Christians should never suffer depression. That’s a common attitude from some people and it is decidedly wrong.
People who claim Christians should never suffer depression have failed to understand a basic truth, that it is not something the person chooses to do. It is not showing a lack of faith or that they are lacking in their spiritual life.
Depression is quite simply a medical condition like asthma or any other sickness. We don’t tell the person who has asthma it is because they don’t have enough faith or they are lacking in their spiritual life or if they prayed or believed more the asthma would go, we get them medical help. Why do we take a different attitude when it comes to depression?
Can I suggest the biggest problem is because people, especially those who have never suffered from it, don’t understand depression?
It is not a spiritual failing on the person’s part. Many great Christians and many of the world’s finest artists have suffered from depression. People like Australian poet Les Murray, Gerard Manly Hopkins, George Fredric Handel, Martin Luther and Michelangelo, just to name a few.
Many pastors and those in fulltime ministry suffer or have suffered at one time from depression. Sometimes this can result from the stress of the job and unrealistic expectations placed upon them either by themselves or by their congregation or both. Often pastors and those in full time ministry feel unable to talk about the problem and are reluctant to seek help, because they are only too well aware of people’s wrong attitudes to metal health issues.
In America alone, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 10 men will suffer from depression at some stage in their lives. What they need along with our prayers is support, encouragement, as well as practical and medical help.
Sometimes it is in the hard times, the depression and darkness that God speaks to us most clearly, even David found that out. Read some of his psalms Psalm 6, 14, 25, 51, 77 are just a few examples. There are others.
You will also see it in 1 Kings 19 where Elijah hid away from the world and his responsibilities in a depressed state, till God encouraged him and drew him out of it by speaking to him, by reassurance and providing practical help in the form of Elisha.
Let us seek to help those suffering depression by showing love, compassion and practical support.
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