Message Recap
Today our Camps Pastors led us in the second week of our sermon series, Let's Talk About It, with the topics of depression and trauma. These two things, trauma and depression, are not particular to men or women, young or old. They affect many people from all different backgrounds and every stage of life. It is important to rip off the stigma that is often associated with them.
In today's message, we heard from Steve Cuss about carrying trauma and battling depression. He gave us some helpful key points to consider.
- Trauma is something terrible that happened to you in our past that now lives in your body and your future. The meaning one makes of trauma as it relates to safety and the future is what lodges deep and triggers the body. Steve continued, trauma can act like a sleeper cell. It can live in the body unnoticed and show up later.
- Things to know about trauma: you cannot graduate from it. Someone who experiences trauma will probably need to be in seasons of therapy to manage trauma as life goes on--and that is normal and okay.
- There are different types of depression, and some require medication. If you need mental health medication, you should take it and thank God it's available. Mental health medication is not a comment on your faith, it is a comment on your chemicals. Sometimes the darkness of depression can lead one to consider suicide. If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, it is so important you talk about it. We cannot urge you enough to reach out to someone about your struggle.
- If you are the person someone chooses to confide in about their depression battle, take a deep breath and remember God is with you, and God is with them. As you navigate this conversation, picture it like scuba diving. Match their depth and go deeper by asking curious questions.
Today's message continued focusing on Jeremiah, who was most likely the author of Lamentations. He experienced both trauma and depression (though both can exist apart from one another). His life and writings give us some helpful points to address these critical topics.
1. Name what you feel.
Jeremiah names what he feels, and we should do the same. It takes time and effort to do this, but when we do so and do not simply stuff how we feel, we can begin to heal.
2. Tell someone how you feel.
Begin by telling God and then share with someone close to you. For some of us, this is the best next step. For others of us, we need to tell someone, and we need to reach out to a professional.
3. God is our portion.
Even though Jeremiah is in a deep depression, he is grounded in what is true about God. When Jeremiah says the Lord is my portion, he is saying God is his living inheritance--meaning God will be with him in the here and the now. That doesn't mean the pain goes away, but it does mean you do not walk this journey alone.
