1-10-2016 Bioethics Part 40

The speaker begins by praying for wisdom and understanding as they discuss the topic of depression. They review false thought patterns associated with depression, such as false mind reading. They explain that having these thought patterns alone does not necessarily indicate depression, but when combined with other factors, it may suggest depression. The purpose of studying depression in the context of bioethics is to gain a better understanding of its difficulties and how to effectively help those who are suffering. The speaker emphasizes that prayer and faith alone are not sufficient to cure depression, as it is a complex and lasting condition. They discuss the importance of wanting to get well as a first step towards recovery and the need for individuals to actively participate in their own healing process. The speaker acknowledges the challenges of dealing with depression and the importance of providing support and care to those who are seeking help. They conclude by recognizing tha Let's pray and get started. Yeah, we pray that as we meet together this morning and look at this issue one last time that you would give us wisdom and understanding and hearts that are soft towards those who are suffering. In Jesus name, amen. Last week we looked at the false thought patterns that human beings often fall into. These being signs of depression, which has been our topic for the last four weeks. This will be the last week that we're in it today. As we've kind of seen along the way in this talk or this series of talks on depression, these things are not golden keys that prove that one might be in depression. For example, give me one of the false thought patterns that we often fall into that we talked about last week. All right, great. So that was really impactful. So we saw that for example like false mind reading. All right, anybody remember what that is or what that looks like? That's right. Yeah, so I wave at somebody they don't wave back and you're like, oh they hate me. You know, everybody hates me. Now some of us just naturally fall into that and by some of us I mean all of us. So to some degree some of us like that's just where we live. Some people like that's but if there's just kind of a constant overwhelming that's always happening and you're just always down combined with a lot of other things it's possible that one is depressed. The past few weeks though have all kind of led up to today because you go, you know, why are we studying something like depression in bioethics? And it all is for today. Everything we've done in the last few weeks is up for today. Without a solid understanding of the difficulty of depression then sometimes when we talk about the way to quote-unquote cure depression that becomes highly controversial. My hope is that when I say what I'm about to say this morning everything's going to be completely no duh because we understand the weight and gravity of depression even though maybe we've never experienced it ourselves or seen it in somebody else. Most of us, many of us grew up in kind of Christian or pseudo-christian households that saw kind of prayer and faith as the answer to everything. Which I don't want to diminish either of those things, but let's be honest even on your best days your life is sucking pretty hard because you live in a fallen and broken world. So prayer and faith doesn't solve much of anything. The second reason why this is something we should be studying is because many of us will deal with other human beings who have, are, or will be experiencing depression and maybe even ourselves. And if we have no idea of the difficulty of it, it's hard to be sympathetic. And if we have no idea of how to rightly deal with, in the best sense of the term, those who have depression, then, and we don't know what the options are for kind of getting out, then we're not going to be much help to anybody. So that's why we're looking at this, looking today at the cures, and I want to use the word cures very, very, very, very carefully. Because when you hear the word cure, what do you usually think? What's, what comes to mind when you say the cure for x? What's, what is the word cure conjure up in your brain? Okay, so medicine and something wrong to be cured. Good. Clear path to healing and then you're done. Good. So exactly, we're just like, so we just need to figure out what we need to do. We're, we are very modern people that see very clear-cut ways to not having to deal with this thing anymore. I'm just going to get some good tools, put the tools into practice, and done. I don't have to deal with it anymore. And that is absolutely not true for depression. Some of you will experience depression. Some of you will experience a major depressive episode, like one time in your life, and you'll never be back there again. That's the rarity. It is most probable that none, that most of you will not experience true depression. You'll experience a slump. You'll experience kind of just extreme discouragement. It'll last for a couple days and you get out of it. As you've seen, depression is something that's lasting for weeks or months or tragically years. And that there is literally no way to pull yourself up out of it. That's only able to be seen over time. That's not going to happen to everybody in here. Thankfully, it happens to much fewer people than we might expect. As broken as the world is, the shocking part, as we've said in weeks past, is that more people aren't depressed. Not as many people are depressed as are depressed today. If you, if you are surprised by depression, then I am convinced that you have a false understanding of the world that we live in. A right understanding of the world we live in should lead you to be thankful that there are some sane people out there. Yourself maybe being included amongst them. So, the first question that needs to be seriously answered by the one who is depressed is so simple we might forget to ask. It applies to all people who are stuck deep, just kind of mired in any problem. It is the question, do you want to get well? Help me out. Why might that be the first and most important question when it comes to beginning to talk about cures to anybody who's in any kind of deep stuck position? Okay, so if you're in it and you don't want to get well, it's going to be pretty hard to get out of it, okay? Good, yeah, so those who are actually seeking to help are going to be seen as a hindrance if the person doesn't want to get well. You're just forcing me to do something I don't want to do. Yep, good. Yes. Yeah, so we are not talking about an illness in the sense of I have something wrong in me such as cancer or something like that. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. It's not a disease. If you are willing to get out of it, that's phenomenal. Right, yeah. So there's actual physical ramifications of wanting to. And then the opposite is also true. If you don't want to get well, and you're not going to work towards it, then there's not going to be really any change in the physical stuff. You're just going to stay where you're at. The second twisted thing, and terribly sad thing, that comes with depression, or things like addiction, is that people like being hurt sometimes. Maybe you're one of these people. I've known plenty of them through time. They are truly sad. It's easy to get mad at these kinds of people, until you just kind of stop and think for a second. But these kinds of people like being the ones who are hurting. It's sick because they're sick because they're sick because they're sick because they're sick because they're sick because they're sick because it's sick because it's bad for them and it's bad for everybody else. Yes? So they feel more normal. They also get a lot of attention. Squeaky wheel gets the grease. And so sometimes people like being the ones who can say at a prayer meeting or around like I'm just hurting so much. Yes? Yes. Absolutely. Yep. Right. Yeah, so again, this is why it's sad. It's not just upsetting or should make us upset or mad or judge them. It's this twisted cycle that people get stuck in and just go like, I like being stuck here. And this is all to get to the idea that if somebody that if somebody doesn't want to get well then they're not going to. Especially when it comes to depression there's almost zero hope. In fact, often times people have to get worse before they get better. You may have seen a movie or heard a story that's particularly true when it comes to things like addiction, like drug addiction where somebody will show up at a treatment center and go, yeah, I'd like to I'd like to get in the program and the treatment director or the treatment counselor goes you're not ready. You're not ready. And you're like, that's so mean, like what are you doing? And the reason is because these people have a lot of experience with people who are addicted or have been addicts themselves and they can just feel like, nah, you just either want to get out of trouble or you just don't want to go to jail you've got to actually hit bottom and sadly that's also true for people sometimes with depression. People have to want to get well. We can easily see this though we are forcing ourselves on people who do not want to get well or if they don't want to get well. People who are depressed as we heard from Nicole, they have to want to play a large role in their own recovery and that will sound terrifying to them. It's easy, again, this is difficult to do because we have to speak so carefully, but it's easy to kind of just be like, you need to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps and get better. That's not what we're saying. What is true is that somebody has to want to participate. This is why they're going to need so much support and care going forward because there is a strong need for them to help themselves as it were, but there's no helping people who don't want help. One of the hardest things to come to grips with in the world is that sometimes is that Jesus is the Savior of the world and I am not. I have to tell myself in the mirror multiple times a day sometimes, Jesus is the Savior of the world and I am not. Because when it comes to people who are suffering, often times it's I'm going to help this person get better, dang it, and I'm going to be a means of their cure which will lead you to an extreme amount of frustration. The opposite thing is easy to do too, because you go, well Jesus is the Savior of the world, therefore Jesus is going to help them and I don't do anything. That's called apathy and hatred of neighbor. The difficult position is to be here in the middle and go, I'm going to listen, I'm going to ask you the question and seek the answer do you want to get well and suffer alongside you when that answer is no until that answer is yes knowing that Jesus is the Savior of the world and I can't save you, but I can be a friend and neighbor seeking to help. So, once you get to the answer of yes, I want to get well, then the first thing that people need to do this is kind of also true for all of us as human beings, but this will often kind of help people determine whether they're just in kind of a slump in their lives or if they are truly depressed. The first thing is correcting your lifestyle. What does that mean? Well, first, routine. This is a difficult one, especially for people who are not routine oriented. I would count myself strongly in this category. Just by nature, you don't really like routines, but in both general melancholy and depressive states, there is a lot of benefit to having a routine to just get yourself out of this kind of negative trajectory that you're in. You and I all have a tendency to be led by our emotions. Correct? Some of us have a greater tendency towards that, and others have less of a tendency. That's positive and negative. So, if I really want to do something for somebody, I'm going to probably do that. If I have a strong amount of love and affection for somebody, I'm probably going to be more desirous of doing something than if I do not have that thing. However, for somebody who is in this false frame of thinking and feeling, then it's going to lead towards, usually, either apathy, not doing anything, or negative things that they're doing towards themselves or others. And routines can kind of break that cycle and go, whether I feel like it or not, it is this time, therefore I'm going to do this thing. Just breaking that kind of, I'm going to roll on my feelings idea. Especially troubling in a culture that kind of rolls on feelings. This is what we do. Do what you feel. Don't do anything that would feel bad. Don't do anything you don't want to do. Just do things you want to do. So, routines are important. Also, relaxation. I mentioned this a few weeks ago, but the practice of the art of slowing down can go a long way. What are some ways that in our culture we can practice relaxation? Or that you have found effective in your own life to practice relaxation? Don't everybody speak at once. Hiking. Great. Yes. Anybody else? Reading. Good. Music. Yes. Pool. Yes. Like swimming pool? No. The other kind of pool. Yeah. Naps. Fifteen minute naps are the reason why I am alive and sane today. Even interestingly enough, and this is probably one we wouldn't naturally think of, learning how to breathe. I am not a new age mystic by any sense of the imagination. However, there is a large and growing amount of research that one of the things, one of the big things that's leading to depression is a lack of oxygen to the brain. Because people either breathe in anxiety too rapidly, or in just apathetic depression, too slowly. Even posture, the way you stand, the way you breathe. The brain, again, is an organ. It's not a mystical bunch of gas floating around with fairies in it that kind of just do magical things. It is a real organ that needs a whole bunch of chemicals and even oxygen. So learning how to breathe, pausing, practicing, you know, meditative breathing, I am not talking about some crazy thing, you know, some eastern mysticism where you are inviting demons into your soul or some weird thing like that, but just learning how to breathe can go a long way towards making you feel better. It's also incredibly relaxing. Recreate. Light to moderate exercise is good for every human being. We all know this, but we need to be reminded of this sometimes. Like just the simple act of movement can help people feel better. If you don't believe this, then go on a walk and see how much better you feel even if every minute of the walk you're upset. It doesn't matter. Just go on the walk and you'll see something amazing happens. You and I are both spirit and body and when our bodies move, we feel better. Next, reprioritize. People who are depressed sometimes think they need to push through everything and everything will get better. Just keep going. Just don't slow down. We have seen this, that people who are depressed, even you, hate to lose face, right? You hate to seem as if you are the weak one in the chain and that is not a bad place to be. It is the reality of the situation. As I've said before, we call Mount Everest tall not because we feel like it, because it is actually the tallest mountain in the world. If you are the weakest person in a group of human beings, that is the reality of the matter. There is nothing wrong with that. Because one day, somebody else will be that way. We're just calling a spade a spade. And so to come and be like, I'm weak, is hard, but necessary. Reprioritizing our lives doesn't mean you drop everything. But it does mean that you take a look and see, do I need to be doing everything that I'm doing right now? Do I need to feel responsible for everything that's going on in the world? Or do I need to cut back? In its proper place. Yep. Exactly. The last one, which I forgot to put on my PowerPoint, is rest. One writer says this, A Christian psychologist recently said to me that he starts most depressed people on three pills. Good exercise, good diet, and good sleep. There is no ability to function well as a human being if you don't get enough sleep. Now, how much sleep does a human being need? Usually, six to eight hours. This is all completely subjective. But, the question is, are you getting enough sleep for you? And if you can't function well, well, then you probably should be able to sleep more. Now, some people sleep too much, right? Their clock is 14 hours a day. Well, you know. So, to get the right amount of rest, some people need a lot of sleep. But to get the right kind of rest, no one has ever died on their deathbed complaining that they just slept too much. You won't either. Realizing that you only have the power to do so much in life will go a long way towards you being able to rest. So, those are some things we can do in our lifestyle to correct the issue. There's also to examine your thoughts. This is a very helpful exercise that you see in lots and lots of books on depression, secular and religious. This is something that would be very helpful to do. Writing it down physically, either yourself and then going over it with a friend or filling it out with the help of a friend. I can get you a kind of worksheet on this if you would like it for yourself or for somebody else. Writing it down is very helpful because it shows you sometimes how off-kilter you are. If you just say things out loud, you forget what you said. I don't know how many of you have found the practice of writing something down and then reading it back and you go, I am crazy. That is not right. I don't know why I'm thinking this way. Writing it down is key. And again, going over it with somebody else is extremely helpful. If you don't believe this is true, then I would hope that you had at some point in your life written down stuff in journals. Go read those journals, just in case you don't believe me, and see just like how weird your thought patterns were at that time. You can look back on it and be like, I really thought my life was over or that everything was so golden when I kissed that girl in seventh grade. And I was just like, I was sure at that point that that was it or that that was golden. So first of all, as you're...we're going to fly through these, but it's helpful to go through this practice. You start off with your life situation. What's going on? Who's involved? What's happening in your life? Then, your feelings. Simply put, sum up your feelings in one word, and then put a percentage of that word of how deeply you feel that emotion. So you go, anger, eh, I mean, you know, 60%. Fear, oof, I'm really fearful, 90%. Just lift everything out. One word, and then a percentage to kind of tailor your situation on a piece of paper the way that you can reflect on it. Then your thoughts. What are you thinking about? Are you thinking about yourself or are you thinking about somebody else? It's leading you to feel these ways. Are you thinking about right now or the past or the future? Then, analysis of this thing. As you look at the numbers one through three, you simply just go back and go, okay, what are the false thought patterns that we talked about last week that I might be stuck in here? Next, behavior. How have these things affected my daily life? One through four. Then, my reason. This is where things start to get difficult. Why is it that I'm believing these things that are leading me to act in these particular kinds of ways? And then, challenge. List the reasons that go against your feelings and your actions. What are the things that are outstanding? Oftentimes people are stuck in false thought patterns and this is a place that's especially hard to start filling this thing out because you go, wait, what are the things that, what is the evidence that exists that says that the way I'm thinking or feeling is wrong? Then a conclusion. Sum up everything in a way that is both true and helpful. Then go back and do the feelings again. Having done all of this, then you go back and go, okay, how do I feel now? It might be the same. It might be different. And lastly, the plan. How do you plan to move forward? It's not easy. If somebody's depressed, they may only be able to fill out part of it. Helping to fill it out with somebody else is usually a difficult but helpful task. Even again, just looking at it on a piece of paper can help people see, oh yeah, what am I doing? What am I thinking? How did I get stuck doing this and help move forward? Sometimes this will get you out of a slump. If you're just having a bad day or a bad week, you should practice this and see how quickly it helps you out. Now, if somebody is doing this or can't even get themselves to do this and can't talk about it with anybody and you've been feeling this way for weeks or months, then there is a strong possibility that you are depressed. A lot of what we have done is in preparation to answer this question right now. Are drugs that alter the chemical makeup of the brain legitimate for use by Christians? That's the question before us. That's been the question the whole way along. The answer to that question, I hope we can all see by now, is of course! Absolutely! It is legitimate. It is appropriate. Now notice that I'm not saying it's a necessity or that it's a have-to or that everybody is there and needs to do it. But is it something that is morally and ethically plausible for a Christian? Yes! In absolutely every single way. The problem is never with antidepressants themselves, but in the ways that you and I view such kinds of medications. If people can't legitimately deal with their lives, over time, I'm not saying if you feel bad one weekend then you need to go rush out and see a professional, but, if over time there is an inability to function properly, then it is possible that the best thing for you to do is to go see a medical professional and just sit down and talk. If we view antidepressants as a magic cure-all that will inevitably fix us because we're taking them, then they will go terribly wrong. It's a dangerous place to be both for those who are taking the medication and for those who are encouraging people to take the medication. Anybody know why? What would be the danger in that? In seeing this is going to fix me, or it's going to fix you. When it doesn't. Why? It doesn't help you think. What? There's more than one thing going on, which means that what's going to happen with this medication? It may help in part, but it ain't going to solve it. You'd be addicted to the thing, and the addiction to the thing often comes about because you see the thing as the thing that's making you feel a little bit better. So maybe I just need to bump it up because if I just take the right amount or the right combination, then I'll just feel good. I'll be better. You stay in the feeling part. Right. So you stay in the feeling part instead of thinking your way clear. These are the real and legitimate dangers and the reason why there are a number of Christians who say that antidepressants are illegitimate for Christians. However, I completely in every way disagree. It is true that antidepressants are not Jesus. Jesus is Jesus. You're not Jesus. The person themselves aren't Jesus. Thank God. That would be a terrible world to live in. But here's the thing. While antidepressants aren't Jesus, they're helpful. The interesting thing about Jesus is even Jesus doesn't take all your problems away. Let me put it just in the only way I can put it. Jesus is not taking all my problems away. Raise your hand real high if Jesus is taking all your problems away. Okay, great. Yeah, so Brian actually lowered his hand. No, he hasn't. Neither is some kind of pill that alters the chemical makeup of your brain. However, antidepressants are a crutch. Now I put it that way on purpose and I would never put it that way if I was just talking to a person who is in the middle of depression and we were counseling and stuff like that. Because if I say that phrase, antidepressants are a crutch, what's one way to interpret that sentence? An excuse? What else? I need to get off it? What else? You think I'm weak. That's right. However, there's a sense in which antidepressants are a crutch in the same way if we apply it to somebody who has a broken foot. What does a person with a broken foot need? A crutch. Why? Because the foot's broke. So antidepressants are and should be utilized as a crutch, you can use whatever other terminology, an aid, a help, a tool, in order to begin the process of healing and aid in the healing process. Will your foot get better because you use crutches? Kind of. Maybe. Partly. That's right. It's not going to do the magic all by itself. If you've got a broken foot, the answer isn't, oh, you need crutches, and then you're going to be fine. You're like, yeah, but my foot's all janky like this. A crutch will help me move, but it ain't going to fix this problem. I have to get this set. And the brain is way more complicated than a foot. However, if you don't have crutches, you can fix the foot and then be like, I can't move. The crutches are what help somebody move. And that's how we should view antidepressants. Our brains, when they have gone wrong, need help. And antidepressants can give people the help they need to begin the process of getting better. Of beginning to think better. To be helped by others. To hear what people are telling them. So, how do you know when drugs might be something worth seeking out? Well, if the things we mentioned before this aren't helping, and things seem to be going nowhere or getting worse, there's a tendency, sadly, especially in the Christian community, where we try so hard for so long to put on a good face, there's a tendency to let these things slide for years. Just like, I got this, I got this, I got this, I got this. Meditation is always for weak people, right? I'm strong, I'm going to get past this. Your life just turns into a more and more raging disaster around you. Affecting not only you, but everybody else around you. And you just go, I got this, I got this, I got this. The problem is, the longer that somebody is truly in a depressive state, the harder it is to get out. And the longer it will take to get out. Therefore, rightly, analyzing the situation is key. It's a delicate balancing game, you don't want to overreact and be like, I felt bad all week, I clearly need meds. But you also don't want it to go too long. Wisdom, as we have seen in all of life, is truly necessary in order to live well, isn't it? This is no different. So seeking the opinion of others to try and find a good doctor who may be helpful is something that is necessary. It's incredible how even small doses, very small doses of antidepressants can go an incredibly long way to radically affecting somebody's ability to begin to get better. People who though fall into these massive depressive states and who put it off for a long time, it can take years for them to get better. Years. You've got to know that when you start down the road with somebody, we've seen this in a lot of cases, we saw the same thing with homosexuality or something like this, you're going to be dealing with somebody in the best sense of the term, ministering the gospel to somebody, suffering, long suffering alongside them for years. It is not a, oh, you've been depressed? Okay, well get these meds and then like in three weeks we'll all be good and I can go on to somebody else. It's going to be difficult. So, with all that, lastly, we need to seek to correct our spiritual life. As we saw, it's not just a physical problem or a thought problem. We're not saying that people get depressed because of their spiritual conditions. However, our spiritual conditions are often affected by this. And, to be honest, every single person in this room, I believe, would agree that you could do to improve your spiritual state. Right? If you think you have reached the pinnacle of the mountain of spirituality, you are what we call self-deceived. Everybody could do better, could seek to gain something from this. And here's some things that we can do to remedy our broken spiritual conditions, especially if we find ourselves in a depressive state. Number one. This is what we're going to end with this morning. Accept that being depressed is not opposed to being a Christian. How do we know that that is true? Biblical examples. Good. Give me a couple. David. Job. Jesus. Paul. These are examples. And you should know where these kinds of examples are and take people to them. If those and more. Elijah. You just keep on going down the list. If these kinds of biblical people show at least signs of being extremely discouraged, even to the point of possibly depression, then being depressed is not opposed to being a Christian. And why is it that people need to hear that? Yeah, I guess you're right. If you're always depressed, then you're the opposed to being a Christian. So it adds another thing on top of it. Yeah, if they hear that. But wouldn't you say that even people just default to this position? Like, how could I possibly be depressed if I'm a Christian? Yeah. So it will ruin people's lives. Just by default, they'll think a Christian shouldn't be this kind of way. This actually is an argument also for why you and I need to just practice radical honesty with each other. That doesn't mean we share everything with each other or we get all kinds of weird with each other. You need to be extremely wise, but you just need to be an honest kind of person. Because if there is not an ethos or just a general way of being in this church where when somebody asks you how you're doing, you just respond honestly, then when somebody's depressed, they're going to be like, there's no way I could do that with other people because they're all going to judge the hell out of me. I don't want to do that. I just need to put on the face. So, accept that being depressed is not opposed to being a Christian. If you're helping somebody who is depressed, it's probably going to take a little while to convince them of this. Use the word. Don't just be like, well, David was depressed so you can be depressed. It's cool. And that's not what we're saying. We're not saying it's okay to be depressed because the person doesn't want to be depressed. Accept that it's not opposed to being a Christian. Number two, seek to understand that spiritual discouragement is not the cause, but the result of depression. How could somebody think that their depression is a result of their spiritual condition? How would that work itself out? How might that work itself out? Right. The most sick and twisted things that you could possibly imagine. Jesus did this for you, so you need to do this for Jesus. Now, you and I all fall into that trap to some degree, but imagine being depressed and being like, Jesus saved you in order that you would be happy. You're not happy. You need to get happy. And you're like, dang it! I'm trying to get happy for Jesus, and it's not working. It's sad and terrifying, but people would totally be stuck in that state. It might be. There's a possible universe in which I can imagine somebody that is running away from God, and as a result of running away from God, they are experiencing the displeasure of God in order to bring them back to himself, and they're just upset. That could happen. Probably not the case, and talking to somebody is where all this kind of stuff will come out. Number three, be patient. Health and wholeness comes slowly. Why is this particularly true in our own society? Remembering this thing. Yep. Exactly. Yep. Yeah. Exactly. We live in a hyper-modern society where everything needs to be right now. Mm-hmm. Right. Right. It's funny how we all want to be individuals until we have a problem or something like that, and we want to be just like everybody else. He got quick fast, or whatever. He got healthy quick. I needed to get healthy quick. Why can't I be like so-and-so? You're an individual. Be patient. Health and wholeness come slowly. Next, try and set a constant time in the day to read and pray. A very short time. A very, very, very, very short time to read and pray. I'm talking five, ten minutes. You go, oh, I need to get back in the Word, and I need to get back in prayer, and people will open the Bible and they read like five chapters, and then that's the benchmark, right? They always have to read five chapters because if they read less than that, God's going to be pissed because I read five chapters out one day, so I've got to keep reading five chapters, and I prayed for like twenty minutes, and I keep praying for twenty minutes, and I'm busy, I'm in a slump, and I don't know what to do. No. Forget all that. Try and get in there. Why? Because it's magic? No. But to just have what we would call the spiritual discipline of reading God's Word and praying. This seems like a lot of work for some people, so my greatest piece of advice to kind of all human beings, especially when it comes to prayer, is just read the Psalms out loud. And when it says I, that's like you. And then when it's like them, you put whoever the them is in the category in your life, and you're just praying, but you're praying through the Psalms. It's one of the easiest things to do, and saying it out loud will go a long way. By the way, this is something I'm encouraging every single person here to do, all these things. Five. Bring objective truth to your mind. Specifically thinking of Christian objective truth. What kinds of truths would be helpful to somebody, well not even to somebody who's depressed, to all people, to just bring this kind of truth to your mind? What truths would these be? God is sovereign. Why would that be helpful? You don't have to be. That's right. And you also aren't, which is convenient. What else? Your salvation is not based upon what you have done. Great. If I'm depressed, I'm going to think that that's probably the case. Again, this is something that all of us could be doing on a more regular basis. Yep. Yeah. Effective. That's right. You can just go down the list, right? God's love, justification, salvation, security, heaven, just these objective truths. What is actually true? Saying those things out loud, thinking about those things, bringing those things to mind because whether you feel like it or not, this is the way this thing is. Could be helpful. Also, let it go in prayer. All of it. Rosen style, right? Just, like, God knows the intentions and thoughts of your heart, therefore you should pray without lying. It's shocking to me how many Christians believe that they can't actually express their true feelings to God as if they're hiding something on the inside. Like, if you're pissed with God, you should probably just let Him know. And if you've never done that, it's incredibly freeing to be like, God, you're kind of a jerk right now, and I understand why I'm in this position. If you go, I can't pray that way, go back to the reading the Psalms thing. Just do that. And you'll see that the Psalmists are oftentimes not really stoked with God. Or go to Job. Doesn't mean that God ain't going to come down and speak to you in a whirlwind and tell you what's up, but you should at least get into the practice of being honest with God in prayer. And just think, this is how I'm feeling. And again, it's amazing how often when we actually start to put words to our thoughts and they just say those things out loud or think them to ourselves, how quickly we can catch ourselves being like, wait, I'm an idiot. Why am I stressing out about this? There's something radically humbling when you go, oh, great God of the universe who saved your people and who has always saved your people and who sent Jesus Christ as a payment for our sins. I'm having a hard day and I don't understand why you're such a jerk. You're like, hold on. How could I say the first thing and then the second thing? This is why praying is so effective. So actually be honest. Next, keep going to church. There's a period after that one. Just keep going to church. I swear, I don't understand why it's so hard. I'm not saying this conceptually. I totally understand it. It's one of those, again, just like the people like to be hurting, people like to just stop going to church. I understand why, but it's one of the most frustrating things that I feel this way and you feel this way. Humans feel this way. It's one of the greatest tricks of the enemy. Just like, don't go to church. You feel bad? Here's the answer. Don't go to church. Are you kidding me? And then guess what? People are like, I feel so separated from everybody. I'm so discouraged all the time. You're like, dang it. Why do people default to this one? It's easy to understand and it's also difficult to understand. Just encourage people. Just go to church. I don't want to go to church. That's the reason you need to go. That doesn't make any sense. I know, but you should go and then see why that's such a crazy notion. And then they go to church and they go, that was great. I hated being there, but I'm happy I went. Encourage people. There's something that happens. It's not magic here, but participating in the life of the body of Christ is important. Lastly, remember that God loves you now, not the way that you would like to be one day. This is a very tricky thing. Again, one of the saddest things is people go, God would love me more if I was well. And well is always the way I'm not. Even if I'm making progress towards wellness, I'm still not there. Even if I'm reading my Bible 15 minutes a day, God would be stoked if I read it 30 minutes a day. It's just ever elusive. It's like that thing, you probably did it in grade school. It still trips me out that if you're in a room like this and you go half the distance to the wall, and you do that, you go, now go half the distance to the wall. Okay, and you do that. You'll never actually get there. It's one of those math things. You math people, I don't really understand it, but it's crazy and I can see it so it kind of makes sense. This is the same thing. If you can't accept the fact that God loves you now, why does God love you, by the way? Let's just get that on the table. Why does God love you? Because of Jesus. That's right. So just so we're clear, God does not love you because of anything that you have done or ever will do, correct? Right. So God is pleased with those things, God likes those things, God blesses those things, but that's not why He loves you. If He does love you because of what you do, you're hosed, right? You have no hope before God. Therefore, you can never make God love you anymore. Or any less for all those who are truly in Christ. It's amazing. But people need to continue to hear that because if they get stuck in the trap of thinking God loves them because of what they do, then God will never love them, God absolutely does not love them, which will just send them deeper into depression. All of this is, of course, incredibly difficult. I hope that you feel that by now. Getting well is never easy. We must seek to be the kinds of people who will be truly helpful to those who are in deep need. Identifying with those who are suffering is the first step towards being helpful to those kinds of people. You may be that kind of person, and you may be that kind of person in the future. And knowing these kinds of truths will make us more into the kinds of people that we ought to be. Let's pray. Now we thank you for this time that you have given us to think about depression and the ways to help people out of it. We do pray that you would help us to be wise and loving, generous with our time and energies towards those who are hurting. We do pray for those who we might know, or maybe ourselves, who are in either a time of discouragement right now, or even possibly depression, that you would help us to find a few people who we can be honest with. That we would be the kinds of people that others could be honest with. We pray that we would seek to see all people be healthy in body and spirit. In order that we might glorify you in what we think and say and do. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.