Jesus Wept E-Book

Barbara C. Crafton

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 182

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2009

Beschreibung

Praise for Jesus Wept "What courage it took for this priest and poet to exploredepression in people of faith. Barbara Crafton writes withexquisite nakedness about the futile search for meaning in themeaninglessness of despair. Her own salvation is a beacon to thosewho believe God means them to suffer in order to understand." --Gail Sheehy, author, Passages;Understanding Men's Passages "Writing well about depression is not nearly as challenging assurviving the beast, but it is still a hard thing to do. Havingwritten about my own depression, I can say with some authority thatBarbara Crafton, a fellow sufferer, writes wonderfully well on thisdifficult topic.... This book offers truth about the devastatingdarkness of this disease and about the hope that makes it possibleto find one's way back to the light. Barbara Crafton offers up hertruth with humor and gritty stories as well as candor and care....May the many who suffer?and those who care for them, read thisbook, shed the shame, and find the new life that awaits them on theother side." --Parker J. Palmer, author, A Hidden Wholeness,Let Your Life Speak, and The Courage to Teach "Having known the tension of faith and depression in her ownlife, Barbara Crafton offers us wisdom that comes from years ofreflection, of faithful practice, of knowing 'dark is not dark toyou, O Lord.' (Psalms 139:11) She has no truck with pablumChristianity; she knows that faith that does not meet our darkestdays is no faith at all?. Crafton offers sound insight and speaksthe truth in love, offering hope and acceptance to those of us whostruggle with depression." --Mary C. Earle, author, Broken Body, HealingSpirit: Lectio Divina and Living with Illness and BeginningAgain: Benedictine Wisdom for Living with Illness

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Praise

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

PREFACE

PROLOGUE: WHAT WE ’ RE TALKING ABOUT

CHAPTER 1 - JESUS WEPT

CHAPTER 2 - A LEARNING EXPERIENCE

CHAPTER 3 - I JUST DON’T FEEL ANYTHING

CHAPTER 4 - TROUBLE IN PARADISE

CHAPTER 5 - CHARGED WITH THE CARE OF SOULS

CHAPTER 6 - THE DEFENDANT AS PROSECUTOR

CHAPTER 7 - THIS IS MY LAST HOPE

CHAPTER 8 - SORROWFUL MYSTERIES

CHAPTER 9 - THE DARK NIGHT

CHAPTER 10 - WORDS FAIL ME

1. MARKING THE BREATH

2. SEQUENTIAL RELAXATION OF ALL PARTS OF THE BODY

3. INTRODUCTION OF THE HOLY WORD

4. THE DESCENT

CHAPTER 11 - WANTING TO DIE

CHAPTER 12 - THE FAMILY DISEASE

NOTES

FURTHER READING

THE AUTHOR

More praise forJesus Wept

“In plain and powerful images, Barbara Crafton uses her own journey through clinical depression to shine helpful light on this common and yet rarely understood human condition. She cuts through the usual evasions and reveals interior dialogues that will encourage both sufferers and those who love them.”

—Tom Ehrich, president,Morning Walk Media Inc., and author,Church Wellness; Just Wondering, Jesus;and With Scripture as My Compass

Copyright © 2009 by Barbara Cawthorne Crafton. All rights reserved.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Crafton, Barbara Cawthorne.

Includes bibliographical references (p. ).

eISBN : 978-0-470-46184-6

1. Depression, Mental—Religious aspects—Christianity. 2. Depressed persons—Religious life. I. Title.

BV4910.34.C73 2009 248.8’625—dc22

2008055676

The Geranium Farm is a worldwide community,numbering in the tens of thousands and dedicated tothe encouragement of spiritual growth. We connect withone another primarily through the Internet. ManyFarmers responded with great generosity and candor tomy request for their stories of life in the shadow ofclinical depression. Some of their words are used here,with their permission. To protect their privacy,their names have all been changed. But theyknow who they are.This book could not have been written withouttheir help, and so it is dedicated to them, withmuch gratitude.

PREFACE

There were dire warnings of dreadful heat and humidity for today; it would be hot enough to wilt the briskest of spirits. But it’s turned out to be not that bad here. We haven’t even needed to turn on the fan upstairs. Sometimes the terrible things a person expects to happen just don’t. You gear up for the worst, and then an anticlimactic little inconvenience is all you get. It’s almost a disappointment; now where am I going to put all that worry?

Somewhere far away, I hope. Worry beforehand has so little of any use to contribute to what actually happens—it neither causes nor cures anything, ever. I do not think it prepares us for misfortunes in any good way—it simply gives us the chance to experience every sorrow twice, once before it happens and then again when it does. I, for one, would rather be strolling down the sidewalk without a care in the world one day and be crushed by a falling grand piano, than creep fearfully around every corner, afraid that something bad is lurking on the other side.

Well, but if you had known about the baby grand, you wouldn’t have walked down that street. You would have taken a different route. Maybe, maybe not. They fall fast, those baby grands. By the time I had enough information about the impending disaster to choose another route, the piano would already be on the ground, with me flat as a cartoon beneath it.

Of course, such sensible reasons not to worry are only effective for people who already don’t. Those for whom anxiety is a regular visitor can’t turn it off easily in response to reasonable and convincing argument. Chronic fear is not about lack of information: it comes from within. The same is true of chronic sorrow: it does no good to point out to the sufferer that she is really blessed in many ways, that things really aren’t so bad, that many other people have it much worse, even if all those things are true. Depression comes from within, not from outside us.

There can be so many reasons for these internal woes. The brain’s chemistry authors many of them, and they improve markedly with the right medicine, rightly managed. The trauma of early life or current stress often contributes to this sorry chemical soup, and often the right talk therapy or behavioral therapy helps. Many people spend years struggling to understand themselves and to heal.

For many years, I’ve thought about how religious faith helps or hinders this struggle, which is my own and that of many other people. Just how prayer might be a means toward healing, and how difficult it can be for those afflicted in this way to pray at all. How hard it can be to heed and act on Jesus’ words, Let not your heart be troubled, without either lying or sounding falsely pious. Whether you’re religious or not, one thing is certain: depression is not for sissies. Living with it is hard.

PROLOGUE: WHAT WE ’ RE TALKING ABOUT

Everybody gets sad now and then. You’re sad when your mother dies; you cry every day, maybe several times a day, perhaps for weeks or even months. Or you’re sad when you lose your job. You move away from the old neighborhood, and you’re sad to leave all those dear people.