Depression: unbelief, or the Law at work?
On further review, I have one reservation about a single aspect of Pastor Esget's marvelous sermon. It's worth exploring because it involves a point which is easily misunderstood precisely by the people who need least to misunderstand it.
It's also worth exploring because others in the Christian community- Tim LaHaye comes to mind- really botch this whole subject. This is kind of a sore point with me, and it strikes me that clarity is of the essence on this subject- and it's a subject on which the Church's proclamation is anything but clear.
There is no human situation in which people are more open to Christ's invitation to cast all our cares on Him than when they're depressed. That's Gospel, not Law- and all too often, the Church invokes the Law instead to further crush those already ground to powder.
I'm not sure that depression per se should be considered unbelief. It's a physiological response to perceived helplessness- which is to say, to an accurate assessment of our situation before God, and often of our situation in this world.
Were Luther's anfechtungen episodes of unbelief, or rather precisely occasions for him to call out in his helplessness to the One who could help? How about David in the great Psalm De Profundus?
Actually, I guess the answer in both cases is "yes!" Unbelief is a prerequisite for conversion; one cannot cast one's cares on Christ if they are already there. But the situation is a little more complicated that that. True depression often has a biological component, and I'm real uncomfortable about identifying it in a direct way with sin- that is, unless it's made crystal clear we're not saying, in effect, that it's a moral failing to be in pain. People in that situation are apt to be hypersensitive to that sort of equation, especially since the Christian church has been making it for centuries. We have a long history of sending the wrong message here. There are even those who equate one of the Seven Deadly Sins- sloth- with depression!
On the other hand, even here I see where Pastor Esget is going. For Luther or for David "in the depths," depression was an occasion to cry out, in effect, "Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief!"
It's just that as somebody who has battled depression myself, and has ministered to people who are struggling with it, it seems to me that a word of caution is in order. Being made to feel guilty for being depressed isn't the most helpful thing in the world (not, certainly, that Pastor Esget intended that), and the perception of one's own helplessness is actually a necessary step to abandoning oneself into the hands of God.
As I hear Pastor Esget's sermon, the Gospel he offers is precisely the invitation to do just that. And that is what makes the sermon so helpful.
I remember Dr. Olsen, who taught my depression class in seminary, telling us that depression was actually a God-given survival mechanism kicking in- one that is automatic and not subject to conscious control. God has wired mammals so that once trying to escape a bad situation becomes obviously futile, they shut down. This serves the function of conserving energy against a change in circumstances which would make escape possible (I won't go into the details of the classic experiment with white rats and electrified cages usually cited to make this point). He emphasized that it is essential in dealing with depression that it not be treated as a moral issue. One does not help a person deal with hopelessness by telling them that it's a moral failure, for the same reason why one doesn't preach the Law to a person who has already been crushed by it.
In fact, I think there's an analogy here, and maybe more than an analogy. Perhaps in one sense depression is having been forced to confront one's lack of self-sufficiency precisely in order to be driven into the arms of God. Over and over, that's the way I've experienced it in my life- as an opportunity to cry, "Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief!" I won't equate it directly with the Second Use of the Law having accomplished precisely what it is intended to accomplish simply because it isn't simply our helplessness before God's justice which it reflects. There's also a kind of First Article dependence on God for everything on which those who experience radical helplessness in any area of their lives are brought to confront.
Maybe, rather than being simply unbelief, depression at least can be a situation in which belief for the first time becomes possible.
It's also worth exploring because others in the Christian community- Tim LaHaye comes to mind- really botch this whole subject. This is kind of a sore point with me, and it strikes me that clarity is of the essence on this subject- and it's a subject on which the Church's proclamation is anything but clear.
There is no human situation in which people are more open to Christ's invitation to cast all our cares on Him than when they're depressed. That's Gospel, not Law- and all too often, the Church invokes the Law instead to further crush those already ground to powder.
I'm not sure that depression per se should be considered unbelief. It's a physiological response to perceived helplessness- which is to say, to an accurate assessment of our situation before God, and often of our situation in this world.
Were Luther's anfechtungen episodes of unbelief, or rather precisely occasions for him to call out in his helplessness to the One who could help? How about David in the great Psalm De Profundus?
Actually, I guess the answer in both cases is "yes!" Unbelief is a prerequisite for conversion; one cannot cast one's cares on Christ if they are already there. But the situation is a little more complicated that that. True depression often has a biological component, and I'm real uncomfortable about identifying it in a direct way with sin- that is, unless it's made crystal clear we're not saying, in effect, that it's a moral failing to be in pain. People in that situation are apt to be hypersensitive to that sort of equation, especially since the Christian church has been making it for centuries. We have a long history of sending the wrong message here. There are even those who equate one of the Seven Deadly Sins- sloth- with depression!
On the other hand, even here I see where Pastor Esget is going. For Luther or for David "in the depths," depression was an occasion to cry out, in effect, "Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief!"
It's just that as somebody who has battled depression myself, and has ministered to people who are struggling with it, it seems to me that a word of caution is in order. Being made to feel guilty for being depressed isn't the most helpful thing in the world (not, certainly, that Pastor Esget intended that), and the perception of one's own helplessness is actually a necessary step to abandoning oneself into the hands of God.
As I hear Pastor Esget's sermon, the Gospel he offers is precisely the invitation to do just that. And that is what makes the sermon so helpful.
I remember Dr. Olsen, who taught my depression class in seminary, telling us that depression was actually a God-given survival mechanism kicking in- one that is automatic and not subject to conscious control. God has wired mammals so that once trying to escape a bad situation becomes obviously futile, they shut down. This serves the function of conserving energy against a change in circumstances which would make escape possible (I won't go into the details of the classic experiment with white rats and electrified cages usually cited to make this point). He emphasized that it is essential in dealing with depression that it not be treated as a moral issue. One does not help a person deal with hopelessness by telling them that it's a moral failure, for the same reason why one doesn't preach the Law to a person who has already been crushed by it.
In fact, I think there's an analogy here, and maybe more than an analogy. Perhaps in one sense depression is having been forced to confront one's lack of self-sufficiency precisely in order to be driven into the arms of God. Over and over, that's the way I've experienced it in my life- as an opportunity to cry, "Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief!" I won't equate it directly with the Second Use of the Law having accomplished precisely what it is intended to accomplish simply because it isn't simply our helplessness before God's justice which it reflects. There's also a kind of First Article dependence on God for everything on which those who experience radical helplessness in any area of their lives are brought to confront.
Maybe, rather than being simply unbelief, depression at least can be a situation in which belief for the first time becomes possible.
Comments
And your insightful post reminds me of this quote from Luther regarding suicide:
"I am not inclined to think that those who take their own lives are surely damned. My reason is that they do not do this of their own accord but are overcome by the powers of the devil, like a man who is murdered by a robber in the woods."
Yes. The Luther quote kind of says it.It seems to me that folks suffering from depression need more than anything to see God as their ally against the assaults of the devil- which He is. And Pastor Esget's sermon is predicated on that fact, of course.
Luther knew a thing or two about depression, of course! :) Thanks for reminding us of that very cogent quote!
This is an excellent an important follow-up to the sermon. I think there are two kinds of depression, at least based on personal/familial experience: the first is brought on by your own deliberate and unrepentant sin and the second is a medical condition. The funny thing is that the first one can turn into the second one. In my experience, a good pastor will encourage the person to work with a doctor, along with the pastor, to recover from the depression.
This was an excellent post! It's similar (though better phrased) to the adage that God waits until you're knocked flat on your back to make you look up.
The topic is old news on the blog by now, but I'll be happy to continue the discussion by e-mail if you like. My address is jbmartin - at - nwi - dot - net. Feel free to delete this comment; I didn't have your e-mail address, so this was the only contact I had for you. Excellent blog, BTW. I'll be checking in again.
soon.