“Wrestling With the Black Dog”

Happy 2015!

A new year brings a fresh sidebar, color, and background. I write this blog for you, so feel free to offer any constructive feedback.

Set Free to Soar seeks to address freedom in Christ. I share some of what God shows me hoping to bless you too. This year my goal is to post at least three times a month.

 

The Black Dog

Abraham Lincoln.

Winston Churchill.

Robin Williams.

J.K. Rowling.

Each wrestled with “the black dog” during one or more seasons of life. Churchill used this metaphor to refer to his gloomy periods of depression.

Estimates suggest at least 1 in 10 U.S. adults grapples with depression. Sometimes everyone gets downcast or discouraged, but some folks suffer from major depressive episodes.

Including followers of Jesus.

Imagine the inability to leave your house because the black dog keeps sitting on your chest. He’s uncomfortable, so you struggle to push him off. After hours of fighting, you manage to crawl out from under him long enough to walk to the mailbox. Exhausted, you drop the unopened mail and morning newspaper on the kitchen table and return to bed.

Severe depression can do that.

It’s not a feeling one chooses.

It’s an unwelcome illness.

Some people wrestle the black dog for a season. Others fight him off and on until the end of their life. Either way, one can’t “snap out of” depression any more than one can snap out of cancer or diabetes.

The sick need our support, not condemnation or platitudes.

Faith in Christ is the best source of healing. But the Great Physician also created medicine, counseling, exercise, play, and fellowship to assist our faith as needed.

Before you exit this site, will you say a prayer for those who wrestle with the black dog? Praise God, one day Christ won’t let that infernal dark canine bother anyone ever again.

David