Marcia Sietstra:  Pastor

I once heard a very wise pastor preach a sermon about the story Peter Pan, which some of you know as the movie Hook.  I've never forgotten his sermon.  He reminded us Peter Pan, after he grew up, could no longer fly because he had forgotten how to think happy thought.  This pastor said that we are sometimes like that.  We get really down at times in our lives and can't find the happy thoughts that will make us get off the ground.  Like Peter, we don't believe that we can get off the ground, and so we can't.   We get depressed.  

Depression affects millions of Americans—some mildly, some seriously.  Most of us get a bit depressed at some times in our lives.  The experts tell us that some people are born with a tendency to be depressed, some need medication, just as some people need medication for high blood pressure or some other condition.  Clinical depression is a serious illness, and one should not hesitate to get professional help in addressing it.  

While I would never suggest that everyone is capable of curing their own depression, there are some things many of us can do to feel better and today I want to share with you a couple of things our faith teaches that can be helpful, as well as something an expert in the field suggests which just happens to fit very well with what Christianity offers.  

Let's return first to the lesson of Peter Pan that my pastor friend spoke about.  In the movie Hook, we see Peter pan as a grown up, weighed down with heavy thoughts about his finances and job and his estrangement from his children.  He has forgotten how to believe happy thoughts; he has even forgotten how to think them.  Until at last, on a mission to rescue his children from the pirates, he is reminded that to fly as a boy, he needed to believe and think happy thoughts.  But he can't make himself do that until the day he picks up a teddy bear left behind by one of the lost boys and remembers the one he gave his own child.  His mind is flooded with thoughts of her birth and he recalls the sheer joy of it.  Suddenly Peter begins to float and then to soar to fly off the ground a powerful metaphor for life and how happy memories give our spirits wings.  

A friend of mine is a counselor.  One of her clients, let's call him Jason, was depressed.  After some time together, one day the counselor asked him to think about his divorce and several of the other bad things that had happened in his life recently.  After directing him to think about all these bad things, she asked him, Now, how do you feel? 

Bad, he answered.  

Then my counselor friend said, Now think about your little daughter, and your favorite activities.  What do you like to do when she visits; where do you go?  Think for a few minutes about other things you enjoy.  After a few minutes, she gently asked him, Now how do you feel?  

Better, was his response.  She told Jason he had two buttons and the power to push either of them.  He could choose to push the negative feeling button by concentrating on what had gone wrong in his life.  Or, he could choose not to think those sad thoughts, by consciously choosing to push the other button and thinking of all the good things in his life.  It's like the old hymn, Count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.  

Have you ever practiced selective perception, focusing only on negative memories or unpleasant aspects of your life?  If you only think about those heavy things, then you won't be able to get off the ground either!  So what can you do if those negative thoughts and emotions plague you and just won't go away?  

Here's one idea from a psychiatrist and clinical neuroscientist who has done pioneering work to show that all thoughts release chemicals that make us feel good or bad.  His name is Dr. Daniel Amen.  Don't you love that name!  

Dr. Amen believes that negative thinking may actually weaken the immune system.  He says that with practice people can change the way they think.  We can practice changing our negative thoughts into positive ones.  The way to start is by challenging your negative thoughts.  It's important to question your ANTs, he says,  ANTs being the acronym for a term he likes to use:  Automatic Negative Thinking.[1]   

You don't have to believe every single thought you have.  Many thoughts lie to you.  They scare you.  They make things out to be worse than they really are.  The problem is, if you don't think about your thoughts, you believe them 100 percent.  

Say for example, that the recent news about the Israeli Palestinian conflict depresses you.  Dr. Amen would tell you to turn off the TV.  The brain has trouble tolerating those horrible images repeated over and over.  Spend time with the people you love and who love you.  Take care of what's important to you, and you'll feel better.  You'll be less depressed if you balance out the horror by focusing on the good things happening elsewhere.  The news doesn't do that at all!  Neither do tv shows.  The crime and crudeness on tv is not balanced by what is good and noble and joyful in the world.  

Paul says in our Philippians text, Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  Studies have demonstrated that watching a lot of television tends to increase depression.   Not surprising, since much of what is on is violent, crude and unpleasant, certainly not the kind of positive things that feed one's spirit.  A little of that may be OK but it needs to be balanced with healthy, positive activities, like  spending time visiting with friends or enjoying nature rather than watching unpleasantness hour after hour.  But, like playing the piano, it will take some practice to resist those automatic negative thoughts and images that bombard us, and exchange them with positive ones instead.  

When the ANTs are crawling on you like a honey jar, there are other aspects of Christianity that can help push aside those automatic negative thoughts.  One of those is remembering that this is ultimately God's world, and justice will happen in God's timing.  We don't have to solve all the world's problems in our lifetime, because our lifetime is a tiny little blip in God's time.   

And finally, I think it also helps to remember that God wants us to be joyful, in spite of all that might be wrong in the world.  Jesus said, I have come that you might have life, and have it abundantly.   

Let me give you one last quick example of questioning your ANTs, those automatic negative thoughts.  Most people automatically assume that getting old is bad.  The gray hair, stiff joints, feet that give you trouble, and the memory loss, I admit aren't positive developments.  Some days, Phil and I together have the equivalent of only one good memory!  His hearing is going and my waistline.  We expect other parts of the body to fail eventually too.  I've just pushed the automatic negative thinking button!  These are the stereotypes about aging.  

But push the other button, the positive one about aging.  What looked like wrinkles in the mirror are really lines of wisdom on our faces.  I am more in touch with my spirit than at any younger age.  The aging process invites us to be more in touch with the spirit, which is really hidden in early life.  After we start physically declining we begin to allow ourselves to recognize what is internal in us, and which endures beyond death.  

Turn your losses into opportunities, trusting that God wants us to have joy in our lives, and there is nearly always some reason for joy in any circumstances.  I hope my comments will help you to get rid of ANTs, replace those automatic negative thoughts with positive ones.

 Amen.

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[1] Daniel G. Amen, Change your Brain, Change Your Life (Three Rivers Press, 2000).