It was December 23, 1966 when my wife and I and our three young children boarded a merchant ship at the Port of New York and began what would be a month-long voyage to the Port of Karachi, Pakistan.  (I don’t have space to tell you about the storm we ran into when we were just two days out!)

Thankfully, we arrived safely; but then came the culture shock.  But as far as I was concerned, it was more than culture shock.  After we got settled at the school where we would be teaching (by the way, I was taking the place of another missionary who had just been shot), I began to feel depressed and discouraged big time.  Everything that before had given me security seemed not to exist anymore.  It was as though I were all alone, even though my family and the teachers and students were all around me.

I got to the place where I actually hoped I would become seriously sick so that I would have an excuse to go home as some kind of hero who had given himself in working for the good of others!  Of course this wasn’t true, it was just that I was depressed and felt trapped and wanted an excuse to get out of there.

Now, here at the outset I want to make it clear that I’m not a therapist or otherwise an expert in how to overcome depression.  What I had was not the heavy-duty depression that has serious implications but the kind that afflicts most everyone at some time or another, especially during the holidays.

I’ve learned some things through the years that have, I believe, helped me to stay up when apparently things were looking down, as well as some ways to get up when I feel like I am on the mat for the count of ten.

Here’s one thing I’ve learned:  We go in the direction we’re looking.  For instance, when you’re playing golf and trying to avoid hitting the ball into the rough, just keep looking into the rough when you swing the club and sure enough that’s exactly where the ball will go.

Here’s another thing I’ve learned:  We are what we think about.  I’ve found that a change of perspective can come even without a change in situation.  In plain language, think positively, look on the bright side.  Remember the little saying:  “Two men looked out through the self-same bars; one saw mud, and the other saw stars.”

A long time ago I learned that memories can do a lot for me when I’m down in the dumps.  Now, I recognize that memories can be the cause of what makes a person feel depressed in first place.  If that is the case with you, then the secret is to look to the future.  “This, too, shall pass.”  I learned that little gem when I was lying in a hospital bed after having cracked my lower lumbar vertebra, which happened around the same time I lost $10,000 when the business I had loaned money to went bankrupt (I’m telling you the truth).  Needless to say, the situation looked gloomy, but it didn’t stay that way.  We have to be patient, though, because the future comes when it gets good and ready.

On the other hand, things can get so bad that it’s hard to imagine anything better in the future.  In that case, we can diminish, if not do away with, our depression and discouragement by remembering.  My parents are both gone now.  I feel depressed when I think of their last years.  So when that happens, it helps to remember the years when Dad was young and handsome and Mother was pretty, and we all sat around the kitchen table.

There are lots of reasons that seem to justify feeling down and out once in a while, but there are more reasons not to.  When things seem to be crashing down all around, or, for some reason that I may not even be aware of, I feel depressed, it helps a lot to remember the promise, “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.” (Revelation 21:4).

This means that things will not always be as they are.  And they will be even better than the best of what things used to be.