DEPRESSION:
ALWAYS WINTER
BUT
NEVER CHRISTMAS
Jim
Conway had hit bottom. His depression had grown during
the spring and summer. By October it was enormous. He
would often stare out the window or just sit in a chair,
gazing into space. Several times he had gone for long
drives in the car, on bike rides or on long walks.
Jim
was ready to drop everything. He would daydream of getting
on a sailboat and sailing off to some place where no one
knew him and where he had no responsibilities.
One
cold, wintry night Jim went for a long walk and made some
decisions. He would resign from his job. He would drop
out of the school courses he was taking. He would legally
turn everything over to his wife. Then he would get into
his car and start driving. He had had it with people,
with responsibility, even with God.
What
Jim was suffering from is as universal as the common cold.
Almost everybody its it at least once. Depression can
be short-lived, coming quickly and going quickly. Or it
can last for years. When this happens, depression becomes
like the Narnia landscape when first seen by the children
in C.S. Lewis' novel The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe—always
winter but never Christmas.
Men
often get depressed in mid-life. Conditions are ripe for
it then. Job and family pressures are heavy. The man's
body is slowing down. Life seems too short for all he
wants to do. The pain of past hurts becomes a burden.
“Life is useless, all useless,” said the frustrated,
middle-aged King Solomon (Ecclesiastes 1:2). When Elijah,
one of God's great men, came to this point in his life,
he prayed, “Lord, take away my life. I might as
well be dead” (First Kings 19:4).
Jim's
story, however, has a happy ending. Instead of running
away, he cried out in desperation a prayer he had learned
years before:“Come, Lord, and show me your mercy,
for I am helpless, overwhelmed, in deep distress; my problems
go from bad to worse. Oh, save me from them all! See my
sorrows; feel my pain; forgive my sins” (Psalm 25:16-18).
God
heard Jim's prayer. Jim was delivered from his depression.
He told his story in his book Men in Mid-Life Crisis (David
C. Cook Publishing Co., 1978). This book is helping other
men deal with their own mid-life depression.
INSIGHTS
FROM THE CREATOR'S BOOK
It
isn't just modern men who get depressed. First Kings 19
tells about an experience that one of God's most powerful
prophets had with depression.
“Take
my life; I am no better than my ancestors,” Elijah
prayed to God. Then he lay down under a tree and fell
asleep, no doubt confident that God would answer his prayer.
It
had been a desperate time for Elijah. At the word of the
Lord, he had called down a drought on King Ahab and his
wicked nation of Israel. After three years, he reappeared
and summoned Ahab to a showdown of the gods on Mt. Carmel.
Elijah's God soundly defeated the pagan gods of the land.
Elijah himself helped to slaughter the four hundred prophets
of Baal.
Alone
on the mountain, Elijah prayed down rain to break the
drought. When he saw the clouds moving in, he ran ahead
of Ahab's chariot all the way back to Jezreel.
When
Queen Jezebel heard what had happened that day, she was
not amused. She sent word to Elijah, “So let the
gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life
as the life of one of them (the pagan prophets) by tomorrow
about this time.” Scared out of his wits, Elijah
ran for his life. He didn't stop running until he came
to Beersheba, one hundred miles south of Jezreel. There
he left his servant and went another day's journey into
the desert before collapsing under a broom tree.
No
wonder he got depressed! He was scared. Fear which is
not taken to God turns to anxiety. Under this stress the
emotions often become depressed.
He
was exhausted. In addition, he was likely undernourished,
because in his panic he had not taken time to eat.
God
in His infinite mercy did not rebuke Elijah for his suicidal
thoughts. Instead, he dealt with the causes of Elijah's
depression. He let him sleep until he was “slept
out.” He fed him simple but nourishing food. Then
God lead Elijah to Mt. Horeb, “the mountain of God,”
where He spoke to him. He told Elijah about 7000 other
true believers in the nation. He gave him three assignments,
three new leaders to anoint.
His
courage and energy revived by this encounter with God,
Elijah returned to Israel to complete his life's ministry.
Return
to Top of Page
