I am Fine and My Friends are Fine

Bipolar and depression disorders have a powerful impact on our lives, our communities, and our nation.  Around 14,000,000 people in the USA suffer from some sort of depression every year which is   6.7% of the population. (Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance)  8,000,000 ambulance calls a year are diagnosed that depression was the major cause of the illness. (Huffington Post) Teenagers and college students are also majorly impacted by depression issues.  These disorders cause many people to believe that life is not worth living anymore and they attempt to take their own lives because of those feelings.

For years the church responded with:  "There must be a spiritual issue in your life!"  "You need to just pray more!"  "I will pray for you!"  The church approached it as simply a spiritual issue when it wasn't completely a spiritual issue.  I guess we can make the case that everything is tied to our spiritual being so everything is a spiritual issue, but there is a lot going on here besides just spiritual issues.   There are many causes of depression - stress, hormones, trauma, etc. and they start in the brain and impact the physical body.  As the church we need to understand and help people find help to overcome depression in their lives.  Up to 80% of people who get help for their depression are able to be cured.  But around 50% of people with depression never seek help.  We need to pray for people and help them find help!  You may need to find help in your own journey instead of being ashamed of the reality you are facing depression.

There is a very short verse in the Bible that reminds us that Jesus was able to experience great emotions because of grief and suffering in this world.  John wrote that at Lazarus funeral that "Jesus wept."  We need to embrace the realities of our emotions and the God created us as emotional beings.  Being emotional beings means there may be times we need some help dealing with those emotions.  Let's quit believing that we are always okay and that all our friends will be okay.  Let's be willing to ask the tough questions of ourselves and the people we love.