The Gospel for Depression

I want to present the gospel, which is the good news of Jesus Christ, both who he is and what he has done and how it is relevant to Depression which is a malady of mind I deal with regularly as a Mental Health Counselor.

I like to let people know about my own brush with post pardum depression tha thad me considering suicide. I had a plan and access to my choice of personal destruction, and I waffled on the edges of having true intent. These three keys are what we use in mental health to assess the seriousness of a self harm threat.

So it is with great empathy that I present the principles that released me from depression and have kept me resilient even during life's emotional lows. Because recurrent emotional lows are inevitable.

My answer to depression came experientially as I wrestled with my faith and how it interacted with my Mental Health. I had to decide if I really believed the truth of the Gospel for my situation.

Since my powerful personal engagement between Gospel and depression, I became a Mental Health Counselor. (That was not my intent but it was God’s.) It has been in my practice of Counseling that I was able to place the clinical framework around my personal experience.

Here is the clinical framework I use to begin addressing Depression with clients.

First:
Depression is a House made of two walls.
The first wall is, it is all my fault.
The second wall is, there is nothing I can do about it.
Depression exists in the logic loop created by these two mental barriers.
To break out of these walls you will have to face the things that are your fault and decide what to do about them.

Depression is also like a labyrinth with high walls. You are in the center and must find your path out. No one can get to you because the path is created by your own circling thoughts. Those who love you can and are calling you form the outside. “I am here. Keep coming. I love you.”

Your journey out of the labyrinth is your own and has to do with reconciling the realities behind your circling thoughts. This sounds simple but it is really a process of facing intense shame and powerlessness.

I remember, in what felt like my darkest moment, lying on my bed and sobbing. I was torched by thoughts of my own failures and what I fear others thought of me. I was being crushed beneath the weight of it all.

It came to me as a thought. I had been a Christian my entire life. I knew the story of God becoming man and living sinlessly to die in my place for all the pain and consequences of my sin. He descended in death to overcome the powers of hell. With the authority gained by His unjust suffering Christ ascended to Heaven where he sits to intercede on my behalf with God the father the holy and righteous judge of the universe. The purpose of this great act was to release me from sin to live fully into who He had created me to be. The lies and believe that torment me keep me locked away from His plans and purposes for my life.

That day, on the bed in my torment, I had to decide if I actually believed this Gospel message and that it applied to every single situation and relationship in my life. I have listened to others and their beliefs to know that no other religion has better answers than those found in the Gospel. This Good news of Jesus is the only option that offers true hope for my future and transformation.

So I made the determination to bring every torturous thought I had to the foot of the cross. I laid down the worst case scenario of imagining that everything I worried others thought of me was actually true. I laid the worst version of myself a thought at a time at the foot of the cross and chose to face the reality that Jesus died for each and every mistake, lie, or unintentional thing I had ever done.

But he hadn’t gone through all that pain to leave me groveling at the foot of the cross. He had engaged in the bigger process of redemption to release me from the same of it. His desire was for me to stand up and face the world. He wanted me to become the best version of who he’d created me to be. He also wanted me to face the world in a way that released others from the same pain of shame and lies.

Without really knowing it, I used the instruçtions found in Second Corinthians 10:5 as a guide for the process of tackling my errant thoughts.
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

As I rose I had a new determination to thank the people who had loved me or supported me even in my mistakes or pain. I wrote some thank you notes and began a practice of gratefulness. This opened a path to expanding grace filled personal relationships that continued to boost my well being.

Studies on depression show that gratitude is a master key to unlocking better mental health in general. The topic of gratefulness should have it’s own video but the value of it will seep into any topic on mental health. It is Like God knew what we needed when Paul was prompted to write:

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. (I Thessalonians 5:16-18)

To summarize, It helps to know the framework for addressing Depression and have a description of the journey to recovery.
To integrate the gospel for depression it is essential to know the story of Christ, the cross, his death and his resurrection where He is seated at the right hand of the father.

Depressive thoughts have two general categories and processes for being addressed.

This is/was my fault. Here is what I can do in the future. And the cross is where I hang the shame of my past and mistakes.
This is not my fault and as much as I want to control this situation, I cannot. I must learn to surrender my will to God’s and make peace with the decisions or responsibility being in the hands of others. I am not in control.
Depression is a tightrope walk between shame and powerlessness

To help you press onto facing your depressive thoughts I leave you with this prayer.
“God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I can not change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.

I also pray from Ephesians 3:17-19:
That Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts, living within you as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love; 18-19 and may you be able to feel and understand, as all God’s children should, how long, how wide, how deep, and how high his love really is; and to experience this love for yourselves, though it is so great that you will never see the end of it or fully know or understand it. And so at last you will be filled up with God himself.