Depression and the Passion of Christ: Like being beaten from the inside...

A local physician recently gave a lecture on the passion of Christ. With graphic details and slides to illustrate he described the severe beating (scourging) that Christ received before his crucifixion. The details of the beating were almost too much to hear. I could feel the silence of the audience punctuated by only a few sniffles as individuals choked back tears. "How could anyone endure so much," we collectively wondered.

Then I was taken back to a note I found in my son's room during the worst of his suffering through deep and dark depression. My wife and I discovered the note on the floor of his room one day and read it, hoping it might contain some clue that could help us get him through the smothering darkness of depression that was stealing his life. The note turned out to be part of a paper he had written for a health class in school. In the paper he described depression as, "feeling like you're being beaten from the inside."

As I listened to the physician I was reminded of the silent suffering that so many endure who are "beaten from the inside" by the scourging of depression. Most of us who have not been so afflicted have little idea of the pain from this "internal beating." I've seen the results of the pain in the many folks I've tried to help as a pastoral counselor and pastor, but I've also witnessed the miracle of healing. Once more it makes me want to cry out to those who suffer, "There is Healing! There is Hope!" Seek the help you need!

Gary Nelson, author of, A Relentless Hope: Surviving the Storm of Teen Depression. For more information on depression and teen depression, check out my website, www.survivingteendepression.com