depressed

There are two great places to be in this hospital.  One is the Labor and Delivery lobby.  It is usually filled with lots of excited and anxious people whose heads jerk up any time any one in a white coat walks by. 
They are expecting great news. 


5 floors above is the Well Baby nursery.  I regularly walk down this hall to peek in at fat, healthy, full term babies getting their first bath.  Often I am joined by relatives with cameras, cooing and bragging already.


I'm beginning to realize that beyond these two places there aren't that many happy people in the hospital.  Lots of really sick patients.  Some angry, hopeless, lonely or sad people.  Several grumpy and whiny ones. A few truly joy filled people. But for the most part, not a lot of laughter or smiles.  I wonder how that effects us.  Or how that, plus the freezing weather, plus the long hours, plus the never ending stream of patients effects us.


Former pastor Barbara C. Crafton writes about depression. I enjoyed her candid reflections and her view of how depression is another way we can connect with empathy to those we minister to here.


     At first, I didn't know I was depressed.  I thought I was just religious. 
    I knew I was beyond tired, beyond exhausted.  I knew I was out of shape.  I knew I was overworked. 
     What I didn't know was that there was any way not to be any of those things....
     I never would have killed myself, but I would have seen to it that the church killed me. Had it been left to me, I never would have stopped.  And I would be dead now.
    And I am not dead.  I am alive.  My life has changed dramatically.  I have said good-bye to people and things I hated to leave, chief among them that brave, funny little church and all the beloved people in it.  I have told the truth about what I can and cannot give.   
   Sparingly, I have even told it out loud, in public, and have been rewarded for that judicious sharing by answering stories of many other good and faithful people who have battled my old enemy, too.  You're depressed? one of them will ask, seeming a bit surprised that I would own up to such a thing in front of people, and I answer with a firm Yes.  That's probably the most useful thing I say to anyone there.   Jesus Wept -When Faith and Depression Meet.

A hostile world! I call to God, I cry to God to help me. From his palace he hears my call; my cry brings me right into his presence— a private audience! Psalm 18:6 (The Message)