“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.'”(1 Kings 19:34-4, ESV)
Elijah had inflated and unrealistic expectations about what would happen when he defeated the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. And so, when things did not go the way he thought they should, he became depressed and isolated himself by fleeing into the desert, leaving his servant behind. When he finally he collapsed in utter exhaustion and gave in to self-pity and grief, he became so depressed that he wanted to die.
We can become depressed like he did when things have not gone our way. We think things and life in general should be better or easier than it is. Friends desert us, family turn away, what we do seems to have little or no effect. We isolate ourselves, as Elijah did. We tire out and feel guilty because we can’t do what we think we should do or what others think we should do. We are not as good as everyone else. As rugged individualists one of our sins is to deny that we need the help of others. We think we should be able to stand on our own two feet, to fight our own battles. Our tendency to such individualism deepens our despair and depression.
We need the encouragement of fellow believers in the church. We don’t need people who tell us how rotten we are. We need Christians who offer constructive criticism, people who will edify us, not tear us down. We should not criticize without offering encouragement, without offering helpful instruction for a person to do better. In the letters to the 7 churches in Revelation, we see the example of Christ Himself saying: “Here are your good points and your bad. You can do better. Here’s how we can work together to do this.” We Christians should focus our eyes on Jesus and follow our Lord’s example.