{"id":2942,"date":"2012-10-17T09:43:33","date_gmt":"2012-10-17T13:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/?p=2942"},"modified":"2012-10-16T17:00:37","modified_gmt":"2012-10-16T21:00:37","slug":"when-christians-get-depressed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2012\/10\/17\/when-christians-get-depressed\/","title":{"rendered":"When Christians Get Depressed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Jordan Monge is a recent Harvard graduate, now working for the Veritas Forum<\/a>. \u00a0Recently at Harvard\u2019s\u00a0Fish Tank<\/a>\u00a0blog, a part of the excellent undergraduate journal\u00a0Ichthus<\/em>, she told the story of her struggle with depression. \u00a0It\u2019s not a simple, smiley-face story. \u00a0She goes through ups and downs, spends a lot of time in the blackest pit, and sometimes her faith makes her feel even worse. \u00a0Here she describes a point, however, when her faith began to give her a different perspective:<\/p>\n

I realized that faith was the key difference between my last episode with depression \u2013 in which I not once contemplated suicide \u2013 and all the others. This time, in the deepest depression I had yet experienced, I still had hope. Knowing that my old suicidal habits had been transformed into hope amidst despair made it clear that my faith had made a difference in my life and that I wasn\u2019t simply \u201ca bad Christian.\u201d Of course, the whole business of being \u201ca bad Christian\u201d is rather silly anyways; the reason I converted was because I recognized my own weakness and guilt. Following in Jesus\u2019 footsteps does not require me to be perfect all the time, but it does demand that I seize the opportunity to really wrestle with life\u2019s hardest problems with my friends rather than hiding behind a false veneer of strength. The Christian faith has never been about living up to God\u2019s standards for goodness, but rather how God uses confession, hope, and faith to transform our brokenness and shortcomings.\u00a0 My raw material may be shoddy \u2013 my genetic code seemingly designed for depression \u2013 but God is using it to transform me. My pride was my downfall, but my faith is my salvation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the whole thing<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, depression is for Christians too. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":2943,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[552],"tags":[1370,1326,1047],"class_list":["post-2942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-depression","tag-depression","tag-faith","tag-mental-health"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen Christians Get Depressed - Philosophical Fragments<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Yes, depression is for Christians too.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2012\/10\/17\/when-christians-get-depressed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When Christians Get Depressed - Philosophical Fragments\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yes, depression is for Christians too.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2012\/10\/17\/when-christians-get-depressed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Philosophical Fragments\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-10-17T13:43:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-10-16T21:00:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/46\/2012\/10\/Depression.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"250\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"321\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Timothy Dalrymple\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Timothy Dalrymple\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2012\/10\/17\/when-christians-get-depressed\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2012\/10\/17\/when-christians-get-depressed\/\",\"name\":\"When Christians Get Depressed - 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