On 18 June 2018 my wife Anne died of cancer. This blog is not about her life and her courage. I know I could never begin to do justice to her extraordinary faith and witness, especially in those final days. This is not even about how I felt at the time. Rather, it concerns what happened to me six months later. It’s offered here in the hope the story might help someone else, especially at this time of Covid 19 and lockdown. I’m writing it because the church – in common with wider society – still finds it hard to talk about depression. And I’m writing it because times of deep darkness – what John of the Cross called ‘dark nights of the soul’ – are part of Christian discipleship for many.
I knew I was in difficulties at the beginning of 2019. Christmas had been really tough, new year worse. I was invariably tired and flat. I was well supported and couldn’t understand why I was struggling so badly. Darkness is definitely the best image I can find to describe how I was feeling. Surely, as the days passed I would shake this off. But I didn’t.
And then one morning I found I simply couldn’t get up. I really couldn’t move; it was as if I was glued to the bed. I’ve experienced low mood at different times in my life, not least when Anne was going through her first cancer in 2012. But this was different. I was just stuck. Thinking back to that day is still very difficult.
Eventually, somehow, I rolled out of bed, and crawled across the floor. By about 11.30 a.m. I found that I could function – just. So began a daily pattern: the mornings were awful, the afternoons slightly better, the evenings tolerable. Then the daily cycle began again. Still, I led meetings, led our staff team, preached and pastored the church.
To my amazement and embarrassment I found spoken prayer almost impossible. I simply couldn’t find the words. With other people I just about managed, but on my own I couldn’t. I felt like a hypocrite.
A few things helped me. One was the so-called Jesus Prayer, rooted in the Eastern Orthodox Tradition: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner’. This had been part of my prayer life for many years, ever since I discovered it in the early days of my teaching at Spurgeon’s College. I found it brought me back to the simplicity of the gospel, anchoring me as a disciple of Jesus, one whose specific calling meant that words – often quite complicated words – were his stock in trade. But now I was praying the Jesus Prayer for a very different reason: it was all I could manage. The phrases I knew so well were a lifeline. But sometimes even this was too much. All I could say was, ‘Lord, help.’ Other times it was just a sigh. I thought I wasn’t really praying. Perhaps the truth is that I was praying like never before.
I knew I needed help but I’m stubborn! The breakthrough came when I went to the doctors for something quite minor. In the surgery waiting room there was a magazine containing an article with extensive quotes from the actress, Emma Thompson, about her own battle with depression. I have the article in front of me now as I type. She spoke of the ‘mild depression’ she periodically experiences, depression that became overwhelming following the breakup of her marriage to Kenneth Branagh. Everyone’s experience is unique, but to my astonishment she basically described how I was feeling. The struggle to get up, the tears, the forced cheerfulness, the reluctance to seek help: it was all there. The description ‘mild depression’ is important. There are many who suffer far worse. But she had needed help, and so did I. I decided not to bother the doctor with the minor ailment. Instead I would talk about the real problem.
By God’s extraordinary grace, for me, slowly the darkness began to lift. Here’s a few of the things that helped.
Realising I was not alone
We know this from the Bible. Psalm 88 is an example of a lament from someone exhibiting the symptoms of clinical depression. A quick glance through Christian history also shows us we’re not alone. C.H. Spurgeon, the nineteenth-century Baptist preacher, is just one who fought this battle with depression. And in this time of lockdown many are facing struggles with mental health, whilst others have had to deal with this for many years. One of the things about depression is that it often isolates. We feel everyone else is coping, that we are the only ones who are not. Yet when we turn again to Psalm 88 we see how utterly cut off the Psalmist felt. But we are not alone. This realisation in itself was helpful.
Be open
Be open with God first of all. Once again, Psalm 88 gives us this encouragement. Often I realise I pray ‘nice’ middle-class English prayers, very polite and with lots of finely phrased sentences. God is not impressed! He knows what’s in my heart before I speak it out, so why not be open with him? Be open with others too. When I did share what was happening – doing so with a degree of fear and trembling – I found love, understanding, and people who would journey with me. Church was great. I hope you have people around you who can help you too.
Seek help
For me this meant being honest with our staff team, elders, in appropriate ways, the wider church. It also meant bereavement counselling, medication and, for a time, a revised pattern of working. If you’re a Baptist Minister you can access a Ministerial Counselling service and receive subsidised help. My experience of counselling was interesting. The counsellor expected me to do most of the talking and sometimes we sat in silence. I remember thinking, ‘you get paid for this…?’ But step by step I found that it was really helping. Sometimes the bravest thing we can do is say to someone else, ‘I need help’.
Trust in Jesus
My own story is of God leading me out of depression (I’m acutely aware this is not everyone’s experience). It’s not easy though, especially now. I’m living on my own, unable to physically meet up with the amazing woman I’m now in a relationship with (who works for the NHS – more anxiety!). I’m seeking to help navigate our wonderful church through lockdown. Writing this blog has also come at a cost, if I’m honest.
Yet I know that even when it seems there’s no light penetrating the gloom, and any positive feelings have gone AWOL, God is to be trusted. In Psalm 88 the writer never stops coming to God, never stops hammering on the gates of heaven. The Psalm ends – in the Hebrew text – with the word ‘darkness’. Yet its very existence in the Psalter sets it in a wider context, just as the inclusion of the Psalter in the whole Bible gives a wider context still. God reaches out to his people, sending Jesus to die for us and offering love and hope through faith in him. These things are true however we feel. Don’t stop trusting, for God will lead us through.
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That’s a beautifully written very vulnerable piece of writing. It resonates for me, and I have already forwarded it to a lovely friend who is struggling with depression in the hope that it helps her too.
Thank you! 🙂
Peter, thank you for this. Thank you for your insight, honesty and openness.
Thank you for sharing so honestly I, and many others I believe will be moved and comforted knowing that as humans and particularly believers we struggle with darkness I understand when you say that sometimes the only prayer we have is help Lord and how faithfully God answers.
Thanks Maggie! May God bless you…
It’s a brave journey you’ve been on and brave again to talk about it and I am sure it will bring great comfort to many .
Thanks Andy!
Thanks so much for the brutal honesty without gloss. It could be a lifeline to some and a glimmer of hope to others
Thanks Darrell – I hope so…
Dear Peter, Thank you for sharing so honestly and openly. You are a great encouragement and a gift to us. I am praying for peace in your heart and mind this evening. God bless, Jo
Thanks Jo!
Peter, you are truly a ⭐️ Thank you for your honesty, it will help many people. I feel so sorry for those who are isolated at the moment and suffering mental health problems, it is quite simply agony for them and your blog will have struck a deep chord with them.
Thanks Sally Ann. It’s great to hear from you. Hope you are OK yourself.
This is a great blog and I hope by sharing this it reaches and blesses many people struggling with depression and anxiety
Thanks Lindsay! I hope so too..
GOD bless you Peter ☆for writing this xx . Much love to you and yours from Joy (Willson)
Thanks Joy! Hope you are keeping well.
Very well written Peter.
Praying that God uses this to help people through similar journeys.
Sending thoughts & prayers.
Thanks Clement – really appreciate this!
Dear Peter. Thank you for your amazing honesty and bravery. You are a true pastor. God will I am sure bless many people through this in ways you cannot imagine. Mark
Mark, thanks for this. I really appreciate it!
Peter, thank you for being so honest, humble and vulnerable. I have not walked in your shoes but i know people who have and they will find this a tremendous help;
Thanks John. Really appreciate this. Hope you are doing well.
Thank you. I can testify to similar experiences, both after my own cancer (which I survived, obviously), and then that of my wife (who died). Especially the difficult/impossible to pray part.
Not the place for me to share my experience here, but anyone else in these circumstances – it is OK to be “not OK”. Talk to someone. Hold on. God is still there even when it doesn’t feel like it.
Roger thanks for sharing this. Praying your really helpful comments are an encouragement to people.
Yes it is encouraging to read how godly people handled their problems. Not everybody has people who can provide support. But as a sinner under grace I accepted Jesus & what he said : Come unto me all who ……
I will stop as could say a lot more about trials. Finally may God bless you & give you strength .
Thank you!
Hi Peter, immense bravery, courage and I expect tears went into this article. May the Lord bless you and your now grown up family, (whom I only remember as small children). May your healing be complete and may you find happiness.
Richard, it’s good to hear from you! Thanks for your encouragement.
Thanks so much Peter: very brave and so helpful to others. I have struggled at times, but not to the extent you describe – especially after Doreen’s death. I took family advice and received bereavement counselling which helped greatly. Dark places are part of life, and God is there. John of the Cross is a great teacher from all that he experienced. Blessings
Moving, raw, authentic, thank you.
I was with you every step of this piece of your heart on paper. My own experience – still I see the cloud descending over me sometimes – was helped by knowing that Mother Teresa struggled through 50 years of depression with seemingly no response from God and was able still to help so many. Her story is remarkable but so is yours. Thank you for telling it.