ahead will be too much for you.”
8 So he got up and ate and drank, and the food gave him enough strength to travel forty days and forty nights to Mount Sinai,[a] the mountain of God. 9 There he came to a cave, where he spent the night.
The Lord Speaks to Elijah
But the Lord said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
10 Elijah replied, “I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.”
L: The word of God for the people of God.
P: Thanks be to God!
__________________________________________________________________
The prophet Elijah lived at a time when the very heart and soul of God’s people was being contended for. A hostile, foreign presence had infiltrated the northern kingdom of Israel and was working insidiously to hijack the culture and to steal the faith and love of the people away from the Lord.
Elijah was the key leader, working to combat this menacing presence that was undermining the culture and faith of his people. And Elijah was no frail creature. He was mighty prophet and warrior for God. But even mighty men have limits. Just shortly after winning a decisive battle, Elijah found himself emotionally drained and unable to stand against the mounting forces assembling against him. Fleeing from the authorities, Elijah traveled to a deserted area, where he slumped might be merciful enough to let him die.
Elijah plummeted to the lowest depths of depression and did not know how to climb out of it. I wonder if have ever known the pain that Elijah felt that day?
“Lord Jesus Christ, you are for me medicine when I am sick; you are my strength when I need help; you are life itself when I fear death; you are the way when I long for heaven; you are light when all is dark; you are my food when I need nourishment.”-Ambrose of Milan (340-397)
What is depression?
Writing for Christianity Today, Kathryn Greene-McCreight says,
“Depression is not just sadness or sorrow. Depression is not just negative thinking. Depression is not just being ‘down.’ It’s [emotionally] walking barefoot on broken glass; the weight of one’s body grinding the glass in further with every movement…[One] cannot simply shrug it off or pull out of it.” –Kathryn Greene-McCreight.
Some experts estimate that nearly 1/5 of us will suffer from clinical depression sometime in our life and that at least that many show some signs of clinical depression at any given time. That means, as you look around this congregation this morning; if there are about 80-90 adults in attendance, it means that it is likely that 10-15 people here are having or have had some problems with depression. If you are one of these folks, please know that you are not alone in your struggle.
And contrary to the popular saying, we are not too blessed to be depressed. Whoever came up with that saying ought to be kicked. Depression is not sign that you lack faith or that God doesn’t love you. Depression is a result of either too much strain emotionally or a sign that we are biologically predisposed to being less able to handle routine emotional and mental stress.
If you are struggling with depression, or know someone who is, I want to say a number of things to you today. First, you are not a spiritual wimp for having these struggles. Being depressed does not make you an inferior Christian. Second, treating depression successfully includes a holistic approach, which includes, exercise, a healthy diet, a regular sleeping pattern, an intentional commitment to not avoiding friends, family, and other important relationships, prayer, and perhaps a talk with your family health provider. But what I want to offer today are some spiritual resources for this holistic approach. For these, let us turn to God’s word.
Romans 8
18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. 19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, 21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children,[j] including the new bodies he has promised us. 24 We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope[k] for it. 25 But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)
The power of hope
If there has been a Biblical idea that has truly been watered down it is the Biblical idea of hope. Biblically speaking, hope is more than optimism, or the idea that everything in the end will somehow work out. It is also much more than wishful thinking. When my kids realize it is Friday, they begin hoping. They hope I’ll take them to the movies. They hope I will take them to the toy store. Some of you have been sitting around hoping a better job might come around, hoping that your checking account might balance itself, hoping that you marriage might get better by accident, hoping that all of these things might happen if you are just lucky enough. But all of this is not what the Bible means by hope. Hope is not making wishes. Hope is about what we really believe about the future. Hope, or the lack there of, about how we believe this story is going to be finished.
In Romans 8 Paul is addressing the hope of the resurrection, the belief that through Jesus, God is redeeming all of creation; the hope that life, not death, will have the final word in history. Hope is about what we believe God is capable of doing, about what we believe God is going to do.
Here is how hope and faith are related. Faith is about trust and the One we trust. Hope is about what we believe the One we trust is going to do.
In Romans 8 Paul is saying, despite the suffering of the present time, we do not believe that suffering will go on forever. In spite of the world’s brokenness, we do not believe creation will always be broken. In spite of all the wickedness of history, we do not believe that evil can trump goodness. Despite the emotional struggles some of are facing, we do not believe that we have to give up or forfeit our spiritual birthright of having a full, joyful, and abundant life. And we have this hope because of our faith in the One who conquered death and suffering on the cross and rose again to give us life eternal.
In 1 Thessalonians 4:13, Paul is talking about death and grieving and says, that we as Christians, “do not grieve as those who have no hope.” That is, Paul is not saying that we don’t hurt and cry and feel sad when a love one dies. He is just saying that as we put grandma, or dad, or little brother’s body in the ground, we don’t believe that that’s the end of them. We know that same body that went the ground will be called back to life when Jesus returns in all his glory. We don’t say I hope there’s a heaven, as some wishful bit of thinking. We know there is a heaven and so in hope we say, I know that dad, Aunt Sally, or little sister is now with Jesus.
The assurance of God’s presence.
In Hebrews 13:5 we hear repeated an Old Testament promise from God, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” This promise is not dependent upon us. It is not dependent upon how we feel. God has promised that he will stay by our side, no matter what. No matter how we feel or what we are going through, God has promised that we will never be asked to go through it alone. God is with us.
In his book The Pressure's Off, psychologist Larry Crabb uses a story from his childhood to illustrate our need to delight in God through adversity:
One Saturday afternoon, I decided I was a big boy and could use the bathroom without anyone's help. So I climbed the stairs, closed and locked the door behind me, and for the next few minutes felt very self-sufficient.
Then it was time to leave. I couldn't unlock the door. I tried with every ounce of my three-year-old strength, but I couldn't do it. I panicked. I felt again like a very little boy as the thought went through my head, "I might spend the rest of my life in this bathroom."
My parents—and likely the neighbors—heard my desperate scream.
"Are you okay?" Mother shouted through the door she couldn't open from the outside. "Did you fall? Have you hit your head?"
"I can't unlock the door!" I yelled. "Get me out of here!"
I wasn't aware of it right then, but Dad raced down the stairs, ran to the garage to find the ladder, hauled it off the hooks, and leaned it against the side of the house just beneath the bedroom window. With adult strength, he pried it open, then climbed into my prison, walked past me, and with that same strength, turned the lock and opened the door.
"Thanks, Dad," I said—and ran out to play.
That's how I thought the Christian life was supposed to work. When I get stuck in a tight place, I should do all I can to free myself. When I can't, I should pray. Then God shows up. He hears my cry—"Get me out of here! I want to play!"—and unlocks the door to the blessings I desire.
Sometimes he does. But now, no longer three years old and approaching sixty, I'm realizing the Christian life doesn't work that way. And I wonder, are any of us content with God? Do we even like him when he doesn't open the door we most want opened—when a marriage doesn't heal, when rebellious kids still rebel, when friends betray, when financial reverses threaten our comfortable way of life, when the prospect of terrorism looms, when health worsens despite much prayer, when loneliness intensifies and depression deepens, when ministries die?
God has climbed through the small window into my dark room. But he doesn't walk by me to turn the lock that I couldn't budge. Instead, he sits down on the bathroom floor and says, "Come sit with me!" He seems to think that climbing into the room to be with me matters more than letting me out to play.
I don't always see it that way. "Get me out of here!" I scream. "If you love me, unlock the door!"
Dear friend, the choice is ours. Either we can keep asking him to give us what we think will make us happy—to escape our dark room and run to the playground of blessings—or we can accept his invitation to sit with him, for now, perhaps, in darkness, and to seize the opportunity to know him better and represent him well in this difficult world.
Larry Crabb, The Pressure's Off (WaterBrook Press, 2002); pp. 222-223; submitted by John Beukema, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania
“Climbing Out of Depression”
Rev. Dr. Eddie Bromley Grace Church 3 May 2008
Psalm 43:5; 1Kings 19:1-10
_______________________________________________
Psalm 43:5
5 Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my Savior and my God!
1 Kings 19
Elijah Flees to Sinai
1 When Ahab got home, he told Jezebel everything Elijah had done, including the way he had killed all the prophets of Baal. 2 So Jezebel sent this message to Elijah: “May the gods strike me and even kill me if by this time tomorrow I have not killed you just as you killed them.”
3 Elijah was afraid and fled for his life. He went to Beersheba, a town in Judah, and he left his servant there. 4 Then he went on alone into the wilderness, traveling all day. He sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors who have already died.”
5 Then he lay down and slept under the broom tree. But as he was sleeping, an angel touched him and told him, “Get up and eat!” 6 He looked around and there beside his head was some bread baked on hot stones and a jar of water! So he ate and drank and lay down again.
7 Then the angel of the Lord came again and touched him and said, “Get up and eat some more, or the journey ahead will be too much for you.”
8 So he got up and ate and drank, and the food gave him enough strength to travel forty days and forty nights to Mount Sinai,[a] the mountain of God. 9 There he came to a cave, where he spent the night.
The Lord Speaks to Elijah
But the Lord said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
10 Elijah replied, “I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.”
L: The word of God for the people of God.
P: Thanks be to God!
__________________________________________________________________
The prophet Elijah lived at a time when the very heart and soul of God’s people was being contended for. A hostile, foreign presence had infiltrated the northern kingdom of Israel and was working insidiously to hijack the culture and to steal the faith and love of the people away from the Lord.
Elijah was the key leader, working to combat this menacing presence that was undermining the culture and faith of his people. And Elijah was no frail creature. He was mighty prophet and warrior for God. But even mighty men have limits. Just shortly after winning a decisive battle, Elijah found himself emotionally drained and unable to stand against the mounting forces assembling against him. Fleeing from the authorities, Elijah traveled to a deserted area, where he slumped might be merciful enough to let him die.
Elijah plummeted to the lowest depths of depression and did not know how to climb out of it. I wonder if have ever known the pain that Elijah felt that day?
“Lord Jesus Christ, you are for me medicine when I am sick; you are my strength when I need help; you are life itself when I fear death; you are the way when I long for heaven; you are light when all is dark; you are my food when I need nourishment.”-Ambrose of Milan (340-397)
What is depression?
Writing for Christianity Today, Kathryn Greene-McCreight says,
“Depression is not just sadness or sorrow. Depression is not just negative thinking. Depression is not just being ‘down.’ It’s [emotionally] walking barefoot on broken glass; the weight of one’s body grinding the glass in further with every movement…[One] cannot simply shrug it off or pull out of it.” –Kathryn Greene-McCreight.
Some experts estimate that nearly 1/5 of us will suffer from clinical depression sometime in our life and that at least that many show some signs of clinical depression at any given time. That means, as you look around this congregation this morning; if there are about 80-90 adults in attendance, it means that it is likely that 10-15 people here are having or have had some problems with depression. If you are one of these folks, please know that you are not alone in your struggle.
And contrary to the popular saying, we are not too blessed to be depressed. Whoever came up with that saying ought to be kicked. Depression is not sign that you lack faith or that God doesn’t love you. Depression is a result of either too much strain emotionally or a sign that we are biologically predisposed to being less able to handle routine emotional and mental stress.
If you are struggling with depression, or know someone who is, I want to say a number of things to you today. First, you are not a spiritual wimp for having these struggles. Being depressed does not make you an inferior Christian. Second, treating depression successfully includes a holistic approach, which includes, exercise, a healthy diet, a regular sleeping pattern, an intentional commitment to not avoiding friends, family, and other important relationships, prayer, and perhaps a talk with your family health provider. But what I want to offer today are some spiritual resources for this holistic approach. For these, let us turn to God’s word.
Romans 8
18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. 19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, 21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children,[j] including the new bodies he has promised us. 24 We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope[k] for it. 25 But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)
The power of hope
If there has been a Biblical idea that has truly been watered down it is the Biblical idea of hope. Biblically speaking, hope is more than optimism, or the idea that everything in the end will somehow work out. It is also much more than wishful thinking. When my kids realize it is Friday, they begin hoping. They hope I’ll take them to the movies. They hope I will take them to the toy store. Some of you have been sitting around hoping a better job might come around, hoping that your checking account might balance itself, hoping that you marriage might get better by accident, hoping that all of these things might happen if you are just lucky enough. But all of this is not what the Bible means by hope. Hope is not making wishes. Hope is about what we really believe about the future. Hope, or the lack there of, about how we believe this story is going to be finished.
In Romans 8 Paul is addressing the hope of the resurrection, the belief that through Jesus, God is redeeming all of creation; the hope that life, not death, will have the final word in history. Hope is about what we believe God is capable of doing, about what we believe God is going to do.
Here is how hope and faith are related. Faith is about trust and the One we trust. Hope is about what we believe the One we trust is going to do.
In Romans 8 Paul is saying, despite the suffering of the present time, we do not believe that suffering will go on forever. In spite of the world’s brokenness, we do not believe creation will always be broken. In spite of all the wickedness of history, we do not believe that evil can trump goodness. Despite the emotional struggles some of are facing, we do not believe that we have to give up or forfeit our spiritual birthright of having a full, joyful, and abundant life. And we have this hope because of our faith in the One who conquered death and suffering on the cross and rose again to give us life eternal.
In 1 Thessalonians 4:13, Paul is talking about death and grieving and says, that we as Christians, “do not grieve as those who have no hope.” That is, Paul is not saying that we don’t hurt and cry and feel sad when a love one dies. He is just saying that as we put grandma, or dad, or little brother’s body in the ground, we don’t believe that that’s the end of them. We know that same body that went the ground will be called back to life when Jesus returns in all his glory. We don’t say I hope there’s a heaven, as some wishful bit of thinking. We know there is a heaven and so in hope we say, I know that dad, Aunt Sally, or little sister is now with Jesus.
The assurance of God’s presence.
In Hebrews 13:5 we hear repeated an Old Testament promise from God, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” This promise is not dependent upon us. It is not dependent upon how we feel. God has promised that he will stay by our side, no matter what. No matter how we feel or what we are going through, God has promised that we will never be asked to go through it alone. God is with us.
In his book The Pressure's Off, psychologist Larry Crabb uses a story from his childhood to illustrate our need to delight in God through adversity:
One Saturday afternoon, I decided I was a big boy and could use the bathroom without anyone's help. So I climbed the stairs, closed and locked the door behind me, and for the next few minutes felt very self-sufficient.
Then it was time to leave. I couldn't unlock the door. I tried with every ounce of my three-year-old strength, but I couldn't do it. I panicked. I felt again like a very little boy as the thought went through my head, "I might spend the rest of my life in this bathroom."
My parents—and likely the neighbors—heard my desperate scream.
"Are you okay?" Mother shouted through the door she couldn't open from the outside. "Did you fall? Have you hit your head?"
"I can't unlock the door!" I yelled. "Get me out of here!"
I wasn't aware of it right then, but Dad raced down the stairs, ran to the garage to find the ladder, hauled it off the hooks, and leaned it against the side of the house just beneath the bedroom window. With adult strength, he pried it open, then climbed into my prison, walked past me, and with that same strength, turned the lock and opened the door.
"Thanks, Dad," I said—and ran out to play.
That's how I thought the Christian life was supposed to work. When I get stuck in a tight place, I should do all I can to free myself. When I can't, I should pray. Then God shows up. He hears my cry—"Get me out of here! I want to play!"—and unlocks the door to the blessings I desire.
Sometimes he does. But now, no longer three years old and approaching sixty, I'm realizing the Christian life doesn't work that way. And I wonder, are any of us content with God? Do we even like him when he doesn't open the door we most want opened—when a marriage doesn't heal, when rebellious kids still rebel, when friends betray, when financial reverses threaten our comfortable way of life, when the prospect of terrorism looms, when health worsens despite much prayer, when loneliness intensifies and depression deepens, when ministries die?
God has climbed through the small window into my dark room. But he doesn't walk by me to turn the lock that I couldn't budge. Instead, he sits down on the bathroom floor and says, "Come sit with me!" He seems to think that climbing into the room to be with me matters more than letting me out to play.
I don't always see it that way. "Get me out of here!" I scream. "If you love me, unlock the door!"
Dear friend, the choice is ours. Either we can keep asking him to give us what we think will make us happy—to escape our dark room and run to the playground of blessings—or we can accept his invitation to sit with him, for now, perhaps, in darkness, and to seize the opportunity to know him better and represent him well in this difficult world.
Larry Crabb, The Pressure's Off (WaterBrook Press, 2002); pp. 222-223; submitted by John Beukema, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania
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