RIP Robin Williams - the pain of depression

One of my favourite actors died today. I was shocked when I saw the headline -- Robin Williams, dead at 63. As I read the article and discovered that he had been struggling with depression, I wasn't as surprised. I knew Williams had a history with depression, possibly bi-polar disorder, or so it was rumoured at one point. 

Clinical depression is such a devastating illness. Mental illness is so serious and requires proper attention and treatment. Depression isn't 'having a bad day' or choosing to just stay in your pyjamas and go back to bed. Depression is a medical condition in which the brain does not properly maintain levels of serotonin and/or norepinephrine - neurotransmitters in the brain that stabilize mood, sleep, energy levels, appetite, memory and more. 

Depression turns a normal functioning brain into a tunnel of narrow darkness. You stop seeing possibilities. You become hopeless. You just want the pain to end as you lose your joy. Suicidal thoughts feed off of the disturbing shift in mood and sadness. Depressed persons start to erroneously believe that their loved ones will be better off without them. This is simply not true! (I have worked with too many of the so-called 'survivors of suicide' and I can tell you, they NEVER get over it! They are forever devastated). No one commits suicide in their right mind. It is a mental illness. And a mental illness is a medical issue/physical disorder. Period.

Refuse the stigma. Mental illness can be treated! Medication, therapy and faith work to treat depression. Reach out and get help. No one needs to suffer like the beautiful spirit of Robin Williams. 

My favourite movie -- "Mrs. Doubtfire." "It was a drive-by fruiting!" RIP Robin. Rest in Peace.

Image Credit: Dave Hogan/Getty Images

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It's Been A Long Hard Winter

It's been a while since I blogged. Quite a while. You may have even forgot that I had a blog! I thought of it once in a while. Laid down and the thought passed. Thought about it again. Thought about what to say and share -- didn't come up with a whole lot. At least much that I figured would be helpful to anyone else. But you know what? Sometimes the richness of God's best soil develops after a long hard winter where there has been seemingly little good and far too much barren harshness. That's kind of how I have felt this past year. Almost four and a half years of chronic pain and blessed little answers. I'm now to the point of surrendering. Not to the pain - heck no! I will fight the pain 'til I die! I am surrendering to God's purposes in and through this. Do I know what He is doing? Nope. But He does. Can I see any good coming out of this?? Bits. Glimmers. Glimpses.

The Bible tells us that Jesus was well-acquainted with our sufferings. That He experienced pain -- some of the worst physical pain imaginable through the process of crucifixion. It was pretty much the pain that killed him as he suffocated. He suffered emotional, mental and spiritual pain as well -- that even evidenced itself through a process of physical distress wherein the blood came out his pores with sweat (it's a rare condition called hematidrosis). How can we think we are not interconnected?! The physical affecting the emotional, mental and spiritual -- and any combination thereof. Pain is part of this life -- it actually has a very poignant way of pointing us toward the eternal -- life beyond the brokenness of this fallen world.

Joni Eareckson Tada knows pain more than anyone I know. She has written several books on suffering and I love her writing. “Suffering provides the gym equipment on which my faith can be exercised.”

(From her book, "Suffering, Making Sense of Suffering).

Faith definitely gets a workout through times of suffering and struggle. We are forced to work through our beliefs and choose to believe -- to keep believing -- to walk in faith through the blistering storms where we cannot see. Anything. 'Til after. Maybe. Here's what I do know. When I trust God and walk in faith. I find peace. And ultimately, I find joy. Or maybe, they find me.

Photo graciously provided by my lovely friend, Brenda Fidelak, who truly knows what it is to dance in the rain!

Post-Easter Resurrection Blues -- PERB

Do you suffer from post-Easter resurrection blues? PERB? Do you ever get so excited about the resurrection and how all of our hope hinges on this historical event and the fact that Jesus Christ defeated death to bring about the possibility of eternal life with Christ in heaven -- yet it lingers!  This life -- and all its foibles, lingers.  The battle is over, yet the world continues -- waiting for the second coming of Jesus and the end to the sorrows, sickness and brokenness of this life.

That is why desire can be such a painful and wonderful thing. We desire the fullness of God's redemptive plan to come to fruition! We long for the healing and wholeness that comes from the completing work that Jesus did on the cross -- and yet, we wait.  Do you desire heaven?  Do you long for the things of heaven and full redemption beyond this fallen world? In Philippians 1:23, Paul says, "I'm torn between two desires: I long to go and be with Christ, which would be far better for me."  Revelations 21:4 says, "He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."  That sounds marvelous!  Something I long for.

I Thessalonians 4;18 tells us to "comfort one another with these words."  What words?  The hope that is to come -- eternal life in heaven -- raised from the dead into our new and glorified bodies (whoot whoot!).  The Bible also tells us that even creation groans for redemption (Romans 8:22).  Imagine if the best day of our lives on earth can't even come close to our "worst" day ever in heaven? 

To desire -- to long for -- to hope in.  Yes, that is definitely the cure for the post-Resurrection Easter Blues!  If we were totally content with our earthly lives, we would settle here, and this is not the "Promised Land!"  This is "not as good as it gets."  This is a fallen world that is tainted with the effects of sin.  It is good to long for, hope in, desire -- it keeps us aware that there is something more!  Something that we long for -- that is meant to be.  Everlasting life in heaven with God.  Proverbs 13:12 says, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick but a desire fulfilled is a  tree of life." 

Let us not grow weary of hoping!  Let us not lose sight of God's eternal timeline.