Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Friday April 13, 2007

Roller Coaster Emotions.

On this the last day of The Ministry Series I am giving you the last stat from the brief article in Homiletics and it will or should not surprise anyone. It is the most common malady facing entertainers and therefore it follows that it would haunt the clergy for we have become too much the entertainer.

"70 percent of pastors constantly fight depression."

The ignorant of our generation imply that pastoral depression is something new, yet a glance at church history will suggest that depression has dogged the heals of God's messengers from near the beginning of the calling. A long lingering look as James teaches will utterly convince even the most skeptical of the fact of ministerial depression.

Why is this?

I don't know.

If I had the answer I would not be sweating out income tax time, but would have enough money to pay off the national debt. And I would feel happier if I had all the answers to my own bouts with what Spurgeon called "liver trouble."

We do suspect that for every high there is a low, and this ebb and flow will correspond one to the other, thus, a euphoric sense on Sunday when all records are broken, will lead to a low like you have never experienced on prior occasions. Elijah is the case study on this kind of depression. Elijah went from the heights of Mt. Carmel to the depths under the Juniper Tree. It seems that the over abundance of adrenaline brings us up for the battle at hand, and when this powerful chemical subsides, look out Harry, here comes the blues, the woe is me, and the "I am so far down, I could crawl under a snake's belly without ducking!" Most professionals in the people helping professions or calling, soon become aware of their own mortality and impotence in keeping someone sober, or in the case of medical doctors, alive. Regardless of the sheepskin hanging on the wall, were are but fellow humans struggling along the path to death, we just have a sheepskin. And we are confronted with this reality daily, I mean every day we are blessed with, carries the mind numbing and heart chilling fact that we are not God, but only His servants and all final decisions are with Him, in spite of all or our efforts, praying, some go as far as to "command" God. I find this interesting. Their wife will not respond to their commands, yet they expect God to grovel at their feet. Is there any wonder they are on something designed to bring meaning to their life?

The unwillingness to come to grips with our inability is the cause of much anger, and internalized anger results in depression, or at least this is what the professors told me. Seems like the echo of God's warnings on anger, wrath and bitterness. The unrealistic expectations of others or of ourselves move us away from what Christ expects. We and the people expect the impossible; Christ expects faithfulness and gives the grace to do it.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2007 Use with credit.

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