Good Grief: Living and Learning Through Loss a 7-Day Plan by Maya J.T. DawsonSample

Day 5: Safeguarding Depression

Depression can sneak up on us. We invite it in for coffee and before we know it depression has moved into our spare bedroom. If we give depression an inch it will take a mile. I’m not saying we can or even should completely circumvent the stage of depression when it comes to grieving. But I am saying we should be cognizant of how we engage with depression.

Let’s take a moment to unpack the difference between sadness and depression. Sadness is a normal and healthy emotion that comes and goes in life. Depression is defined as a mood disorder that can not only affect how we feel, but also how we think and live. This is why we must carefully monitor our experiences with depression. There’s no doubt grieving impacts how we feel, think, and live. This is why it’s such a process. It’s when this particular stage of grief becomes extended and increasingly disheartening that we need to safeguard our depression.

What does it look like to put guardrails around our depression? It looks like remaining in community even during our darkest most dire times. Community doesn’t mean letting any and every one into our lives, but it does look like surrounding ourselves with a close circle of friends and family we can trust. It does look like accepting godly counsel. As Christians, we often consider seeking out support for our mental and emotional wellbeing to be a sign of weakness. However, asking for help is one of the strongest things we can do. Admitting we need help releases God to strengthen us. His strength is made perfect in our weakness.

Today I invite you to safeguard your depression. I challenge you to embrace community found in the body of Christ and reach out when you feel like shrinking back. I challenge you to seek godly counsel and ask for help. Depression is a part of the grieving process, but you don’t have to experience it alone.

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

Hebrews 10:24-25 (ESV)

“Where this is no guidance, a people falls,

But in an abundance of counselors there is safety.”

Proverbs 11:14 (ESV)

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

2 Corinthians 12:9 (ESV)