Have you ever just wanted to quit something? Your job, school, a relationship, a hobby you used to love, life itself? I know I’ve been there. High school was challenging for me, not academically, but in other ways. I’ve always been grateful that I knew that my parents would be devastated if I actually acted on the desire to just end everything. I learned to dislike myself less and trust God more, partly thanks to guidance from some older MK cousins one summer at our annual camp. But I still had low spots. There was this relationship in college. I’m not sure which of us was worse for the other, but it was not good. Free advice: if the friends who really care about you all think he’s an obnoxious jerk, he may or may not be an obnoxious jerk, but I guarantee that he’s not good for you. End it!

As an adult with a fully developed frontal cortex and a closer walk with God, I don’t tend to fall that far into depression any more, though there are still times when I want to go hide in a nice, quiet, dark room for about a month. And there was one time when circumstances at work led to several weeks of half the sleep I need where I was back to wanting to lie down and die. As Christians, I think we find the thought of such deep depression shocking. We should find it shocking, but we also need to recognize it as part of the human condition and try to deal with it as God would.

But how do we know how God wants it handled?

Well, it turns out that there were committed followers of God who wanted to lie down and die in the Bible. Now some of us may remember that Job reached a low spot and wished that he had never been born, but he had a pretty good excuse, right. After all, God gave permission for Satan to take everything away but his life, including his health. However, there’s another Old Testament figure who is more surprising, especially in context. In I Kings 18, Elijah confronts Ahab, has a big showdown with the prophets of Baal that involves God sending fire to burn up Elijah’s sacrifice, and sees God end an extended drought. Then at the beginning of the next chapter, Jezebel threatens to kill Elijah, leading to: “Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, ‘It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.’ And he lay down and slept under a broom tree.” I Kings 19:3-5a (ESV).

I find tremendous irony in the concept that Elijah’s fear in response to Jezebel threatening his life leads him to ask God to kill him. Sounds like depression to me.

But the really cool thing here is how God responds. “And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, ‘Arise and eat.’ And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again.” I Kings 19: 5b-6 (ESV). The angel doesn’t confront Elijah at this point, doesn’t even try to encourage him verbally, just gives him food and water and lets him sleep again. After a bit, the angel wakes him again and has him eat some more, at which point, he runs for 40 days and nights. That was apparently quite the meal.

The rest of this chapter is better known. Elijah finds a cave. God comes and asks what he’s doing there, and Elijah complains. “He said, ‘I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.’” I Kings 19:10 (ESV). God tells Elijah to go out and wait. A wind, an earthquake, and a fire come; God is in none of those, but is in the still, small voice. Then God and Elijah repeat the earlier question and answer word for word.

It strikes me as important that God still doesn’t directly answer Elijah’s complaint. Instead, he gives Elijah a bunch of instructions: next steps, if you will. However, those instructions include getting a new helper and successor in Elisha. Only at the end of God’s speech does he point out that Elijah was never truly alone, since there are another 7000 people who have remained true to the the Lord.

I love this story for two reasons. First, it’s really comforting to know that I’m not alone: that even one of the greatest prophets of God could get seriously depressed. Second, I love seeing how God handles the situation. Elijah’s true needs are met. The rebuke is gentle and only after the needs are met.

Perhaps, as Christ-followers, we should let this story guide our actions regarding depression. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating wallowing in depression. That’s a miserable place to be, and we do have a God who can meet our needs and help us out of that place of pain. However, I think our treatment of others, including fellow Christians, should be informed by God’s handling of Elijah.