Depression and its little brother anxiety are at highs right now, at least here in the US. We have much prosperity, yet little happiness.

Even Christians are known become depressed at high rates.

Thursday (in September 2020) I posted about depression that was incomplete and could have been worded more precisely. I’ve been thinking and praying about it all week. Below is a more precise way of saying what’s on my heart:

For the Christian, the serious Jesus-follower:

Accepting and embracing an incomplete gospel very often results in emotional depression.

This is true because our gospel (the core message we embrace about God) has been pruned down. To center on heaven, and/or us living our best lives. This modern gospel most of us have embraced has made Jesus tiny (compared to all that He is in reality).

And therefore it is incapable of handling things like internal emptiness, real suffering, loss, mistreatment by others, staring at addicting screens all day, and mental illness. Partial incomplete gospels makes him smaller than He actually is, in our spiritual eyes. So if and when anxiety, depression, and hardship come they are confusing and become bigger than our inherited small ideas of Jesus. And logic fills the void in our thoughts and maybe even in the sermons we give audience to, usually resulting in self- condemnation.

It’s a tiny-Jesus-gospel, a heaven-centered gospel that is not the same as what is written in Scripture.

Jesus eradicates depression in his kingdom, where he is Lord, where he can rule and reign over a life. Where he is known by groups of Christians as a present king. Not just a ticket to heaven and a Sunday religious show.

He actually went through depression worse than anyone, (even the brain chemistry kind). Please dont get angry with me for writing that, I am not trying to minimize any type of depression or pretend I have gone through and understand them all. I am pointing to Jesus Christ here and he is bigger.

He knows first and foremost how to carry us through. And if it strongly seems he is not carrying us, it is because he cannot. If he cannot it is because, we’ve un wittedly and accidentally embraced ideas and stories about him that are incomplete. So incomplete that they become untrue.

So do not despair, seek out to hear and to embrace the gospel of the kingdom, pursue diligently what I mean by that. Make it your life-long pusuit. God uses other Christians to share his story.

“Let him who glories glory in that he understands and knows the Lord” (read Jeremiah 9)

If you don’t want to hear this kingdom gospel from me, I can give you list of other Christians or books on the topic. Id start with insurgencebook.com, highly recommend

Increase in your knowledge of Jesus Christ, the one who resurrects the depressed and the anxious.

The Christian must ask herself some key questions when faced with depression:

• How should I react to my own depression?
• Was Jesus Christ ever depressed, or did he experience something like depression?
• Were the apostles ever depressed?
• Were the early Christians depressed?
• Should we necessarily view sadness, depression and anxiety as mental dysfunction?

Reacting emotionally to bad things, to painful things, to loss is not necessarily depression. It is however part of the normal Christian life. To feel sad and to feel the sorrow of loss is also part of the normal Christian life. To feel discouraged at times and to experience dreams and hopes going unsatisfied is also part of the normal Christian life.

Feelings of inner joy and peace in spite of the loss and pain and even suffering is a part of life with Christ.

Depression is a debilitating mental state that hinders our ability to function, to have relationships, to enjoy life, and sometimes to even eat normally. It can cause us to become addicted to things we normally would not be addicted to. Depression takes sorrow and sadness and loss too far, in that there is no relief, there is no healthy cycling of emotions.

Sometimes we are depressed for chemical, brain-health reasons. Sometimes we are dealing with a mineral deficiencies which impact emotions and feelings of positively. Often simply intense exercising can have a huge impact on emotions and happiness.

For the Christian, the inner sense of joy and peace can be buried within, even if overlaid with emotions of sadness or anxiety.

Was Jesus depressed? I think the most obvious place where Jesus was depressed was in the garden before his crucifixion. He knew the horrors of what was coming to him. He asked his father to relieve him of this burden. His was in such a distressed state that he was bleeding from his pores. He was in extreme distress. Extreme sorrow, extreme loss, and frustration at his friends inability to even stay awake during that horrible night. I think Jesus was beyond what we call depression. At the prospect of his betrayal, death, and descent into hell. For such a young man, who had come down from such a high place what an oppressive and depressing situation he faced.

Also, Paul more than once described the turmoil, perplexity, loss and difficulty of his life as an apostle. He said he at times even despaired of life and felt “the sentence of death upon” him. So I think it’s safe to conclude Paul experienced depression.

Paul also wrote extensively to the Christians in his churches about anxiety and joy. And the difficulties that the early Christians experienced. We know from history how they were hunted and relentlessly persecuted for centuries. The apostle Paul often wrote about the horrible persecution and murder that faced the church. So based on what they wrote I think it’s safe to conclude that the early church experienced what we call depression, if not worse.

On 9/3/2020 I shared the following statement on social platforms and I want to elaborate on this, add more words, and clarify on how I think some misunderstood me.

The Normal Christian Life

Death is a normal part of the real Christian life. Even becoming a Christian is a death of a member of the fallen race from Adam and Eve. Baptism symbolizes this death. Our lives are over… and we gain a new life in and which comes from Jesus Christ. A real conversion to Jesus Christ is an ongoing death. A repeating cycle of death and resurrection. Whether we realize it or not our natural lives are slowly and repeatedly dying off and new life in Christ is springing up. In Corinthians it says we experience death daily SO THAT the life of Christ can be manifested in our mortal bodies. Without death Jesus can’t live in and through us, while we are here on earth. This is the miracle of the body of Christ on earth.

This cycle of death and resurrection can be very painful. Especially if we don’t understand what is happening to us, we can react to it by becoming depressed or experience a state that seems like depression.

Sometimes depression and anxiety is a crutch that people begin to hide behind, it keeps them in the victim status. Which some think they need, in order to be loved or stay enraged. But we don’t need this crutch to be loved by the Lord. We can be loved without crutches and we can let go of anger at even the worst offenses and sins against us.

But a real Christian is a Jesus follower, she does not need outward statuses for love. She lets go of the need to be a victim. She also is learning to live by the life of Jesus Christ and to lay down her own fallen life. As she does this, the life of Jesus Christ begins to live through her.

And this life of Christ, this eating from the tree of life has with it the joy of Jesus Christ himself. It’s an inner joy that makes little sense, it bubbles up from within and puts a smile on our face and cheers up those around us. Jesus has been anointed with the oil of gladness by his Heavenly Father.

This joy from Jesus is real and tangible and is a powerful force in the earth today.

Jesus has all the joy AND He also has a lot to be glad and happy about. After all He is getting his bride, the most beautiful thing in all of creation. He is inheriting all things, and all things are being summed up in him. All his enemies actually are being put under his feet. Also, the increase of his government will never end.

The Jesus follower who really seeks God, the serious one, not the one playing churchy religious games. Not the ones constantly seeking for money and ease with their lives. Will still experience loss, they will experience suffering, they will experience disappointment and sorrow to varying degrees.

They will not get their way in many ways in life. This can be very painful at times especially when the Christian does not understand it. Especially when they’ve been taught and discipled by other Christians who teach that if we just behave a certain way everything goes well.

This is just not always the case, this was not the experience of Jesus Christ, it was not the experience of the apostles. And it was not the experience of the early church. Are we so wonderful as to expect no trouble in the world? Are we above Jesus Christ and the apostles and the early church? NO! “In this world you will have trouble”, “a servant is not above his master”. It’s time to stop giving audience to teachers who teach a death-less gospel, one that exempts us from suffering and pain and disappointment.

It is a twisted gospel that teaches God wants to shower us with riches and ease and pleasure. There may be times of that but, there must be death first. We are all appointed to experience death. Then a resurrection. We can have God’s favor and blessing and still also experience loss and suffering.

We cannot shortcut that, Jesus did not short-cut his time of suffering, death, disappointment and loss. Neither should we expect that. It is a false gospel that so many Christians embrace and teach. It is a subtle gospel of performance, of legalism and leads to self-condemnation later.

The Jesus follower is to embrace suffering, embrace disappointment, and not let them perplex him/her, not let them confuse us. Furthermore it is not our fault we’ve heard a partial and an incoherent gospel that doesn’t explain suffering and travail…. and much of reality.

But the gospel of the kingdom of Jesus Christ found in scripture does explain it. It does prepare us to suffer with joy. Don’t let incomplete gospels depress you, condemn you, don’t let them strip you of His Joy and your great future with and in him. There is a resurrection coming, good things do still happen in the midst of bad. The Joy and life of Jesus Christ himself is still available to every generation.

Despite the news, despite the evil governments, the principalities and powers fighting over us all. Despite Satan’s power and place in the earth (still), his days are numbered, suffering does not and will not last forever. Jesus has provided that suffering and death do work good things in us, trust that He is working together all things for his purpose, and that our circumstances are in his hands.

Sorrow and sadness wont last, joy does still come in the morning of our lives. Jesus Christ is himself the morning of a great new day, he is on the horizon, he himself is the horizon.

Jesus Christ The Solution

Debilitating depression that is unanswered by the Lord within a Christian for prolonged periods, is very often results from an inadequate gospel we embrace. Because we preach and prefer, and have embraced a gospel that has been pruned down through the centuries, for a variety of bad reasons.

However, Jesus Christ is our joy, he is the future of everyone, HE holds the keys to our future deaths and resurrections.

Yes Jesus Christ eradicates depression within his kingdom, where he is Lord, where he can rule and reign. Where he is known by groups of Christians as present (in the room with us) king, not merely a ticket to heaven. And not a religious mascot or genie in a bottle for our success. Jesus wipes away depression where he is present. He holds the future on earth, where we have direct real-time guidance from above about how to react to every situation. Where he is known as the one anointed with joy and gladness. Where a group is all together yielded to him directly through the Spirit and not a human go-between. Feeding one another, sharing in his life together, exploring and exalting him together.

Jesus Christ is everlasting joy, even in worst case scenario situations.