As a minister, one of the single most rewarding things about your calling is visiting people in the hospital or comforting them as they go through a season of illness or pain. When you stand with a family and pray with them in the middle of a hospital room or in the waiting area you have a tangible idea that you are making a difference in their lives. You are truly helping them and walking with them through a difficult valley. You are helping to point them toward the Son. You are serving them a cup of cold water. I am honored everytime I get to serve people in this way.

That is why last fall when one of my students was extremely sick, in and out of the hospital, I found it deeply disturbing that I could not get out of bed to visit him and his family.

I found myself lying in the dark all alone night after night after night. I was averaging 12 and 14 hour nights and struggeling to get up the next morning. I finally had to admit something to myself:

I was profoundly depressed.

My wife told me that she felt that the depression had begun a few years back while working security. I had been one of the first on the scene to help a young man who had tried to commit suicide. I had trouble sleeping after that and the late nights turned into insomnia which turned into who knows what. I still don’t know the direct cause of my depression. All I know is that the aches and pains, physically and emotionally, were tearing me apart.

As soon as I admited that I really could be depressed, I began to awake from this walking coma that I had been in. It was a struggle but with the help of my loving wife, supportive friends and my Lord and my God, I have come along way since last fall.

My depression affected everything around me. Now that this season has passed, I am thankful for that time. I don’t ever want to feel that way again but I now know what to look for and how to help others who may be struggling as well.

Praise be to the Father of all good things!

I waited patiently for the Lord
He inclined and heard my cry
He brought me up out of the pit
Out of the miry clay

I will sing, sing a new song
I will sing, sing a new song

How long to sing this song
How long to sing this song
How long, how long, how long
How long to sing this song

He set my feet upon a rock
And made my footsteps firm
Many will see
Many will see and hear

I will sing, sing a new song
I will sing, sing a new song
I will sing, sing a new song
I will sing, sing a new song

How long to sing this song
How long to sing this song
How long, how long, how long
How long to sing this song

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U2
War