What Can We Do to Help the Hurting?

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The news that Robin Williams took his own life has once again brought heaviness to my heart. Over the last year I have heard of five colleagues, fellow pastors, who have taken their own lives and three children of pastors who have also ended their own lives. The last year has also seen a number of celebrities give in to despair and end it all as well.

Depression is the darkest of all human emotions because its cloud totally obscures all hope. How much weight must a person carry to feel the only solution is to die? The causes of depression are myriad and often not attributed to a single cause. In come cases, the cause is spiritual, the effects of harboring sin. In other cases the cause is emotional, the inability to handle the volume of stress at a given time. In still other cases the cause is physiological, an imbalance of chemicals that usually serve to regulate our nervous system. Many other causes can bring on either a temporary bout with depression or leave on seemingly in its endless grip.

The glaring truth is that you and I never know what kind of load another person is carrying at any given moment. I am not sure we consciously think of that often enough in our interpersonal dealing. We may not be able to pull someone out of depression, but we can be instrumental in either plunging him deeper or helping to lift him out. Let me share some random thoughts that have occupied my mind today as I have once again processed such sad news. Hopefully these suggestions can help us lift the load of someone who is suffering silently with depression. Sonce we don’t know what may be going on in the lives of those around us, we can apply these suggestions to everyone we encounter each day.

  1. Recognize your role in promoting peace. (Romans 12:18)
  1. Choose words that build up instead of tear down. (Ephesians 4:29)
  1. Rather than just complain, seek to be part of a solution. (Galatians 6:2)
  1. Passionately pursue peacemaking. (Hebrews 12:14)
  1. Seek to demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit while dealing with others. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Leave a reply below and share your ideas of ways we can be lifters.

2 thoughts on “What Can We Do to Help the Hurting?”

  1. cindy

    Actually taking the time to care about someone. Sending a message or card, speaking a kind word, a genuine smile and showing interest in someone. We miss the opportunity to brighten someone’s world so often because we are too busy to either notice or make the effort.

  2. Jane Schum

    This is timely, and needed. Only the Lord can give us the sensitivity to see beyond casual conversation into the heart of someone who is hurting and in deep trouble. They hide it so well. And only He can tell us how to let them know that we are willing to help, or just listen. It’s a big responsibility, but one which Christians should happily undertake. Thanks for the advice on how.

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