I’ve had continuous exposure to anxiety and depression for the last 10-15 years. Whether it be through my own personal struggles, or through working as a pastor of hurting and broken people, it seems that that which is commonly referred to in terms of poor “mental health” (but which I refer to sometimes as “the darkness” and other times as “the mist”) is such a common occurrence that it is worth understanding if one really wants to help others in our increasingly depressed world.
It was a formative bout with depression in my early 20s that made me a Christian. Let me explain. I grew up in the church, but my faith was my parent’s faith and it depended on a vibrant Christian sub-culture (fun youth group, high school conferences with legit-sounding bands leading worship, etc.) It wasn’t until I went away to college that I had such a crisis of identity that I was forced to ask the question, “What do I really believe?” It was in that time of darkness (and many of my friends from that time can attest to how dark it was for me) that I started reading the Bible out of a need to find answers. And boy did I find them, in the form of an unfolding story that showed me through narrative why I feel so far from God, and how God graciously came into His creation to find me (Luke 19:10). As I found these answers, I changed for forever.
The last ten plus years (the first few as a staff pastor and the last eight as a “senior” pastor) have afforded me countless opportunities to help others through their struggles with the darkness (or, if you prefer Churchill’s term for his depression: the black dog). And the Lord has repeatedly used times of personal darkness to keep the feeling fresh in my mind.
That said, if you struggle, I’d like to offer five remedies that may help.
1. Breathe.
One remedy in moments of intense anxiety (and these moments are neither the same for everyone nor easy to understand) is to slow down your mind by focusing on breathing. This may sound like some kind of far-eastern yoga technique or something like that. But one of the very things that distinguishes us as people made in God’s image is that we have his ruah (Heb. breath, spirit) in us (cf. Gen. 2:7, Job 34:14-15). Since God has made all things to be reminders of His concern for our good and flourishing, we can conclude that our breath is meant to be a reminder of His love and care for us. He gives us "life and breath and everything" (Ac. 17:25).
Psalm 46 was written in a time of intense trouble (46:1). After establishing God’s faithfulness and goodness, the reader is told to “Be still and know that (I) am God,” after which the reader is reminded that God “will be exalted among the nations” (46:10). “Be still” is another way of saying to slow down, or even to just breathe. The idea that God will be exalted among the nations is an invitation into the Bible’s metanarrative – the great end and goal toward which God is moving His creation. That leads to point #2
2. Remember the big picture.
There is a reason why we love movies and television series so much. It is because in telling stories with happy endings, we're encouraged to think that our story will have a happy ending as well. For people prone to anxiety and depression, the fear that one’s story will not have a happy ending is crippling.
But the fact that the Bible is a story – a journey if you will – and that it is written specifically to people who have been invited into life with God (an implication I see in 2 Timothy 3:16-17) shows us that God wants to sweep us up into His story. The difference between His story and the fictional stories of the big screen is that the latter can at best tell stories that have echoes of truth, while the former, if the resurrection is true, is the truth. That is to say that the movies and TV shows are shadows and types while the Bible’s story is the reality to which they point.* And for those on the journey with Jesus into God’s reality, not only is your future incredibly bright, but it is getting brighter and brighter as the days go by. This doesn’t mean every day will be happy, but that every day you are being prepared for that happiness for which you long.
This seems to be Jesus’ point when His disciples ask him to help them be more prayerful like He is (Luke 11:1) – He sets their minds to the "big picture" by telling them to pray about the Kingdom and the hallowing of God’s Name, then telling them to only be concerned with enough food for the day, receiving and giving grace, and being kept from sin’s temptations along the journey (11:2-4). Apparently as they get a clear picture in their minds of the journey they’re on, it’ll make them prayerful. And then as they pray, God will give them the Holy Spirit to help them walk faithfully in Him (11:13).
3. Don't just doubt yourself: doubt your doubts.
Again, let me explain. The anxious and melancholy among us struggle to think they have what it takes not only to make it through life’s big challenges, but even the little ones (and truly the little ones often loom large). So they doubt themselves.
But work toward consistency in your natural skepticism: Doubt your doubts as well! Most know that anxiety problems are primarily a tendency to focus on irrational fears (or at least irrationally overblowing rational fears). But who says the thing you fear happening is going to happen? What if you tend to make certain fearful outcomes happen by thinking about and dwelling on them? I know that what I just said is part of your struggle – feeling like it’s your own fault. But what if instead, you began to doubt your doubts as much as you doubt yourself? Jesus said that Satan is a liar who is out to destroy (John 8:44), and he does this by accusing God’s people (Rev. 12:9-10) and bringing them to trust in their own fallen understanding. Instead of leaning on your thinking, do what Solomon said: Acknowledge God (Prov. 3:5-6). The command is not “Don't lean on your understanding, but lean on God” or "Lean on God's understanding." Rather, it is, “Acknowledge God.” And as you do, like King Nebuchadnezzar, your reason will return to you (Dan. 4:34), maybe not all at once, but in time. Just acknowledge the Lord, and you'll be amazed at His ability to bring you along toward (though perhaps not yet to) peace.
4. Keep moving
Both depression and anxiety tend to stagnate people. Since they’re either so fearful of what may happen or so hopeless about the point of it all anyway, they just stop. That’s poison. Keep yourself moving. Get involved at church. Go to work and sign up for overtime doing extra tasks. Say yes to social activities. Make friend dates and go to movies and out to eat. Get regular exercise (especially calisthenics and cardio). You will find that as you keep “moving,” you will "quiet the fear", to borrow from a Desiring God article I read once.
Jay Adams is a Christian counselor of over 50 years. He made a fantastic point in his magisterial Competent to Counsel: We’re sort of dual-natured in that we have both emotions (feeling) and volition (will to act). The emotional side of you can’t be controlled. You feel how you feel, and you can't stop it. But the volitional side of you can be controlled. You can act. You can change things. And the beauty of our human makeup is this: If you control the volitional (that is, by moving), it’ll have an effect on the uncontrollable part (your emotions).** So keep moving.
This is why the Psalmist, in a time of apparent depression (Psalms 42 and 43), talks to himself, saying, “Why are you downcast, o my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God” (42:5-6). Doctor turned preacher David Martin Lloyd-Jones once wisely said that in this Psalm we have an example of a depressed person taking their heart in their hands and saying, “NO, I refuse to be beaten.”*^ I submit that as you keep moving, you’re not ignoring your problems (like some may say), but you’re refusing to let your problems beat you. And just like God told Abraham to leave his home to go to a place that would be shown to him later (what a scary call!, Gen. 12:1), so God will show you His purpose in time.
5. Be patient
If you are a Christian (and I pray that you are, because if you aren’t, most of what I’ve said in this post has likely made no sense), you are by definition living a life of patience. Christians are those on a journey to a new creation where righteousness dwells, and their faith in Jesus has caused them to receive His Spirit, by whom they are themselves a new creation already in Him (2 Cor. 5:17). Until then, they, like Abraham and all of those making up the Hebrews 11 so-called “hall of faith,” are sojourners through life.
Therefore, all that you as a believer go through is given to you so that through it God will prepare you for what He has for you in the new heavens and new earth. You are being conformed to the image of Christ, who endured suffering because resurrection was around the corner. As you endure suffering, you’ll find resurrection as well (cf. Phil. 3:8-10).
This is why so much of the Bible is given to promises made to those waiting on Him:
-“The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still” (Ex. 14:14)
-“Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord” (Ps. 27:14)
-“They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” (Is. 40:31)
-“Blessed are all who wait for him!” (Is. 30:18)
-“My soul waits for the Lord .. in His word I hope … for with the Lord there is steadfast love” (Ps. 130:5, 7)
-“And after you’ve suffered a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you” (1 Pet. 5:10).
When you consider these promises in light of the Bible’s narrative, which is full of people who went through all that you’re going through, it encourages you to know you’re not alone. And since there was a deliverance for them, so there will be for you.
How can you be sure? Because in Jesus’ work at the cross, God didn’t decide to stand aloof from the suffering of His people. Instead, as Tim Keller has rightly said, at the cross God came and got involved in the suffering. And if He loved you then, He’s going to love you now. You have only to wait on the Lord, while He fights for you.
Only God can deliver
What I've written probably hasn't taken away the darkness from you that always seems to be there. But nothing will. What I'm suggesting is following Jesus through it. In time, He'll turn the lights back on, and everything will look different and better. But that will take patience on your part to wait on Him. Thanks be to God, Christian, you have the very Spirit of Jesus living inside of you, and one of His works is patience (Gal. 5:22). As you pray, asking the Lord to endure you, sustain you, and do His good work, you will in time find peace. And it will last forever.
*See Jeram Barr's Echoes of Eden, where he beautifully shows how all of our favorite stories today unwittingly betray a longing for what the Bible promises.
**Adams, Competent to Counsel, 97.
*^ Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression, 20.
