Responding to Depression - Eliphaz, Bildad and other Evangelicals

I'm not being fussy...

I should be up front from the off - I have been accused in the past, probably rightly, of being overly persnickety about the songs we sing. I'm the slightly tedious person who thinks people should be taught what is meant by 'Ebenezer' before they avow to raise theirs.

That's by the by. What I'm saying is that this objection is different. If you disagree with the pedantic zealots who want to over analyse to the nth degree, then this article is still for you.
The lyrics I want to focus on, from the song 'Trust and Obey' aren't just objectionable - they're a severe lie that oppresses the most vulnerable people in our congregations:

"Not a doubt nor a fear, not a sigh nor a tear

Can abide while we trust and obey"

It sounds so beautiful, doesn't it? It's like Revelation 21...except sooner!
I sigh and weep daily - and now there's an answer - a solution before Christ returns!: I need to obey more. I need to trust more.

Oh the sweet bliss of an impossible imperative placed over the tragic disposition of depression!

I don't feel I need particularly to labour the point: It's a fairly obvious lie, once pointed out. Aside from Jesus's tears and sighs in Gethsemene during the ultimate act of obedience, and aside from the disciples pharisaic question, "Who sinned, this man or his parents?" ; we know that suffering comes upon the righteous while the wicked prosper.

Crushing the weak

I know and have known many brothers and sisters who suffer from depression, who are too ashamed to admit it to other Christians let alone their church leaders.
It is, in our minds, an 'unchristian' illness - a sign of weak faith.

Having beef with precious old hymns like 'Trust and Obey" may seem like pedantry, but it contains an attitude that must be mortified within the Church.

Bildad says to repent and be cured.
Eliphaz says he brings it upon himself.
Zophar says it should be worse.

Maybe you, like me, have heard sermons like this:

"Now, when we are told to take 'joy' in our sufferings, it doesn't mean that we should be happy when we suffer (*Christian chuckle*). It means that underlying our sadness and suffering should be a happiness in the gospel."

Now that; that is a profound description of how the depressed man experiences despair.

I can be with my the people I love most in the world, drinking a pint in a sunny beer garden, surrounded by beautiful St Andrews... yet underlying that happiness is a dark despondency.

What irony it is that the most conservative amongst us have the tendency to point us to a 'base emotion'!
Fear not, Rowling has the actual answer.

Escaping Azkaban

"They don't need walls and water to keep the prisoners in, not when they're trapped inside their own heads, incapable of a single cheerful thought."

This is J.K. Rowling's description of the wizard prison, Azkaban, in her third installment in the Harry Potter series. It could not be a more perfect analogy for depression:
The guards, dementors, as they're called, feasted upon happiness, crippling their prisoners.

One person, though, escaped from this prison of thought.
Sirrius Black explained how he escaped - "I knew I was innocent... that wasn't a happy thought, so the dementors couldn't suck it out of me... but it kept me sane and knowing who I am."

Where happiness could not be found, clinging to a Truth gave sanity...and even hope.

Our trials do not ebb and flow, (praise God!), along with our trust and obedience.
Our hope comes not from our own thoughts or actions, but the Truths, contained in the Word, which the Spirit whispers and shouts to our souls. Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness (how much less indeed is my trust and obedience!)

Now raise your Ebenezer!

Two years ago, I was sent a copy of  John Piper's 'When the Darkness will not lift'. The note inside read:

"At my darkest moments...this book pointed me to truths that I couldn't even see.
For when we feel lost in darkness, the truth is, we're never alone... and we're never lost."
When you have no hope - look to Truth!

And now let me tell you what it means to raise your Ebenezer:

In 1Samuel 7, the Israelites, having forsaken their idols, are fighting against mighty Philistine armies. They sacrifice in obedience to God, and "the LORD thundered with a mighty sound against the Philistines and threw them into confusion."

Then Samuel takes a stone and 'set[s] it up' and calls it 'Ebenezer', which means 'stone of help'. 

He explains the name: "Til now the Lord has helped us."

So, if you are depressed - raise your Ebenezer - 'til now He has helped you. 2000 years ago he was pierced, crushed and hung on a cross - in love for you.

And He says to His people "Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you."

There is your Truth. It is a greater gift than any happiness I could possibly offer.

And of course, I am not saying that there is no happiness to be found in looking to the cross. It is a fountain of delight. But when drought dries up all happiness from our thoughts, the dry fountain remains a beautiful statue albeit pierced with inexplicable holes.

It will spout again. One day there will be no more death, mourning, crying or pain. You will smile again. Until then, the dying Saviour says 'I love you', and the risen Saviour says 'Hope in me.'

Til now, the Lord has helped us.