About Pain, Sorrow & Depression

What God Has Taught Me from Pain, Sorrow or Depression

Pain – When you have a heart attack, you have real pain! Since reading scripture in the Bible, I’ve come to learn that any and all pains we have are methods God uses to build our character. How we overcome that pain can strengthen our character in God’s eyes and is noticeable by those with whom we come into contact on a daily basis. Trust God not to give us more pain than we can bear.
Sorrow – When I lost my mother, I had expected her to die soon (she had lung cancer), but I never knew the grief it would cause me upon her death. I learned that although we know beforehand that death will claim a loved one, that doesn’t soften the impact it has when they actually die. We must trust they have confessed their sins and are forgiven of God and will be in heaven to welcome us someday.
I’m sad too, over the many pets I’ve had over the years that have died.
They were all God’s creatures and one can began to think of them as family after
a while. Even from the distance of years though, the adventures and loves we
shared while they were alive, are a blessing that can bring a smile to my lips at
odd moments of reminiscence. That must be God’s doing!
Depression – my moments of depression haven’t been frequent or very long – thank God! The strongest memory I have of being depressed was in 1961. Upon returning from a shakedown cruise in the Caribbean (I was a radioman in the U.S. Navy then), my ship docked at Little Creek Naval Base in Virginia and we went on Liberty. I invited the first class quartermaster and a first class radioman to go to my house (I lived in Virginia Beach) for dinner. After eating, we decided to go on down the road to NC where they were having a dance. On the drive down there we stopped in a couple of places to drink some beer and shoot some pool. The last place we left, the quartermaster wanted me to drive but I wasn’t familiar with his car and turned down the opportunity.
I woke up in a hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia. I had multiple facial fractures, the other radioman had a broken leg and the quartermaster had got the steering wheel through his chest and died. We’d had an accident (no others involved). I had my jaws wired shut for three months. Shortly after leaving the hospital for recovery, I got a letter from the quartermaster’s wife. He had two teenagers and a grieving wife who just wanted to know what had happened. I felt guilty over that incident and for the longest time, it did put me in a deep depression. I kept saying to myself, if we’d only done this or if we’d only done that. To say I’ve been contrite over the years is putting it mildly. The truth is that it was God’s will. How we handled that crisis in our lives, built our character. It was just one of the steps that made me the man I am today.

John E. Hunt