It Starts Small

The shortest verse in the bible says:

³⁵ Jesus wept. John 11:35

It is the shortest, yet power verse in scripture. My Savior wept. I have been in a long season of weeping and sadness. I have been careful to monitor myself for signs of depression. It is interesting to note that in the 1980s psychology redefined depression. Depression used to be diagnosed when a person was sad and they did not know why. The phrase was adopted in the 80s to say I am depressed, vs I am sad because…. So psychology changes the parameters and definition of depression to include all forms of sadness, weather a person knew why they were sad or not.

I have not been able to determine if sadness is depression or not. I believe there is a difference between sadness and depression. Depression, to me is a sense of hopelessness and despair. It is being trapped without any hope of possibility of change in circumstance. Sadness, my sadness, it for circumstances and people who are suffering. I do not believe I suffer depression, because my hope is in Christ and knowing and believing that all things are being worked for good by him to those who love him. I believe that what I am experiencing is exactly what Jesus experienced when John wrote this scripture. Jesus wept for those he loved.

I have been able to put some time in searching God’s Word for understanding sadness. I believe there are three types of seasons of sadness God allows us to experience.

Healthy Grieving

All sadness is different and not the same. I am sad is a catch phrase with different meanings. Someone might feel sad because of the loss of a parent. They long for a relationship they do not have. Someone might say they are sad because they just watched a Dog’s Purpose. Saying I am sad is expressing how a person feels. Sadness can be healthy and sadness can also be unhealthy.

Healthy sadness is the ability to grieve. Too often we rush the grieving process. No one likes to mourn and grieve the loss of special people in our lives. The grieving process comes in stages and when we rush that process we find ourselves in deep sadness. We did not allow ourselves times to go through that process. If we try to move on without properly grieving, we prolong our season of sadness.

Grieving is like a cut on your body. You can ignore that it is there and it prolongs the healing process. The wound keeps reopening because it is not being properly cared for.

The same is true for a heart that is not being properly cared for when hurt. We can try to shove our hurt and pain in the proverbial closet and pretend like it is not there, but that wound begins to fester because it is exposed and not being taken care of.

Someone told me I needed this season of grieving, sadness, to give myself extra care, tenderness, and the time needed to heal with the Lord. Rushing this season of grieving will just reopen that wound because I am testing it before it has enough time to heal.

⁴ A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; Ecclesiastes 3:4

King Solomon told us that there is a season for everything in our lives, even a season of sadness. The reason we are not experiencing times of laughter and dancing is because we are not allowing ourselves to spend time with the Lord and allowing him to properly heal the wounds of our hearts. One reason he may be allowing sadness to remain is because we need to slow down and realize we need healing and wound care.

Secret Sin

There is an interesting section of verses in Lamentations.

¹³ What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee? ¹⁴ Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment. Lamentations 2:13-14

We live in an age where people do not like to talk about their sin. We are a society bent on raising up narcissists. We put the blame on everything and everyone else, vs sitting down and getting real about ourselves. People feel it is rude or judgemental. Our culture likes to hear about how much God loves them but does not like the light cast upon the darkness in their heart. God does not express his love for us when we have secret sin hidden in our hearts.

God will give you a healthy conviction and sadness about any sin in your life because he loves you too much to pretend like you are not sinning. In these verses, God is addressing sin head on.

⁵ This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 1 John 1:5

God is light and in him there is no darkness. If we want to live with God, we need to step into the light. Allow him to expose us for who we really are and seek his redemption. One of the ways God brings us into the light is by allowing us to be filled with a deep unbearable sadness that stems from our secret sin. I often wonder how much is depression linked to secret sin in the lives of those who suffer from it. I can look back to moments of great depression and link it directly to my relationship with God.

The sooner we repent and step into the light by Jesus’ grace and mercy through salvation, the sooner we can escape this sadness and allow God’s forgiveness to transform our lives into joy and peace.

Your Calling

I believe there is one more type of season for sadness. I believe God allows a season of sadness to motivate us into helping others. I believe this is the sadness I experience daily.

To look out over this lost and hurting world and feel no sadness is not possible if you love God in your heart. When you love God in your heart you see as Jesus sees the world. Paul writes that to live is Christ. Christ wept over us. All of us in our lost and hurting state. He knows the love of our Father and when he saw people hurting and suffering he desired that they all come to Him, receive him. Yet, in our lives we are given a choice. To receive him, or refuse him. Paul’s word speak it perfectly:

9 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, ² That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. ³ For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Romans 9:1-3

Paul is not saying he would literally forsake God for lost people. He is expressing the attitude that Christ displayed on the cross, his willingness to suffer to save the lost. God uses sadness to call us to service. One way to discover the will of God in your life is to look at what breaks your heart the most? God may be allowing sadness in your heart to motivate you to take huge faith steps into ministering to the needs of those who break your heart.

This is my type of sadness. It is what keeps me motivated to studying God’s Word. To learn about my Savior. It is as Paul wrote: to live is Christ. I seek to have a deep rooted relationship with my Heavenly Father and allowing Christ to work in me and through me to take this deep sadness I have for others and allow him to minister to the needs of others.

When we find ourselves in deep sadness we can look at the season and seek our Heavenly Father to ask: am I rushing the grieving process, do I have secret sin in my life, or is this God giving me a heart for others?

¹⁹ Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. ²⁰ My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. ²¹ This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. ²² It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. ²³ They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. Lamentations 3:19-23