Download a study guide for this article (free to print/Web members) at
www.thelutheran.org (click on “study guides”).
appeared once, and then again “a second time.” The implication is that the angel would be there for Elijah any number of times.
Sometimes a visit to a depressed person is so uncom- fortable or painful—filled with awkward silences and uneasy exchanges—that we never return. Often the most important thing we can do is simply “be” with another person in their pain and listen the best we can. Depression is extremely isolating. Depressed people, perhaps more than anything else, need companionship and friends who will stay with them in the darkness. Angels who keep coming back. • The angel doesn’t try to fix everything. Notice in the story that the angel offers no advice at all beyond the urging to “get up and eat.” There is no patronizing. No attempt to overidentify. The angel never says, “There, there, it’s not that bad.” Nor does the angel offer the com- mon condolence “I know just how you feel.” There isn’t even any promise that the worst is behind Elijah now. The angel is simply present to Elijah without trying to play therapist. The angel neither gives false hope nor dis- misses what Elijah is going through as insignificant. • The angel is never condescending. William Styron, author of Sophie’s Choice, writes of his depression in Darkness Visible (Modern Library, 2007). It’s the most honest account of depression I’ve ever read. Styron recalls his hospitalization and describes what he
calls “organized infantilism” in an art therapy class. “Our class,” he writes, “was run by a delirious young woman with a fixed, indefatigable smile. Unwinding long rolls of slippery mural paper, she would tell us to take our crayons and make drawings illustrative of themes that we ourselves had chosen. For example: My House. In humili- ated rage I obeyed, drawing a square, with a door and four cross-eyed windows, a chimney on top issuing forth a curlicue of smoke. She showered me with praise, and as the weeks advanced and my health improved, so did my sense of comedy. I began to dabble happily in colored modeling clay, sculpting at first a horrid little green skull with bared teeth, which our teacher pronounced a splendid replica of my depression.”
Please note: there is never a hint of condescension from this angel in this Bible story. • The angel does not allow Elijah to give in. Sleep is often the refuge of the depressed because depression is exhausting. Sleep is often where depressed people are given relief for what is haunting them. Elijah is asleep through most of this encounter. The angel, however, gen- tly insists that Elijah must rise and attend to the basics. Depression has a spiraling downward effect on a per- son. Those who care for a depressed person will gently but
persistently attempt to interrupt this spiral. The angel both tenderly touches Elijah and insists that he get out of bed, even if only long enough to eat. • The angel offers tangible, helpful assistance. The angel brings cakes and water. Angel cakes. “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” I always think here of the angelic Sam Gamgee as he faithfully encourages weary and depressed Frodo in the “Tolkien” hobbit trilogy. Elijah was facing a crisis of vocation as a prophet. His crisis wasn’t over as this part of the story ends. Elijah will drag himself out of bed and continue 40 days and nights until reaching the mountain where it all began—where Moses received the law. The angel knew Elijah would never make it without suste- nance, food he did not have the energy to prepare. In the article I cited earlier, Palmer relates that during his depression a friend stopped by “late every afternoon, sat me down in a chair, knelt in front of me, removed my shoes and socks, and for half an hour simply massaged my feet. He found the one place in my body where I could still experience bodily feeling—and feel connected with the human race. He rarely spoke a word.”
I’m reminded here of another servant of God who once wordlessly knelt before his disciples and washed their tired feet (John 13:1-15). Depression occurs in a person’s life in many forms. Some depression is genetic and responds well to drugs. Some depression, like Elijah’s, is situational and healed only when a truth about that situation is revealed slowly, over time. Whatever the reason for the depression, this angel in the story teaches people of God how we might respond.
These “angel cakes” brought to Elijah might remind us of the holy bread we share on a weekly basis. I wonder sometimes if we truly recognize the marvelous healing and power this bread works in our lives over time; how very important it is to dine at Christ’s table so “the journey will not be too much for us” (1 Kings 19:7). We skip the meal of God at our peril. “Whoever comes to me,” Jesus says, “will never be hungry” (John 6:35). There is a great line from Ephesians that encourages us to be “imitators of God” (5:1). Maybe also imita- tors of this angel. Perhaps you have been there with Elijah, under a solitary broom tree, ready to give up. Or perhaps you’ve wanted to know how to help a friend or family member. Watch the angel—what is done, brought and said. We can help those struggling with depression by paying attention to the details of this old story.
Honeycutt is pastor of St. John Lutheran Church in Walhalla, S.C. His latest book is The Truth Shall Make You Odd: Speaking with Pastoral Integrity in Awkward Situations (Brazos Press, 2011).
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