WALDROP: Faithful people in the Bible became depressed

Rev. Russell G. Waldrop, D. Min., LPC, is a pastoral counselor and is chaplain of Western State Hospital. Contact him at 332-8004 or .
Published: October 23, 2008

His name and deeds made him No. One on King Ahab’s list of the “Worst Troublemakers in Israel” (1Kings 18:17 TEV). His latest exploit was the fiery and fatal defeat of 450 false prophets of Baal. After that, what could possibly be his next challenge from the Lord? Simply this: a little thing called depression, and a suicidal one at that (1Kings 19:4 TEV).
If the prophet Elijah struggled with depression, how is he a spiritual role model? Oh, but that’s the wrong “spin” to put on depression. Here is a better one: “If the prophet Elijah experienced depression while serving God, then how does mine work serving God?” While no two depressions are exactly the same, studying his might help us live more faithfully during our own. Several factors are noteworthy in Elijah’s discipleship.
Surprisingly, one was nutrition. His hectic schedule over many days, including bad weather (1Kings 18:1 and 41), took a heavy toll on his body and mind. He was also more concerned about his bitter enemy’s eating habits than his own, encouraging King Ahab to “Go ahead and eat” (1Kings 18:41), while he refused to do so. Instead, he went mountain climbing first, and then engaged in a footrace in the rain against a charioteer, which he won (1Kings 18:45-46). His nutritional negligence would later require an angel to wake him up twice from a possibly malnutrition-induced coma to get him to eat (1Kings 19:5-7).
Secondly, he had disregarded his physical exhaustion that was so severe that he had to sit on the ground with his head between his knees (1Kings 18:42 TEV). While apparently in good physical health, he still pushed himself beyond his limits. Physicians today realize that a lack of nutrition, plus a depletion of physical energy, can contribute to one’s depression.
Thirdly, though Elijah had a professional colleague in the prophet Obadiah, they were apparently more frictional and competitive than mutually encouraging (1Kings 18:3-16). Fortunately, better resources are available today for clergy and lay people experiencing ministry-related stress — support groups for example.
A fourth factor in Elijah’s depression was his unrealistic expectations of himself; specifically, his often repeated paranoid belief that he was the only one who could perform the Lord’s work and that everyone else was trying to kill him (1Kings 18:22, 1Kings 19:10b and 14). Finally, the Lord told him of 7,000 others (1Kings 19:18). Surely, we all have had somewhat messianic- or martyr-like expectations of our faith, but we fulfill only one prophecy when we live like that consistently: “Pride goes before a fall” (Prov. 16:18), just as Elijah’s grandiosity did.
A fifth issue for Elijah was his fear of women ... well, perhaps only strong, assertive women; one in particular: Queen Jezebel. Her harsh and rather unfeminine promise threatened his manhood: “Elijah, may the gods strike me dead if by this time tomorrow I don’t do the same thing to you that you did to my prophets” (1K 19:2). The next verse says that “Elijah was afraid and fled for his life,” eventually hiding overnight in a cave until the Lord called him out ((1Kings 19:9-10).
At one point, the Scripture gives a surprisingly clinical description of his state of mind: “Elijah walked a whole day into the wilderness. He stopped and sat down in the shade of a tree and wished he would die.
“ ‘It’s too much, Lord,’ ” he said. “ ‘Take away my life. I might as well be dead!’ ”
(Continued next week)