Depressed? Don’t despair: You’re in very good company
By W. Thomas Smith Jr.
CHRISTMAS DAY 2022 – The song says, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year.” And it is. It’s also a time when loss, failure, rejection, and grief strike home the hardest. Many of you want to be smiling and celebrating like everyone else, but as you well know, any smiles you manage are really masks for the despair and hopelessness you are actually experiencing. Making it worse is that because you are suffering depression – and perhaps nobody wants to hear about your depression (maybe even telling you: “Get over it!” or dismissing you with: “Everyone has problems!”) – you begin to question your own courage and self-worth. Questioning your value or your ability to deal with despair is precisely what the enemy, the devil, wants you to do.
Remember, the enemy is always going to launch a full-court press against you during times of spiritual awakening – like during the Christmas season or whenever you are striving to do God’s will.
TAKE HEART. Scripture reminds us that so many of the great – even the greatest – men and women of the Bible suffered deepest depression, and yet they’re the ones who were chosen by God for some of His greatest works by man on earth. Think about that: Among all the people living in this world thousands of years ago and up through the 1st century A.D., God picked the weakest, the most fearfully untrusting, and in many instances the broken and depressed.
So whenever you’re feeling depressed, hurt, jilted, devalued, and alone in your depression, remember you are in THE VERY BEST COMPANY.
Among those who suffered deep depression, rejection, pain, and or fear or low self-worth were:
– Abraham
– Jacob
– Joseph
– Moses
– Job
– Jonah
– Gideon
– David
– Elijah
– Jeremiah
– Joseph (Mary’s husband)
– Peter
Even Jesus suffered deep anguish. He wept. He grieved. He agonized. And yes, God the Father Himself grieves, and we are told NOT to grieve the Holy Spirit.
This is only a short list from off the top of my head and written quickly, but I think it’s enough. So if you feel despair and hopelessness; and maybe you feel as if you are somehow inferior to others because of your despair and depression, REMEMBER THE COMPANY YOU ARE IN, and try to find a way – perhaps through prayer – to view your depression as a badge of honor. After all, God selected YOU!
Anyway, I felt the Holy Spirit wanted me to post this today, so here we go.
Now back to Christmas Day.
