Blessed and Highly FLAVOURED

The title was NOT a typo! Its my attempt at humour!

This post is of a Christian theology nature those of you who are not Christians might not get your head round it so might prefer not to read.

Ok so a few weeks back I was at a conference, Church Leadership conference and to be honest I should NOT have been there, I was not really well enough to be at work never mind at the conference, but that’s in the past I went and I freaked and hit a real low as a result of going.

Anyhow, whilst there one of the speakers who I would say is a preaching Pavarotti, said some stuff that I find hard to get my head around, I actually wasn’t at the second of his session, which is just as well with how fragile I am/was, but at that session he trotted out one of the things I have heard some Christian speakers say a few times before, effectively what he was saying is that as Christians our security is in God and that our state and position is that we are, as children of the living God, Blessed and highly favoured, and yes there is truth in that, it is our position as Christ carriers but he went on to say that our response to being asked how we are should be to declare that ‘truth’ my problem with that is that although its true its not real!

If anyone asks at the moment how our car is I could say ‘it runs really well, the air-conditioning is working great, especially in this heat, it has fantastic suspension, its got fairly low mileage for the type and age of vehicle, its pretty new and it’s a great vehicle that suits our purposes well but if I wanted to be real about it I would say well there is an awful noise coming from the steering rack because one of the bearings is worn and needs replacing! Its actually not a pleasure to drive at the moment because its so noisy. All of the above are true but the answer to the question how is it is simply the last one is the. OH I could always just say, well it’s a FIAT what do you expect? J

Yes I am blessed yes I am highly favoured but the truth is that when someone asks how I am, genuinely asking rather than just as a greeting, they are not interested in my spiritual state and my eternal destination they are interested in me, in how David is doing and feeling right here right now, and the truth is that, as a guy who is suffering from severe depression, I am not feeling blessed and highly favoured I am often feeling pretty low and finding life tough!

Similarly, if all people want to hear is ‘I am wonderfully well and Blessed and Highly favoured’ then they actually don’t need to ask as they know that’s the theological state, indeed I would rather they don’t ask because they are clearly NOT interested in the real me the me that has to deal with real life and face issues and struggles in the here and now that, to be honest, sometimes bring me to breaking point.

I don’t want to have a ‘relationship’ built simply on making declarations of our spiritual state in the heavenlys without actually getting to know the daily struggles and issues that we each face, I am not interested in such a superficial relationship that we are afraid to admit who we are and how we are feeling! How can I pray for you effectively, how can I support you effectively if the only response you have to my genuine interest in how your feeling is to trot out some well worn cliché?

Lets get real with each other, lets admit that actually as Christians we are not immune from the problems and difficulties the rest of the world face, we can still be made redundant, we can still have financial problems, suffer from sickness, have car accidents, get cancer, suffer bereavement, have financial problems, have marriage problems, and dare I say, yes Christians can and do suffer depression.

So if you ask me how I am don’t be surprised at getting an honest and real answer because that’s who I am! Although I have to confess that very often I will gloss over the question and not answer it too fully or honestly simply because I am not prepared to discuss it with people who are only interested in the superficial, usually for me, at the moment, the answer to that question requires more than a passing single sentence response, it requires a desire on your part to understand depression and understand me, it requires the ability on your part to empathise with where I am and want to support.

So, how am I? well actually, its been a really good week this week, I am generally feeling so much better than I have been for ages BUT I am not able to say at the moment that I am better, Depression is not one of those conditions that you can say your better or have been healed from after just a week or so of feeling good, there are ups and downs, this might just be another good period before the next down or it might be real and significant improvement in my condition, helped significantly by the medication that I am on.

Now I have lit the touch paper, ME taking anti depressants! Yes and I have been taking them for a couple of years now! yet another big taboo in the Christian world, but why? After all I also take medication for Asthma, no one ever considers that to be wrong, I have asthma I take medication to help make it better, I have depression I take medication to help make that better too.