can followers of Christ be depressed?

"Fragmented, my self knows no peace.

I cannot remember what it's like to be happy.

'Failed,' I say to myself.

'My hope fails in the face of what the Eternal One has done.'

Grievous thoughts of affliction and wandering plagued my mind--

great bitterness and gall.

Grieving, my soul thinks back;

these thoughts cripple, and I sink down.

Gaining hope, I remember and wait for this thought:

How enduring is God's loyal love;

the Eternal has inexhaustible compassion.

Here they are, every morning new!

Your faithfulness, God, is is broad as the day.

Have courage, for the Eternal is all that I will need.

My soul boasts, 'Hope in God; just wait.'

It is good.

The Eternal One is good to those who expect Him,

to those who seek Him wholeheartedly.

It is good to wait quietly for the Eternal to make things right again."

~Lamentations 3:17-26

So often, the Christian life is preached as being one that makes people "healthy, wealthy, and wise." We hear the prosperity gospel being preached from an overwhelming number of pulpits. We're told--sometimes subtly and other times very blatantly--that God's whole goal is to make us happy.

So...how do we come to terms with a book like Lamentations? It's a book of despair and grief which seems to stand in stark opposition to a God of love and grace.

Sadness and depression aren't often talked about in Christian circles, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. The prophet says in verse 17, "Fragmented, my self knows no peace. I cannot remember what it's like to be happy." Faith doesn't promise that life will be without sorrow. In fact, it promises exactly the opposite. Being a follower of Christ doesn't mean that you will be shielded from all the pain of this world. Sometimes, life hurts, and our thoughts and fears and heartbreak grounds us into the dirt.

What makes our despair different, though, is that we aren't left alone in our sorrow. When we're down in the dirt, our spirits crushed and our hearts in pieces, we aren't abandoned. Like Paul said,

"We are cracked and chipped from our afflictions on all sides,

but we are not crushed by them.

We are bewildered at times,

 but we do not give in to despair.

We are persecuted,

but we have not been abandoned.

We have been knocked down,

but we are not destroyed."

~2 Corinthians 4:8&9

Being a follower of Christ doesn't mean that you won't ever get knocked down into the dirt. King David was called a man after God's own heat, but if you flip through the Psalms you'll see where time and again David poured out his pain to God:

"My God, my God, why have You turned Your back on me?

Your ears are deaf to my groans.

O my God, I cry all day and You are silent;

my tears in the night bring no relief."

~Psalm 22:1&2

And like David, may we be able to say,

"Still, You are holy."

(v. 3a)