What To Do When You Are Hurting, by Daniel Botha cogbigsandy/audio/2014/09-September/2014-09-06_Daniel-Botha_What-To-Do-When-You-Are-Hurting.mp3 Daniel Botha, reflecting on the tragic death of Robin Williams, someone who ironically dedicated his life to making other people happy though his humor, focuses upon what one can do when really hurting. We seem to be a collection of “hurts.” When one suffers clinical depression, it is nearly impossible for the average person to see the hurt. Some of God’s greatest servants in the Bible became very depressed, so much so that they despaired of life. After a successful ministry putting down the prophets of Baal, Elijah, after being threatened by Jezebel, runs for his life, succumbing to major clinical depression, begging God to take away his life. Elijah felt that after all his efforts he had nothing to show for it, feeling that he was a total failure. Many sincere, dedicated people in God’s church suffer severe or clinical depression. Job, certainly a man of God, was no stranger to depression, having lost everything he had known or care about, including his family and his health, ultimately wishing he were dead. He received no help from well-meaning ‘friends’ (totally oblivious to the dynamics of Job’s underlying problem) offering counsel and ‘advice.’ It is virtually impossible for anyone who has never suffered depression to give qualified advice. Listening is better than speaking when one does not know what he is talking about. We need to be careful not to give pet answers. Often, the selfless caregiver, after experiencing accumulated stress, succumbs to major depression. When enveloped by depression, we are apt to make many ill-advised decisions. As depression comes, it is incumbent that we put our heads down, and let it roll over like a 30-foot ocean breaker. If we hurt (with clinical depression), it is important to seek help (not from ‘well-meaning’ friends) but from professionals. We need to get busy doing something, perhaps writing out Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, etc. We need to remember that not everything that causes anxiety can be considered our personal fight; it is God’s problem. The world’s going crazy; next week it will go crazier, but it is not our fight.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 03:46:08 +0000
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