Immanuel: God With Us

Today I shared the vision of InterVarsity with a student that doesn't know Jesus. And in our conversation, I told her that I believed that Jesus brings us hope. Abounding hope. Real hope. Hope that overcomes the world and all of its brokenness. When she walked away with an information card in her hand, I felt a deep sadness well up inside me. I didn't understand why, and as I drove to my friend's house - I felt the sadness growing and an emptiness fill me.

Do I really believe that? Do I really believe that Jesus offers hope? Do I really believe that Jesus is the only hope in this world riddled with pain, war, famine, poverty, disease... depression? Do I really believe He is hope enough for these students?

Do I believe He is hope enough... for me?

With the tragic passing of Robin Williams, the internet has blown up with articles and anecdotes imploring that we as a society take seriously the issue of depression and mental unwellness. To be honest, it was hard to read a lot of those things because I have quietly struggled with depression for much of my life. It is not something many people know about, including my own family. I have sought counseling and received much support in this area, but it is still something that affects me, unfortunately, very often. Including the past few months.

It's not something I ever talk about except with the people I am closest to because in some ways, it is a taboo subject among Christians. It is highly misunderstood, simplified, and overlooked by a lot people, even though many Christians wrestle with depression and mental unrest on varying levels.

I never understood why it was difficult for me to find satisfaction and joy in life, when all around me were Christians that reveled and rested in the peace that Christ brings. It was extremely hard for me to come to terms with the reality that life is not always filled with beauty, and truth, and divine moments of self-actualization - but it is in fact often filled with suffering, loneliness, and despair. It is filled with sleepless nights. It is filled with tears that are shed for no apparent reason. It is filled with cries of anguish and depravity. And there are times when I question if I believe that there is real and lasting hope in this world - real and lasting hope in Jesus. It is hard to see the light through the clouds.

I believe that the Bible speaks into depression. One can't go far into the Psalms without coming across an agony-filled lament that doesn't have a happy ending. I can never forget the cries of David saying that his sorrow is so great, it is as if tears were his very food and drink... his couch was flooded with tears... his bed was filled with them. We see sadness, dissatisfaction, emptiness, loneliness, and abandonment throughout Scripture. Even our beloved Jesus spends an entire night in such destitution, that He sweats blood. Even our beloved Jesus weeps.

What a Savior... what a God - Scripture calls him "Immanuel" meaning "God With Us."

God with us...

Doesn't it seem like God - an omnipotent, omniscient, perfect being should separate Himself as far from us as possible? Doesn't it seem like our sin, our darkness, our emptiness... our depression should deter Him? Doesn't it seem like He would remove Himself from our woes? If this is truly in fact the consequence of our depravity, wouldn't He be justified in letting us have what was coming to us?

Instead, we see God so loved the world - so loved us - in all of our brokenness, all our suffering... He came to make His home among us. He wrapped Himself in our tender, human flesh and stepped into the mess. After a scandalous birth among livestock, He came to us only to flee immediately as a refugee to an unknown land. He grew up familiar with poverty. He spent His life walking around with dust on His feet, with only a group of flaky, even disloyal men to call His friends. He witnessed unspeakable brokenness, heartache, disease, and oppression. And in the end, He was betrayed by His own, flogged nearly to death, and hung for the whole world to make a mockery of Him.

He is not a distant God. He is not observing our troubles from on high. He is not ignorant nor negligent of our pain. He came as one of us, and stepped right into our humanness and our sorrows, and He did not shy away. He wept. He became acquainted with our sorrows. Familiar with our pain. He too knew the darkness of depression and utter hopelessness. Instead of shielding Himself from the throes of reality - He willingly gave Himself up to die a humiliating, excruciatingly painful death that was the very thing that brought us life and life abundant. He was truly God with us. God With Us.




Only He can bring fullness and wholeness to our human brokenness. Only He can make it right. This does not mean that we can solve all our problems by praying harder and trying harder. Depression is an illness that often requires medical and psychiatric attention. But we have Hope in knowing that as we suffer and wrestle through the hard times in life, we are not alone. We are not abandoned. We are not unseen. We are loved desperately and deeply by a good, gracious, and loving God that left the glories and splendor of His Kingdom for our streets and neighborhoods and our flesh. We have a God that is not afraid of our mess - not afraid of our brokenness. We have a God that brought beauty from ashes, joy from pain, wholeness from emptiness, and life from death. We have a God that never leaves, never forsakes, never gives up on us.

And it is in my beautiful humanness, beloved by God, that I can tell every student at Georgia Tech that - yes, Jesus is truly Hope of the World.