There are many who daily struggle with their lives and depression as well as related problems. We cannot see depression most of the time. It lies like a sleeping giant waiting for the most inopportune time to come to life and destroy yet another day, week, month or year. What we are told by medical professionals is to take this pill (of your choice) and everything will be okay. No, everything won't be okay. The "pill" may lift your demeanor but it cannot erase the "everything" that's not okay. But, we've become a people who do not deal with the issues as much as we deal with the symptoms. Then, we don't do this from a Christian prospective but rather a human focus. We don't have the cure. None of us do. But, we go on our merry way until the next crisis surfaces and we again stumble into the hole we thought was gone. This time the hole is deeper and so the meds are upped in hopes that we can smile whenever we are with people. This cycle is repeated time after time until it is our history and not just a participant in the creation of our history. The most drastic means of conquering this issue that has been brought on you is the action of stopping a life hardened by the cycle. Becoming overwhelmed for the last time people become their own god taking a life they were given from the real God. In the end we are led to believe that having this power in our life gives us a chance to make everything okay. However, that's not what the friends, family and co-workers are left with.
Christian or not, there are people we care about who are engaged in this daily struggle. Holding onto whatever hope we find and keeping up the "happy face" that is our imagination. Episodic moments become the expected rehashing of what went wrong. Holidays give way to sure grit needed to not let everyone else down. There is that image to maintain! People are busy, have their own stuff to deal with, and some care only for themselves. So, when a depressed person shows up on their doorstep they refer that person to this doctor or that therapist. Sometimes the person is sent to the pastor for his or her "fixing". Something the pastor has little or no training to do. And the issue gathers momentum from the frustration felt. Being told "it doesn't matter" is a slap in the face to the depressed Christian and non alike.
We talk about the what everyone should do around or with their life and choices. Yet, we cannot bring about healing for anything we won't deal with alongside our brother or sister in Christ. It doesn't work that way. Unfortunately. I have depression. It's part of my PTSD (Post traumatic Stress Syndrome) that has existed inside of me since a very young age. Episodes of "life" have only put the exclamation point on the problem. I've taken the meds, gone through the therapy, met with the pastor, listened to my friends talk about the "cure" they know so and so did to conquer this problem. I still have PTSD. It hasn't gone away. What happened? Was my faith so small that I didn't believe that God could heal me? No, that wasn't it. You see, we miss the small Scripture that tells us that we have issues that come up in our lives for God's glory. Wait, you mean God leaves us with issues so that we can be a witness to those around us? Yes, that's what I mean and what the Bible means. We are given grace enough to go through the issues in our lives. Sometimes we are given enough faith to bear up under the depression so that we can deal with the day to day stuff while holding out hope that one day the issue will either die or go to sleep.
Denying the truth is common with people. It's also fatal to some. I am a human being capable of doing wrong. I'm also a human being capable of overcoming adversity. The PTSD is hard wired inside of my being. The symptoms can be addressed but the cause will never go away. But...God will be an ever present help in time of need. I believe that. And so I can write this blog today on an issue that is swept under the Christian rug on a daily basis. I don't have all the answers nor do I have all the right choices. I don't have them for me and I don't have them for you. Sometimes God's grace is all that we have...and it's enough!
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