Can Jesus relate to our experience of Depression?

Ever since I found out Rick would be speaking on faith and depression I’ve been wondering: can Jesus relate to our experience of depression? Or maybe the question should be, how does Jesus relate to it? Not so much merely getting the “blues,” but the needing medication kind of imbalance. The Bible speaks of him being able to relate to our weaknesses in every way–that he was fully human–and yet that he also never sinned in those states. Did Jesus have a “perfect” body that never betrayed him with a worrisome heart murmor or slighltly off brain chemistry? Something tells me he experienced achne like the rest of us. But our emotions are essentially directly correlated to chemical changes in the body, so how far did his chemistry swing? I fully appreciate Rick’s anger toward the preacher who invited repentance from Depression, but I also wonder: our sin, our “missing the mark,” seems so intimately tied up with who we are and how we feel and so sometimes I don’t merely want a God who can free me from my unloving behaviour or taint, I sometimes just feel I need Jesus to be able to understand my darker side too. Is this merely a mystery, or can is it possible to tease out the complexity of this question in a satisfying dialouge?

The Clothes Make The Man, or do they?

Today I got stuck trying to drive our car into our driveway. I was 1/2 way off the road and onto our lane. So close and yet so far! And who would come to my aid? The senior cross walk guard who I had earlier poked fun at because of his dress shoes. Shoes that are clearly not made for snow or cold or any sort of activity. I had laughed at the absurdity of his choice of footwear--thinking how cold he must be--but then I caught myself.



Seniors don't always have a lot of income. Maybe that's all he's got. Maybe he really takes pride in his job and wants to dress up for it. Maybe he has to go to a funeral this morning. Whatever the case, it was those very same shoes that immediately crossed the road to help. And help he did. Just that extra bit of push got the car moving again. And I thought, the clothes don't make the man. The man makes the man. Character can trascend or improve almost any external circumstance... including the shoes you've got.

In The Beginning

O'dyssey n. series of wanderings, long adventurous journey.

I want this to be a space where I can crystalize some of my thoughts, and gather my random musings, and perhaps creatively weave a cloth that has some semblance of order and beauty and usefulness to myself and others. Too often my journals in the past have mostly been a collection of spiritual quotes, and yet as much as there are no "original" thoughts, we all have our own fingerprint to leave behind as evidence of the Greater Intelligence that is our Source. I want this to be evidence that God is in fact "moving over the water" of my soul, and is indeed the One divine mystery in whom I live and breathe and have my Being.

This will also be a place to ask all those many questions. And perhaps answers will arrive in their own way. But I don't want this to be mere theory, overly intellectual, and just hot air. I want to wrestle with the practical stuff of life and to bring direction to these real feet that are on the ground and these hands that not only type words but cook, and shovel, and heal. This journey is about a life well lived or its not worth the wandering.