EMOTIONS SURVIVAL MANUAL: In Case of Depression: Learn from the Worm

Steven Wright quotes
In our emotion series today we are going to be talking about depression. I thought, “How can we make this fun?” I thought of a comedian by the name of Steven Wright. He’s the most depressed comedian you’ll ever see. It may seem like a contradiction, but his stuff is pretty funny.

Here are some quotes:

 The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
 Shin: a device for finding furniture in the dark.
 If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?
 What happens if you get scared half to death twice?
 Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
 The colder the X-ray table, the more of your body is required to be on it.
 The hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the bread.
 If you think nobody cares about you, try missing a couple of payments.
 Borrow money from pessimists-they don't expect it back.
 Half the people you know are below average.
 42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.
 When I turned two I was really anxious, because I'd doubled my age in a year.
I thought, if this keeps up, by the time I'm six I'll be ninety.
 When I was a little kid we had a sand box. It was a quicksand box.
I was an only child....eventually.

The mystery of depression
Like many emotions, depression is a mysterious thing. There are many different understandings about the nature and the meaning of the word ‘depression.’ There is something called a ‘tropical depression.’ That seems like a good one to have. If I am going to suffer from depression, I want it to be a tropical depression. Or, here’s another one: The Great Depression. That sounds pretty good, too.
The depression I’m talking about today is not the tropical kind or the great kind.

Disclaimer
I am approaching this topic from a pastoral standpoint. I am not a psychologist or a therapist. I have no training in mental or emotional disorders. I am talking to you as a pastor, making some biblical observations. That’s what I do.

Let’s begin with a verse from Proverbs:

Proverbs 12:25 (NKJV)
25 Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, But a good word makes it glad.

The King James Version says:
Proverbs 12:25 (KJV)
25 Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad.

You can tell by the word ‘but’ in this verse that an adverse relationship is being set up here. In other words, the last part of this verse is in converse of the first part. Heaviness or anxiety literally makes a heart low, presses it down, ‘depresses’ it. The opposite of that is gladness, joy or rejoicing.

This heaviness of heart, either chronic (lasting a long time) or catastrophic (suicidal) is what I am referring to as depression. The Bible recognizes depression and gives us some practical advice.

A WHALE OF A WORM
Let me ask you a question. How many of you have heard the story of Jonah and the whale? (Show of hands) Okay. Now, how many of you have heard the story Jonah and the worm? (Show of hands) Which of those two animals – a great fish or a small insect – do you think was a greater threat to Jonah? You may be surprised.

Jonah, chapter one: God tells Jonah to go and preach to Nineveh. Jonah didn’t want to, so he hopped on a ship going the opposite direction. A storm comes. Jonah gets tossed overboard and gets swallowed by a great fish.

Jonah, chapter two: Jonah has some time to think in the belly of the fish. He thinks about how great God is and, surprisingly, he is actually in a pretty good mood. He says he remembers the Lord and he has ‘a voice of thanksgiving.’ The fish vomits him up, he brushes off some seaweed and he is no worse for the wear. He’s doing okay.

Jonah, chapter three: God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh to preach. This time Jonah decides it is a pretty good idea. He preaches in Nineveh. The city repents and one hundred and twenty thousand people are saved from destruction.

Jonah, chapter four: Now Jonah isn’t happy, he’s bummed. He’s mad because God saved them. God says, “Is it right for you to be angry?” Jonah says, “Yeah it is. In fact, it would be better for me to die than to live.”

Jonah 4 (NKJV)
1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. 2 So he prayed to the Lord, and said, “Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm. 3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!” 4 Then the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
Have you ever been that upset about something? Jonah was so bummed that he didn’t want to live. Jonah was a regular guy. He was about to learn something from a worm.
5 So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city. 6 And the Lord God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant. 7 But as morning dawned the next day God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered. 8 And it happened, when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he grew faint. Then he wished death for himself, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” 9 Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “It is right for me to be angry, even to death!” 10 But the Lord said, “You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?

The whale made Jonah grateful for life. The worm made Jonah want to die.

SURVIVAL TIP: Don’t let depression get you down.

One thing that we learn from scripture is that sadness, or depression, is not a sin. Jonah was sad even to the point of death. He was depressed. Not for a highly rational reason, he just was. Notice that God did not say, “You shouldn’t be sad or upset.” He said, “Shouldn’t I feel the same way about Nineveh?” He doesn’t rebuke Jonah’s depression; He uses it to teach Jonah something about His feelings for Nineveh.

 Don’t add guilt to depression.

Nearly every Christian who suffers from depression, either chronic sadness or catastrophic sadness, adds guilt to their already weighed-down heart. Does that help? No. It comes from the thought that, “If I were real godly, I wouldn’t feel this way.” Is that true? Is that biblical?
Moses was once so discouraged that he asked God to take his life from him (Numbers 11:15). Elijah prayed for God to end his life (1 Kings 19:4). So did Job (Job 6:8-9) and Jeremiah (Jeremiah 20:14-18). Those are just the ones we know about.

Jesus, Who suffered just as we suffer, said in the garden, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.” (Mark 14:34)

We are told that Martin Luther suffered from bouts of depression. Winston Churchill referred to his depression as ‘The Black Dog.’ C.H. Spurgeon, the ‘Prince of Preachers’ who preached to thousands and is one of the most prolific Christian writers of all time, suffered from well-known bouts of depression.

C.H. Spurgeon on depression
The following by Charles Haddon Spurgeon is from the Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, 1881, vol. 27, p. 1595:

I know that wise brethren say, ‘You should not give way to feelings of depression.’ … If those who blame quite so furiously could once know what depression is, they would think it cruel to scatter blame where comfort is needed. There are experiences of the children of God which are full of spiritual darkness; and I am almost persuaded that those of God’s servants who have been most highly favoured have, nevertheless, suffered more times of darkness than others.
The covenant is never known to Abraham so well as when a horror of great darkness comes over him, and then he sees the shining lamp moving between the pieces of the sacrifice. A greater than Abraham was early led of the Spirit into the wilderness, and yet again ere He closed His life He was sorrowful and very heavy in the garden.

No sin is necessarily connected with sorrow of heart, for Jesus Christ our Lord once said, ‘My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.’ There was no sin in Him, and consequently none in His deep depression.

I would, therefore, try to cheer any brother who is sad, for his sadness is not necessarily blameworthy. If his downcast spirit arises from unbelief, let him flog himself, and cry to God to be delivered from it; but if the soul is sighing--‘though he slay me, yet will I trust in him’--its being slain is not a fault.

The way of sorrow is not the way of sin, but a hallowed road sanctified by the prayers of myriads of pilgrims now with God--pilgrims who, passing through the valley of Baca [lit: of weeping], made it a well, the rain also filled the pools: of such it is written: ‘They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.’

Don’t pile guilt upon your heavy heart. Receive comfort, not condemnation.

SURVIVAL TIP: Think about how God feels.

God used Jonah’s depression to teach Jonah something about Himself. He used the situation to help Jonah see a bigger picture; to see beyond Jonah and his gourd.

It’s a small world
Jonah’s world had become about him and his gourd. When the gourd was dead, Jonah wanted to be dead. That’s the problem with having a very small world – it is very unstable and unsettling. I call it cosmic claustrophobia.

 Beware of cosmic claustrophobia.

Broaden your world and your outlook on things. Could God be teaching you a bigger lesson, maybe even about Him? Could God be preparing you? The short book of Jonah is all about God’s preparation. God prepared a great fish (Jonah 1:17). God prepared a plant (Jonah 4:6). God prepared a worm (Jonah 4:7). God prepared a vehement east wind (Jonah 4:8). All the time, God was preparing Jonah.

SURVIVAL TIP: Get around positive people.

Jonah made another great mistake: He isolated himself from everyone else. Scripture said he went out on a hill outside the city and made a little shelter for himself. Depression tends to cause you to isolate yourself from other people and other things, the very things that are needed to help you get out of depression.

Remember Proverbs 12:25:
Proverbs 12:25 (NKJV)
25 Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, But a good word makes it glad.

Where is that ‘good word’ going to come from?

 Don’t isolate yourself from people.

 Don’t isolate yourself from prayer.

 Don’t isolate yourself from praise.

 Don’t isolate yourself from the bible.

You will be tempted to isolate yourself, but don’t do it. Don’t isolate yourself from the very things that you need at the time of your depression.

Bosses act of kindness prevents suicide
Tim Sanders is a leadership coach, author and former Chief Solutions Officer at Yahoo! He urges managers and supervisors to lead through loving. He often tells the story of a young manager named Steve, who was challenged by one of his radio interviews.

Steve resolved to visit each of his employees, all six of whom he had not seen face to face in over six months even though they worked in the same building and on the same floor. Steve wanted to tell each of them how much he appreciated them, and name one thing they did excellently.
After the visit from Steve, one of his software engineers, Lenny, presented him with an Xbox gaming console. Steve was taken aback, as he knew Lenny had taken pay cuts over the last year. But he was more surprised to learn that the money had come from the sale of a nine-millimeter pistol—a pistol Lenny had bought months earlier with the intention of killing himself. Lenny told him of his mother's death the previous year, and of his ensuing loneliness and depression:

I started a routine every night after work: eating a bowl of Ramen, listening to Nirvana, and getting the gun out. It took almost a month to get the courage to put the bullets in the gun. It took another couple of months to get used to the feeling of the barrel of the gun on the top of my teeth. For the last few weeks, I was putting ever so slight pressure on the trigger, and I was getting so close, Steve—so close.

Last week, you freaked me out. You came into my cubicle, put your arm around me, and told me you appreciated me because I turn in all my projects early, and that helps you sleep at night. You also said that I have a great sense of humor over e-mail and that you are glad I came into your life.

That night I went home, ate Ramen, and listened to Nirvana—and when I got the gun out, it scared me silly for the first time. All I could think about was what you said—that you were glad I came into your life.

The next day I went back to the pawnshop and sold the gun. I remembered that you had said you wanted the Xbox more than anything, but with a new baby at home could not afford it. So, for my life, you get this game. Thanks, boss.

"Sometimes people just need people," Sanders writes. "They need encouragement. You have no idea how lonely and sad some people might be. Love them everywhere—not just at home, but at work, or wherever you find them." (From an e-mail newsletter by Tim Sanders; submitted by Rich Tatum, Romeoville, Illinois)

You need people with a positive word in your life. You can be a person with a positive word for someone else’s life.

CONCLUSION
What is your worm?
It may be a whale of a problem that gets you down, or it may be some little worm that just gnaws on you and gnaws on you. Either way, don’t let them eat you.