ARE YOU DOWNHEARTED?

Are you downhearted? We call it depressed now, but it's the same thing. I recently spoke with a pastor who was wallowing in discouragement. He admitted that he simply sat around watching TV and feeling sorry for myself most of the time. He had been treated pretty roughly at his church over the last two years. And, even though the people who hurt him most had already left his church he just couldn't get back into gear again. He said, I feel like I'm trudging through deep muck--every step takes a big effort.

He then admitted that in the office he tended to tinker around doing meaningless chores, passing time away until he could go home again. He was preaching old sermons every week and just didn't have the drive to dig out new ones.

Ever feel this way? I have. What should you do when ministerial discouragement sets in. I asked a two older ministers and two psychology professors what advice they'd give. Here is a summary of that advice plus my own, for the ministerial blues.

1. Take action.

Do something. Start moving. Begin a new habit. Take a walk at the end of each day. Start playing racquetball, start jogging, start chopping wood, start anything... just begin some new regular habit. A minister seldom escapes periods of lethargy instantaneously. Usually you climb out of the pit one rung at a time, often precipitated by starting one new habit at a time...not always spiritual ones.

2. Focus on others.

The most serious impact of ministerial discouragement is an inordinate preoccupation with your own situation. The worse you feel, the more you think about how badly you feel. Try to find some way to meaningfully get involved with the lives of others. This may seem preposterous advice for a minister, who does this for a living, but in times of discouragement we can wind up ministering professionally but not personally. If you can find an opportunity to minister personally to one or several people—and they grow as a result of it, you may discover your feelings of depression vanishing gradually.

3. Bury your past through forgiveness.

Ministerial discouragement sometimes springs from the soil of injustice. You have b