CURE FOR DEPRESSION: NIX THE ISOLATION -- Devotional for May 15, from "Good Seeds"

“Lord I have been most zealous to serve You when others have forsaken You, and now here I am, the only faithful one left!”… “You’re right, Elijah, except your numbers are a bit off: You’ve been faithful, yes, but you’re not alone. In fact I can give you the names of 7,000 others right now who haven’t given in to the evil one. Maybe it’s time you get in touch with some of them yourself!” (I Kings 19:14,18)

Here we have the words of a man in the throes of depression. Joshua had fled to an isolated mountain place, hiding out from Queen Jezebel who had put out a bounty for his head. He had just had a great victory over the priests of Baal, but that infuriated the Queen – and now his life was in danger. Joshua was past being worried or scared – he was downright depressed! Depression puts us in a frame of mind where we cannot think about anyone else but ourselves. It isn’t a sinful egotism or arrogance, it’s just the way that particular mental/emotional malady operates. For Elijah, self-pity was the chief symptom, which is the inevitable product of a lethal combination of over-work and under-fellowship. God, the Great Physician – in this case the Cosmic Therapist – didn’t just say, “Uh-huh, uh-huh, tell me more. What else are you feeling?” No, God had heard enough to make His diagnosis and formulate the cure. How often do we make Elijah’s mistake and become convinced that we have been deserted by all others and now are completely alone in our faithful service for God? Isolation has the insidious capacity of reproducing itself: we think we’re alone, so we go it alone, shirking all human company and companionship. Jesus spoke of seed sown among the weeds, which, He said, represent the pleasures and cares of the world. Elijah had his share of both: he had just single-handedly defeated the prophets of Baal, a cause for great fame and pleasure. But that victory brought down the Queen’s wrath and her only thought was, “Off with his head!” – a cause for great care and worry. We must learn that both the fanfare of our successes and the dissonance of our failures are equally able to drown out God’s still, small voice in our hearts. And maybe even our own complaints to God will prevent our hearing His soothing response, and His heavenly two-fold prescription: 1) Get the facts straight – you’re a good man, Charlie Brown, but you’re not the only one; 2) Those other good men may need you sometime, but right now, you need them. Go find a Christian brother and team up with him, sharpen his iron as he sharpens yours – and never go it alone again! You’ve got Me, but you need them, too.