Elijah and depression

From 1 Kings 17 to 2 Kings 2, the Bible tells the story of the Prophet Elijah (Helias) the Thesbite.

The first thing we know about him is that he proclaimed to king Ahab that there wouldn’t be more rain and then, leaving everything behind, followed the Lord’s command and went into the middle of nowhere to be fed by ravens and drink water from a torren in Carith, and later on to be taken care of by a widow, whose son was resurrected through God’s intercession as Helias mourned his death.

Some time after these events, we find Helias in the Mount Carmel facing the children of Israel and the prophets of Baal and proposing to them to call the names of their gods against the Lord.

“Invocate nomina deorum vestrorum et ego invocabo nomen Domini et deus qui exaudierit per ignem ipse sit Deus”

“Call ye on the names of your gods, and I will call on the name of my Lord: and the God that shall answer by fire, let him be God”.

After the prophets of Baal started calling their deity and nothing happened, Helias started jestering at them relentlestly, as their “god” was maybe asleep, only to, moments after this, doing the greatest disrespect one could imagine; he literally (though God’s intercession) made it to rain fire and slaughtered the heretics.

Unfathomably based if you ask me.

One could think that at this moment our hero would be the happiest man alive right? To be able to make it rain fire, to be under God’s caring arms, to be one of the greatest men to ever live. Right?

Well it happens that the next morning Helias ran into the desert and when he found a juniper tree, asked the Lord to “take away his soul”. He entered in a major depression state because king Ahab wanted him dead.

Then, an angel of the Lord appeared and told him “arise and eat”. Just that. No motivation speech, no lambos, no women, just to arise and eat.

After this event, Helias abode in a cave in the mount Horeb and had a conversation with God, where he explained his feelings of fear, loneliness and dissapointment with himself. The Lord comforted him and gave him purpose, tearing his fear away.

The life of Helias ends not by death, but through an ascension to heaven through a charriot of fire.

Kinda poetic that the man who once wished to wither and perish never actually died, innit?

Okay so, what can we learn from this story?

That even the greatest can suffer from depression after massive feats, that no one is invulnerable and that fear is a force of nature that can trample over anyone anytime (if not, ask Peter when he was literally walking on water in the middle of a storm and his faith banished due to this overwhelming feeling).

Now, how can we overcome it?

Well, lets go back to what the Angel of the Lord told Helias under the tree “eat and arise”.

When we fall and feel worthless, we don’t need to do a gorillion burpees nor trying to find a harem nor whatever newage gurus tell us to do, we just need to star pulling our shit together, one step at a time. Eating, sleeping and doing basic chores is more than enough when we feel devastated by pressure, fear or sadness. Depression is like a rabbit hole that feeds upon despair an unmatched expectations.

Now, what? Well, once we are able to take care of ourselves, we must seek help outside; a friend, a close family member, or the Lord. The later will give a silent answer at first, we may feel unheard, isolated, ignored, betrayed even, but later on the response will be as loud as an earthquake.

Depression and challenges in general are an opportunity to best ourselves, to be reforged anew, stronger, sharper, greater. And we must take advantage of that, the whole process and the teachings we learn through it.

I ask you, my dear friends, to be compassionate and loving to yourselves, to be kind, pacient, and caring, as we must follow the command that Christ gave us; to love others as ourselves, and nobody can love anyone if they don’t love themselves first.

Trust the process, find purpose and have hope, for we are never alone when dwelling throught the shallow Valley of Death.

Dominus vobiscum.