Session Three: Stressed and Depressed

Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church

Sunday Bible Study     Comfort and Courage in the Gospel     Session Three:  Stressed and Depressed

A mortician called a Los Angeles Baptist minister near the mortuary if he would be willing to perform a service for a lady who had committed suicide.  He added that it would be a small service with no remuneration.   He said yes.

The lady was in her late 60’s  For unknown reasons, she had no friends or relatives – at least that responded to any attempts by the mortuary.  She had cancer.  She had been sent home from the hospital because there was nothing else they could do.  She had no one to visit her, so she paid someone.  Evidently there are people who will sit with you for $12.50 per hour.  No one else did. 

One day, when he arrived, he found her dead.  With several empty bottles of pain killers on her bed and a letter addressed to the hired “visitor.”  “Sharon, I’m ending it.  No one cares.  You don’t either.  This $25.00 is to attend my funeral.  Don’t be surprised if you’re the only one there.”

She was.  The preacher conducted a full ceremony, even though the only attendee there was because she had taken the $25.00 and felt compelled.  “It was the saddest funeral I’ve ever conducted,” recalled the preacher.

• What brings about such despondency?

• Have you known someone overwhelmed to the point of sever depression?  What was the cause? 

• Stress can be a positive thing!  It can keep us sharp and focused!  When does it become a problem?  

• Read Matthew 26:38.  Sadness can be natural and appropriate!  When does it turn to depression and become a problem? 

• Depression can be chemical or situational.  Why is it important to know the difference?

• The causes of depression can be appropriate or inappropriate.  Appropriate might be some great evil or wrong.  But it might be some self-condemnation or inappropriate guilt or unrealistic expectations.  What difference does this make?

• Read 1 Peter 2:9-10.  How can bad “God-esteem” lead to inappropriate depression?  Can such depression lead to grave issues (eating disorders, for example)? 

• Discuss:  “Depression is not related to the problem, it’s related to the coping.” 

• What helps with coping?  What “coping mechanisms” might people have? 

• In your life, what “coping mechanisms” have proved helpful?  What helped you?

• In my summer as a boy scout chaplain, we had MANY homesick boys every week.  It was a major part of my work there – dealing with the plethora of boys with this problem – related to depression.  Wise men told me this:  “Don’t entertain it, don’t nursemaid them, get them moving, get them acting AS IF they were not depressed – the more they act okay, they’ll feel okay.”  However “counter-intuitive” this may seem, it worked!   Incredibly well!  What might be going on there?  On the other hand, what wisdom is found in coming along side of people, “weeping with those that weep,” letting people “talk it out?”   

Read Psalm 42 

• How does his depression evidence itself here?

• What are some of the causes for such that he mentions?

• Read verses 5 and 11.  What counsel does he give himself?

• Depression is fairly common in the Bible (Some biblical examples:  Job 3, Jonah 4:1-3, Exodus 6:9, Matthew 26:75, Psalm 29:1-5).  Can Christians be depressed?  What misunderstandings might the unchurched or new Christian get from songs such as “Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy are the people whose God in the Lord?”  In the Beatitudes, the Greek word can be translated as “happy” or “blessed.”  Why do most translators prefer the concept of “blessed?” 

Some Godly Advice and Comfort…

Phil. 4:8 ____________________________________________________________________

Matt. 11:28 _________________________________________________________________

Matt. 28:20 _________________________________________________________________

Ps. 23:1-6 __________________________________________________________________

John 14:27 _________________________________________________________________

2 Cor. 1:4 __________________________________________________________________

2 Cor. 4::8-9 ________________________________________________________________

Ps. 46:1 ___________________________________________________________________

2 Tim. 1:7 __________________________________________________________________

Matt. 14:27 _________________________________________________________________

Luke 4:18 __________________________________________________________________

2 Cor. 4:17 _________________________________________________________________

Ps. 31:24 __________________________________________________________________

Ps. 34:18-19 ________________________________________________________________

Isaiah 30:19 ________________________________________________________________

Isaiah 41:10 ________________________________________________________________

Isaiah 41:13 ________________________________________________________________

Isaiah 43:5 _________________________________________________________________

Deut. 31:6, 8 _______________________________________________________________

Ezek. 34:16 ________________________________________________________________