Depression

This is a whiplash of emotion going from “Hosanna” to weeping for the city. 

Jesus has the perfect expression of the full range of emotion. We have a twisted and distorted experience of emotion because of sin. 

God doesn’t avoid human suffering in His story (the Bible-there are two chapters at the beginning and two at the end with no suffering), in his own being (he chose to experience it personally), in his community. 1/3 of the Psalms are lament. These are Israel’s songs. 

Elijah was a rockstar of a prophet, but we see the human side of him. Most theologians and clinical psychologists believe that Elijah struggled with clinical depression. 

1 Kings 19:3-18

Elijah’s depression:

Overwhelming disappointment

Irrational

Crushing Loneliness

Exhaustion

Wanting Out

For most of us we have built a wall between Godliness and mental health problems. We can think it is a sign of small or weak faith. Some think that depression is a sign that you haven’t even met God yet. Our humanness is made up of physical, spirit, and soul (mental/emotional). If sin came into the world and had an affect on my body so that I need physical healing and my spirit so that I need a Savior, why would we not recognize the affect of the brokenness of sin in the world has on our souls? This kind of thinking has so shamed people struggling with mental heath that they harm or end themselves. 

God’s response:

Rest and Nourishment

God listened

God came close

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