AN ESSENTIAL TRAIT FOR DEALING WITH DEPRESSION
Pride keeps a person from exhibiting this trait. We don’t want others to think we are weak and needy, or to see that we don’t have it all together. We erroneously equate expressions of this trait with spiritual immaturity and self-centeredness, because...
How Can A Spouse Help with Depression?
What a husband or wife does or says in relation to a depressed spouse can either exacerbate the symptoms or help relieve them. Dolly, my bride of over 46 years, doesn't understand depression experientially. She's optimistic, outgoing. Her emotions stay on an even...
A DOGGONE GOOD IDEA FOR DEPRESSION-PRONE PEOPLE
The Value of a Dog in Coping with Depression The lot on which my house sits is relatively level, but some days, as I walk from the driveway to the entrance, it feels like I’m trudging uphill with a weight on my shoulders. The figurative weight of a depressed spirt...
WRITING IN THE DARK
WRITING IN THE DARK Poetic Descriptions of Depression The purpose of my blogs on depression and faith is to beam rays of light to guide your walk in the dark. That purpose presupposes that faith in Christ engenders hope, and God’s Word offers truths to...
YOU CAN’T GO “SOLO” IN BATTLING DEPRESSION
God Still Incarnates His Love One essential and Biblical strategy for battling depression is the love and support of friends in the body of Christ. Years ago, during a particularly rough week plagued by despondency, my wife thought I might be suicidal. She called...
WHEN YOU DON’T FEEL THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT
Handling Depression When We’re Supposed to be “Merry” Can you identify with one or both of these journal entries? It just doesn’t feel like Christmas this year. The joyful anticipation I once had prior to December 25 has evaporated as I get older. Maybe it’s...
NO MATTER WHAT
When Being Thankful Is Hard When we are needy, lacking some type of provision, worried about the future, is it still reasonable and possible to praise God? Habakkuk 3:17-19 shouts “Yes!” These verses have always resonated with me, urging me to give thanks to the...
How Can Weakness Be A Strength?
The Outrageously Fruitful Ministry of a Depression-Prone Man For almost 40 years, James “Buck” Hatch served on the faculty of Columbia Bible College in South Carolina, teaching courses in Bible, hermeneutics, psychology, and family life. Hundreds, perhaps...
A Surrendered Spirit
A response to depression far more difficult to experience than it is to write about About 15 years ago, over a period of months, I begged the Lord to heal me of chronic depression. The initial benefit of anti-depressants had waned. Counseling hadn't...
SUFFERING SEEN THROUGH THE LENS OF SCRIPTURE
Vaneetha Risner's The Scars That Have Shaped Me I am not defined by what people have done or said to me. I am defined by who I am in Christ. God uses all of our suffering for our joy and for his glory. God’s refusals are always his mercies. When my life spins out...
DEPRESSION STATISTICS AREN’T NUMBERS, THEY’RE PEOPLE
The Prevalence and Symptoms of Major Depression Usually sanguine, sixteen-year-old Chad started locking himself in his room more often, texting and calling his friends far less frequently, and attending fewer school and church social functions. He’s sleeping more,...
What Does It Look Like in the Dark?
My first recollection of it occurred on the back porch steps of my rural home in North Carolina. Nine or ten years old, I slumped, cried aloud for what seemed like an hour, tears cascading down my cheeks onto the steps, obscuring my view of the sun setting behind a...
