Depression: Looking Up from the Stubborn Darkness by Edward T. Welch Read Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Edward T. Welch
blah.”
I apologized for my lame attempts to look on the bright side— ugh, how trite!—then we set out to identify things that are good and important enough to be worth remembering.
Show a favorite toy to a very young child, then quickly put it behind your back. It demonstrates that you possess magical powers, at least from the child’s perspective. You have just made a solid object vanish!
Now put the toy in front of the child again. Abracadabra, poof, magic! It reappeared out of nowhere.
Of course, you can’t take any credit for this sleight of hand. You are simply taking advantage of a brain that is still maturing. Very young children think the object has disappeared; older children will look behind your back for the hidden toy. For them, it may still be a game, but it is no longer magic. It’s a phenomenon called object permanence—the ability to know that a hidden object still exists although we can’t see it. It is an ability we grow into.
Spiritual reality is like that. You hear a great illustration, you participate in a Christ-centered worship service, and your heart is moved. But within minutes, it is as if you never heard a word and never participated. You leave the same way you entered—a case of spiritual Alzheimer’s. You don’t even hear an echo. It is as though you have not yet reached the stage of object permanence, at least when it comes to the knowledge of God.
With this in mind, Scripture beseeches us to remember. Before Jesus came, Scripture offered many mnemonic devices, such as yearly feasts that celebrated God’s deliverance and Scripture that could be read daily. Since Jesus’ death and resurrection, God is willing to jog your memory day after day. Scripture is more accessible, we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, and we are given the Holy Spirit, who testifies as an eyewitness and continually points us to Christ. God, apparently, is happy to repeat himself.
For some people, repetition becomes a been-there-done-that, and they check out until there is something new. For the wise, however, remembering is essential to the human soul. It is part of that forsaken art of meditating. It is critical to the process of change and a prominent means of doing spiritual battle.
Here is a psalm that can guide your remembering.
Out of the depths I cry to you, O L ORD ;
O Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.
If you, O L ORD , kept a record of sins,
O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness;
therefore you are feared.
I wait for the L ORD , my soul waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.
O Israel, put your hope in the L ORD ,
for with the L ORD is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.
He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins. (Ps. 130)
O UT OF THE D EPTHS
Psalm 130 begins with sufferings that have pulled the psalmist into the vortex of death itself. This is what he means when he cries, “out of the depths.” We don’t know how this happened or why, but we do know that he feels close to the grave. In other words, the psalmist understands suffering.
While teetering on the edge of the abyss, the psalmist has a choice: he can mourn his fretful condition, or he can cry out to the Lord. Of course, as both our voice and our guide, he leads us in crying out.
F ORGIVENESS OF S INS
How will he be rescued? Will God subdue his enemies? Will he bring healing? The psalmist needs something powerful, and he needs it soon. He feels like his life is in the balance and, without deliverance, he has minutes left, not days.
Deliverance comes, but, as is God’s custom, it comes in a way we couldn’t have predicted. To be honest, at first glance it seems like a lame rescue attempt. The psalmist is given what appears to be a flimsy lifeline: his God is the one who forgives sins.
This one takes some reflection. We don’t have
I apologized for my lame attempts to look on the bright side— ugh, how trite!—then we set out to identify things that are good and important enough to be worth remembering.
Show a favorite toy to a very young child, then quickly put it behind your back. It demonstrates that you possess magical powers, at least from the child’s perspective. You have just made a solid object vanish!
Now put the toy in front of the child again. Abracadabra, poof, magic! It reappeared out of nowhere.
Of course, you can’t take any credit for this sleight of hand. You are simply taking advantage of a brain that is still maturing. Very young children think the object has disappeared; older children will look behind your back for the hidden toy. For them, it may still be a game, but it is no longer magic. It’s a phenomenon called object permanence—the ability to know that a hidden object still exists although we can’t see it. It is an ability we grow into.
Spiritual reality is like that. You hear a great illustration, you participate in a Christ-centered worship service, and your heart is moved. But within minutes, it is as if you never heard a word and never participated. You leave the same way you entered—a case of spiritual Alzheimer’s. You don’t even hear an echo. It is as though you have not yet reached the stage of object permanence, at least when it comes to the knowledge of God.
With this in mind, Scripture beseeches us to remember. Before Jesus came, Scripture offered many mnemonic devices, such as yearly feasts that celebrated God’s deliverance and Scripture that could be read daily. Since Jesus’ death and resurrection, God is willing to jog your memory day after day. Scripture is more accessible, we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, and we are given the Holy Spirit, who testifies as an eyewitness and continually points us to Christ. God, apparently, is happy to repeat himself.
For some people, repetition becomes a been-there-done-that, and they check out until there is something new. For the wise, however, remembering is essential to the human soul. It is part of that forsaken art of meditating. It is critical to the process of change and a prominent means of doing spiritual battle.
Here is a psalm that can guide your remembering.
Out of the depths I cry to you, O L ORD ;
O Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.
If you, O L ORD , kept a record of sins,
O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness;
therefore you are feared.
I wait for the L ORD , my soul waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.
O Israel, put your hope in the L ORD ,
for with the L ORD is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.
He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins. (Ps. 130)
O UT OF THE D EPTHS
Psalm 130 begins with sufferings that have pulled the psalmist into the vortex of death itself. This is what he means when he cries, “out of the depths.” We don’t know how this happened or why, but we do know that he feels close to the grave. In other words, the psalmist understands suffering.
While teetering on the edge of the abyss, the psalmist has a choice: he can mourn his fretful condition, or he can cry out to the Lord. Of course, as both our voice and our guide, he leads us in crying out.
F ORGIVENESS OF S INS
How will he be rescued? Will God subdue his enemies? Will he bring healing? The psalmist needs something powerful, and he needs it soon. He feels like his life is in the balance and, without deliverance, he has minutes left, not days.
Deliverance comes, but, as is God’s custom, it comes in a way we couldn’t have predicted. To be honest, at first glance it seems like a lame rescue attempt. The psalmist is given what appears to be a flimsy lifeline: his God is the one who forgives sins.
This one takes some reflection. We don’t have
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